What happened at Kilinochchi ?

The Island reported yesterday that some UNP members of parliament will make a proposal to their leader, Mr. Ranil Wickremasinghe, when he returns from abroad, to consider moving a motion of no confidence on the government for the losses suffered by the army in battles with terrorists at Kilinochchi and Paranthan.

Government members as well as neutral observers may object to it on the grounds that the armed services should be left free to plan out their own strategies and wage war without political interference. This argument to a very great extent is correct but wars have always been directed by kings or politicians. We have often quoted the saying of the French politician Georges Clemenceau:War is too serious a subject to be left to generals.

However, in modern times, despite political control by governments of their war machines, there is a clear distinction in most countries where political control ends and the military takes over. Whatever the political decisions may be, the strategies of fighting a war is left to military commanders.

In this 15-year-old civil conflict there have been times when questions have arisen whether political interference has transgressed the accepted limits. There have been reports that deadlines had been fixed which commanders had not agreed to and, some of these commanders were removed and thrust into the backrooms to hibernate.

In this civil conflict we have two rare instances of two politicians having donned military uniforms and taken command in the conduct of the conflict as deputy minister of defence. Volunteer officer Ranjan Wijeratne catapulted himself in a series of jumps through gazette notifications to become a general, and the present deputy defence minister Anuruddha Ratwatte followed suit. Both could have functioned as deputy ministers of defence as civilians, sans batons, epaulettes, spit and polish. When political generals are in charge the public is left wondering whether the politician has indeed metamorphosed into a real general sans the experience and military qualifications. Thus, it could be said that although war is too serious a subject to be left alone to generals, a war is also far too complex for civilians to fight.

The country is deeply concerned with what happened at Kilinochchi and Paranthan where over 1000 Sri Lankans on both sides perished. The casualty figures released by the government itself indicate what went on there. That is all what we can say under military censorship.

There is a school of thought that any kind of criticism — even constructive — of the armed forces is unpatriotic. We are reminded of how Britain united during the last World War. But the fact is that a national government was formed under Winston Churchill which included opposition leaders and that they were able to sink political differences in the national interest is often forgotten. The Opposition was not kept in the dark as what is happening in this country right now.

If the government wants to avoid a public debate, it should take opposition leaders as well as other public figures into confidence. President Kumaratunga should take the initiative in ending the vituperative politics that is raging and ruining this country. It appears that public controversies are being created ever so often to divert the public attention from the main issue: Progress of Operation Jayasikuru. Those who speak of patriotism should insist that this petty political squabbling should end and a national consensus be built up to end this long-drawn confrontation.

It is futile to expect the opposition and the public to keep quiet when ambulances with wailing sirens keep going for about 48 hours from airports to hospitals and they know little of what has happened.

While the country is in the dark about what happened at Kilinochchi, international TV and other media are reporting in detail of what went on. Is it that a kind of apartheid censorship which is on with the local media being gagged while the foreigners are looked upon with a Nelsonian Eye? We reiterate that what we are calling for is not the gagging of the foreign media but an end to military censorship of the Sri Lankan media because it is creating more doubts and giving rise to rumours which are counter-productive to the government's efforts. Foreign media being able to report in detail could be because in this age of communications there can be no effective gagging of the entire world media.

We have been through this exercise many a time in this 15-year-old period: Military disaster followed by strict censorship but the foreign media continues reportage unhindered. This results in counter-productive rumours being floated and the opposition angered for being kept in the dark. It happened in UNP times and now with the PA. We repeat another favourite quotation of ours: Those who cannot learn from history are condemned to relive the past.