SL:PLAYING WITH TRUTH IN THE NAME OF WAR!!!

Issues Stifling 'truth' in the name of war


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Govt's war costing more lives than in Lanka's history


Sarath Fonseka

By Ranjith Jayasundera

AS the government's war against the LTTE enters the bloodiest phase in the country's history, our research has found that the costly war of attrition is irreparably scarring an entire generation of Sri Lanka's youth.

The Sunday Leader has obtained a draft copy of a study circulated for peer review by Dr. Rohan M. Jayatunge and army psychiatrists that provides some insights into the trauma that soldiers faced after combat before 2008, a year in which over 1,200 soldiers have been killed from just six divisions.

According to the scientific study, there is a severe spread of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) amongst soldiers who have served in combat in the north and east and survived to tell the tale.

The paper, titled Psychological Management Of Combat Stress - A Study Based On Sri Lankan Combatants, reveals that over 17,000 soldiers were killed in combat up to 2001, and interestingly enough, it also claims a similar number of LTTE cadres killed in the same period, indicating a 1:1 kill ratio.

Further, the army claims to have killed over 9,000 Tigers in 2008 to date. Coupled with media reports of over 350 civilians killed in combat this year, Eelam War IV has cost Sri Lanka over 10,500 lives in 2008, the highest number of people killed in any one year during the conflict's 25 year history.

It must be remembered that even these figures are only accurate up until the end of October, when the military officially stopped giving out casualty figures for its own losses or those of the LTTE for "security reasons."

In the last month however, it is well known that gruelling battles have taken place with heavy casualties on both sides as the army pushes harder to surround and capture Killinochchi, and bridge the gap between its forces in Muhamalai and those on the northern tip of the country's mainland.

Fighting

In one particularly fierce three day bout of fighting, Defence Watch Spokesman and SLFP (M) Parliamentarian Mangala Samaraweera told journalists that over 200 soldiers had been killed in fighting, between November 15 and 18 alone.

Never in any one month this year has the government ever admitted that it lost more than 200 soldiers, thus the increase in intensity of the combat action in the month of November, with the budget debate looming, and many deadlines having been missed for the capture of Killinochchi, is alarming.

The Sunday Leader's journalists researched the available data on conflict related deaths in Sri Lanka since 1994 and the data confirms that the country has just endured the bloodiest year in its 25 year history of waging and surviving war.

The second bloodiest year in the conflict was 1995, when Jaffna was recaptured by the army, with the deaths of approximately 5,000 soldiers and LTTE cadres in total. This is less than half as many as had been killed by November 2008, when the army's casualty count began to skyrocket as losses peaked by coincidence on President Rajapakse's birthday, just days after he awarded a one year extension to Army Commander Sarath Fonseka.

We have no choice but to await with baited breath the final tally of men, women and children who would have been laid to rest this year by the war. What is remarkable is that the government has managed to hide the human cost of the battle by maintaining tight control of what is published in the media.

Campaign

However, several excerpts from the yet-unpublished military trauma report show that this war is not as glamorous as the government makes it out to be in its glitzy recruitment and propaganda campaign. Rarely enough do we stop to think of the trauma undergone by the families of soldiers who lost loved ones in this campaign, and never at all does the level of stress undergone by war survivors occur to anyone.

The report highlights the experience of a 32 year old lance corporal who witnessed a fellow soldier die in a landmine explosion. "Even though he managed to escape without a single injury, he saw how his friend died in the blast. His depressive features appeared as survival guilt, self blame, hopelessness, grief and bereavement."

There is also another account of a private who witnessed his best friend, another soldier in his unit, being killed in a sniper attack. "After the confirmation" of the death, the private "was ordered to bury the body," but felt that the body was warm to the touch, possibly due to hot weather.

"After some years he had an irrational feeling that he buried the man alive," the report said, before spiralling into depression. The report is jam-packed with similar instances of surviving soldiers having their lives wrecked for good by what they experienced in the 'glorious' liberation crusade.

Explode

A lieutenant who witnessed seven soldiers explode due to an incoming enemy mortar and became schizophrenic, a sergeant who lost a leg and became violent and addicted to cannabis, and a captain who served for 20 years being "exposed to heavy combat" who felt a "misfit to civil society" and found it "uneasy to work with civilians," are the stories scattered throughout the study.

All of these examples are from soldiers who were in combat prior to 2008, which has now turned out to be the most deadly year in the history of the war by the government's own statistical killing claims.

Slain

Most importantly, this was before the armed forces were committed to a war of attrition over a year-long campaign in which over 1,200 of their own were slain and over 7,000 permanently maimed and scarred. At least some senior officers will recall and recant the fact that several hundred soldiers did not have to die to capture Pooneryn in 1992, and also that the capture was inconsequential as the base was recaptured by the LTTE but one year later. They will also remember that Killinochchi was captured by the army in 1996 without 1,000 soldiers dying trying, and that Madhu - and its now infamous shrine - was also captured in 1999.

In that campaign as in this one, the army held Jaffna and attempted to corner the LTTE into the Mullaitivu jungles, before they sprang out of nowhere and wreaked havoc across the island, seizing both Madhu and Killinochchi - and everything in between - in a blitzkrieg of Nazi proportions.

Although the Tigers may not have such a capability any longer, they need not strike so hard in order to cripple the country, a fact that has now been lost on every major political party in the country including the UNP, which just announced its tacit support for the war in its bloodiest ever phase.

The Tigers need do little more than let the country drag itself further into debt with the cost of its war, while believing they are closer to success, and inflict maximum casualties upon the army and terrorise Colombo with suicide bombs, to bring Sri Lanka to a position where barely a country will turn to help.

