What’s happening at the battlefront?

The country is going from crisis to crisis. While some of the crises are inevitable, some appear to be man or woman made with a dignitary putting the foot in the mouth and causing a nationwide debate that fades away in a week or two. Then there are media events such as the SAARC summit, victories in cricket, medals in athletics and right now its the United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York. President Kumaratunga has made her address and the state media quite naturally has gone ga-ga about her stirring calls to other nations to end terrorism. She did indeed make her points but when all heads of state of 185 nations or their foreign ministers make their speeches, each nation espousing its own cause, not very much is achieved. This is the reason why the United Nations has often been described as a talk shop.

While public interest is being caught up in such events, what is happening to the most important endeavour of the government: Operation Jayasikuru? The success of this venture is of the greatest importance to the nation but very little is heard of what is happening. There is the strict censorship on military news which has prevented journalists from providing independent reports. Even when there was no censorship it was hard to report on the conflict because the theatre of war was out of bounds to journalists. And now the country and the world has to depend on the daily bulletins issued by the defence ministry. But even the defence ministry communiqu's do not give much hope of a victory being close at hand.

Operation Jayasikuru commenced on May 15, ‘97. The code name Jayasikuru means ‘certain of victory’. But after one year and four months, the military is far from achieving their objectives. The men at the battlefront are doing a tremendous job and making great sacrifices and we certainly do not want to belittle their efforts. But the country must know what is happening to this operation on which so much investment in funds and manpower have been made and on which the future of this nation hinges on.

The strategy was to open up the road to Jaffna and link up Jaffna with the rest of the country. There were some military top brass who doubted whether this was the correct strategy and were bold enough to say it openly. Some were given deadlines which appeared to coincide with political objectives.These objectors are now in ‘Siberia’.

The government has come down hard on the proposal of the UNP leader to have unconditional negotiations with the LTTE. With the LTTE too not giving any indication of their willingness to negotiate, only the military option remains. In this situation the public is keen to know what is happening at the battlefront.

The North East Monsoon breaks out in October and this would be very much disadvantageous to the government forces that use heavy equipment and advantageous the guerrilla fighters. Thus, it would well be that not much could be achieved till the onset of the dry season which commences in January.

The long time taken to complete this operation has resulted in many questioning the strategy that is being deployed. To re-establish the road from Vavuniya to Elephant Pass requires much manpower and even more to hold it, say some military strategists. The Commander of the Indian peace Keeping Force, General Kalkut is on record telling an Island correspondent that a road can be established only after the surrounding areas are secured and not vice- versa. Not being military strategists we refrain from commenting but it is common sense to change strategies if the one deployed is not working.

When in difficulties it is a common Sri Lankan trait to blame it all on the media. Politicians and even cricketers do it. But where this operation is concerned – at least for the past three months – the media can be exculpated from blame because of the strict censorship that is on. Censorship has not brought victory to the troops but reduced the credibility of the claims of the government while making the allegations made by LTTE propagandists stick. It will be recalled that censorship was imposed on the pretext that the media was revealing military secrets to the enemy.

This conflict has dragged on for 15 years and it is imperative that it has to be ended soon. The government should review the political, military and diplomatic strategies deployed in this period and if necessary, make alternate moves. The political and diplomatic strategies of President Kumaratunga have been successful to a certain extent but that is not enough. Although she maintains that this problem is an internal problem, she should try to seek the assistance of friendly countries to bring it to a quick end. If her’s is a military option, then she must seek out countries that are willing to help us. Sri Lanka boasts about having friendly relations with all countries but do we have a single committed ally? Pakistan was one country which has not been afraid to respond to the requests made by Sri Lanka. There was Israel earlier and we showed our gratitude by kicking them out. If we cannot end this problem by ourselves then it is time to seek help from outside.