In the shadow of Gaza - Sri Lanka

[CJvR]

While the world attention is focused on a few square kilometers of overpopulated desert in Gaza big things are apparently happening in Sri Lanka.

The Tamil Tiger state is imploding.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/0 ... index.html



COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (CNN) -- Efforts by government troops to secure control of a main highway that links mainland Sri Lanka to the northern Jaffna peninsula came a step closer Thursday when they re-captured Pallai, a palm-fringed village under rebel control.
Sri Lankan army troops have had there most decisive victories against the Tamil Tigers in recent weeks.
The village is located past Elephant Pass, described as a gateway to the Jaffna peninsula, which the army re-captured on Wednesday.
Whilst a column of troops are moving northwards from this town, another column that advanced from the outer fringes of the government-controlled peninsula advanced southwards to recapture Pallai.
"When the two columns meet we would have captured the entire A-9 highway," a senior army source told CNN. He spoke on grounds of anonymity since he is not authorized to talk to media.
The A-9 highway links the hill city Kandy with Jaffna. The only stretch that remains to be recaptured is the area between Elephant Pass and Jaffna.

Earlier this month, President Mahinda Rajapaksa urged the Tamil Tigers to lay down their arms and end a quarter-century of civil war. Before he made that request government troops retook the separatists' former capital, Kilinochchi.
Rajapaksa called the recapture of Kilinochchi "a victory against separatism."
"The time is not far off when people of the north can breathe freedom again," Rajapaksa said.

He invited the Tigers -- who have fought for an independent homeland for Sri Lanka's ethnic Tamil minority since 1983 -- to surrender as government troops closed in on their last remaining strongholds.
The civil war has left more than 65,000 people dead. The U.S. State Department has designated the Tamil Tigers a terrorist organization.

[Coyote]

They actually pulled an air raid and attacked a government airport a year or two ago, right? I'd wonder if that sort of daring and bold maneuver galvanized the government and people to end this once and for all.

[Stuart]

They actually pulled an air raid and attacked a government airport a year or two ago, right? I'd wonder if that sort of daring and bold maneuver galvanized the government and people to end this once and for all.

I've been following this in close detail for more than two years now. What happened is that there was a cease-fire form around 2002 up to mid-2006 that was best noted for the continuous attacks carried out by the Tamil terrorists on military and civilian targets across Sri Lanka. Their favorite trick was to put bombs in busses or to ram said busses with explosive-laden cars (the Tamil terrorists invented suicide bombing). The 'peace talks' were a farce (have peace talks ever been anything other than a farce?), the Tamils represent around 10 percent of the population of Sri Lanka but they were demanding 40 percent of the land area including all the best farmland. They wouldn't shift from those demands.

Eventually, the Tamil terrorists started a campaign of targeted assassinations aimed at the military and political leadership and that caused Sri Lankan patience to snap. They've rebuilt their Army over the last few years, all the corrupt and incompetent officers have been cleared out or killed and their replacements have elearned their trade the hard way. They've also taken courses on strategy and logistics. They've done very well all things considered. In their last major offensive, back in '96, they advanced up the A-9 highway and got dismantled in a counter-attack. This time, they advanced up the west coast of Sri Lanka, cutting the Tamil terrorist supply lines, then swung inland.

At the moment, the Sri Lanka Army has retaken about 80 percent of the ground held by the Tamil terrorists in January 2008 and about 95 percent of the ground the Tamil terrorists held at their maximum strength. Unless there's an unprecedented reversal (not impossible), it looks like the Tamil Eeelam is toast. Their leader (a raving psychopath called Prabhakaran) is trying to arrange sanctuary in India - the Indian response has been to issue a warrant for his arrest on multiple charges of mass murder and every other charge imaginable.

There's no word on the Tamil terrorist aircraft, they had three Zlins, one of which has been shot down. The other two must be on a jungle airstrip somewhere

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

I'm actually rather surprised by their performance. A decade ago, the Sri Lankan military wasn't worth an ass and for every inch won, several inches lost. Seems that they really improved in the last few years every since the new PM (or President? I forgot) took over.

As for the Tamil Tiger leader, the fucker ought to be hung for his rampant intimidation of Tamils world wide. Never understood why the Norwegians (?) even granted space for the Tamil Tiger government in exile.

[Bilbo]

What I have always found curious and funny is considering how small Sri Lanka is any independent "homeland" for the Tamil Tigers would be a very small very pointless country known only for its poverty.

[Kanastrous]

Small, pointless, and poor doesn't usually seem to bother a lot of nationalists. They'd rather live in a shithouse flying their own national flag, than a mansion (or even anything other than a shithouse) flying someone else's.

[Black Admiral]

Small, pointless, and poor doesn't usually seem to bother a lot of nationalists. They'd rather live in a shithouse flying their own national flag, than a mansion (or even anything other than a shithouse) flying someone else's.

As Sir Charles James Napier (more notable for his views on suttee) put it, "so perverse is mankind that every nationality prefers to be misgoverned by its own people than to be well ruled by another".

[weemadando]

I am glad to see the Tiger's getting the shit kicked out of them, they're a bunch of racist nationalist fuckheads who are trying to establish their "Tamil homeland" in a place that isn't even their goddamn homeland and in a way that has fucked over everyone there for the past 30 fucking years.

The Sri Lankan army has learnt it's lessons well and is now apparently going around with very small units deep inside Tamil territory and running probably the best COIN operations on the planet at the moment - especially considering the gains they've been making.

[Guardsman Bass]

The New York Times is saying they've got the Tigers backed up into one stronghold. Here's hoping the Sri Lankan military finishes the job and wipes out the greater part of the group quickly (including its entire leadership cadre).

How widespread are these fuckers? If, say, Sri Lanka attacked and wiped out both the greater part of the group in said stronghold plus their leadership, would you have to deal with a bunch of remnant, independent-acting assholes carrying out terrorist acts until they are all caught and imprisoned (or executed)?

[loomer]

It's a safe bet that no matter what terrorist group you take out and no matter what the method and speed, you'll always have remnants. The real question to ask is how many, and is that number manageable? In this case, I'm guessing not many, and they'll likely go down in number quite quickly.