With every nation in the world reeling from the shockwaves of the global economic crisis it is unlikely that there will be any country willing to come to the aid of an island that is pursuing an internationally condemned war of attrition and territory as its first priority.

Devastating

The recent accusations that the air force has been using cluster bombs against civilian targets in the Wanni, would also prove devastating if it can be proven. To its credit, the government has denied the allegation, and the LTTE and its proxies have been unable to find any evidence of actual unexploded cluster 'bomblets' that such weapons always leave behind.

Alongside the revelation made by Mangala Samaraweera in parliament that the air force has dropped over 14 kilotonnes of explosives in the Wanni this year, if cluster bombs were to be used, Sri Lanka's air force would set a second world record.

The SLAF already holds the unenviable record of being the first, only and thus most frequent dropper of bombs on its own citizens, and the government would gain little from being seen in the eyes of the world as having used cluster munitions on a refugee camp as alleged by some NGOs and the LTTE.

Factors such as this are what bring memories of how the United States lost the war in Vietnam not in the Viet Cong jungles but in the living rooms of Americans at home who witnessed the brutality that the war inflicted to all sides, and pressured that government to abandon Vietnam.

The lines that the army is now holding are stretched across several hundred kilometres and with every advance the terrain becomes more favourable to the LTTE due to their familiarity with the combat environment.

As the campaign gets longer, the troops on the frontline will become wearier and a lot of them must already be under immense psychological stress from prolonged exposure to combat conditions. The study of military combat stress says as much.

"The percentage of study subjects whose responses met the screening criteria for major depression, generalised anxiety, or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) was significantly higher after serving" in the north and east.

Shot

"There was a strong reported relation between combat experiences such as being shot at, handling dead bodies, knowing someone who was killed or killing the enemy, and the prevalence of PTSD," the study concluded, adding finally that there was "a significant risk of mental health problems especially regarding combat related PTSD."

These are exactly the kind of poor conditions that the late Major General Janaka Perera warned would imperil the military campaign should it drag on for months through the monsoon and beyond.

In order to maintain its popularity and war fever in the south, the government would have to prevent the LTTE from repeating their Eelam War III performance of materialising out of the Mullaitivu jungles and smashing through army lines like so many dominoes.

For the sake of the next thousand soldiers who are now on the front line, we can only hope that the military leadership is as competent at protecting its own as it is at marketing and fighting wars of words and propaganda.

Date Official Quote
May 28, 2007 Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka "The LTTE has 4,000 cadres in the north. They are not its best cadres. If they lose 2,000 cadres, they are finished."
December 30, 2007 Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka "LTTE has 3,000 cadres remaining. Military plans to kill them within six months. Our daily target is to kill at least 10 LTTE terrorists."
January
11, 2008 Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka "My term of office is coming to an end this year and I will not leave this war to the succeeding army commander."
February
10, 2008 Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka "They are an organised force with a lot of experience. They have thousands of fighters. I do not conduct the war looking at deadlines and timeframes. The LTTE has around 5,000 fighters. This time when we take Kilinochchi, we will not leave it after a while. But we must realise that the offensive is going to take time."
February
19, 2008 Mahinda Rajapakse "We would have cleared them out of the remaining areas long ago but we also had to ensure no civilians were killed. I would say, in a year and a half, we might be able to do it."
February
22, 2008 Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara "But we have never said that we will finish them off. We have never set deadlines. We are fighting a terrorist organisation, not a conventional war." "The more we weaken them, then the more they will come into negotiations. It is not possible to wipe them out."
June 2008 Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka "4,000 - 5000 Tigers remain."

"They have lost that capability, although they are fighting with us, not in the same manner like earlier. They had the defensive lines, we couldn't move even one kilometre for two or three months. That kind of resistance is not there any more."

"May be a maximum of one year from now onwards the LTTE should lose large areas." "They should not be able to maintain their present control over the population, to be able to resist the army in the way they are resisting now. They would have to lose all that capability."

"Even if we finish the war, capture the whole of the north, still the LTTE might have some members joining them."

"There are people who believe in Tamil nationalism. The LTTE might survive another even two decades with about 1,000 cadres. But we will not be fighting in the same manner. It might continue as an insurgency forever."



September 12, 2008 Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka 11,000 Tigers killed since July 2006. Only 4,000 Tigers remain.

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2008 Official Number of Soldiers Killed Official Number of Soldiers Injured
Jan 68
Feb 104 822
Mar 93 676
Apr 120 945
May 138 549
Jun 112 793
Jul 106 662
Aug 155 983
Sep 200 997
Oct 171 1,122
Total: 1,267 7,549



Year Sri Lankans
Killed by Combat

*1992 4,000

*1993 3,000

*1994 1,000

*1995 5,000

*1996 3,000

*1997 4,000

*1998 4,000

*1999 3,500

*2000 3,791

*2001 1,822

2002 25

2003 54

2004 19

2005 330

2006 4,126

2007 4,369

2008 10,462

Total: 52,498

*Due to non-availability of more accurate data, combat mortality statistics from 1992 - 2001 are rounded off to the nearest 500. All figures include military, LTTE and civilian deaths and are based on government sources assembled by academic bodies and The Sunday Leader.




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Stifling 'truth' in the name of war


With the war at its deadliest little is
known of the actual ground situation

By Frederica Jansz

The people of Sri Lanka have plenty on their minds these days. With military clashes between the government and the Tamil Tigers proceeding apace and major floods destroying thousands of homes and displacing tens of thousands of people, many of whose lives already had beenÿdisrupted by the ongoing fighting, Sri Lankans can hardly focus on an economic catastrophe the likes of which we have not seen in the last one hundred years.

As Sri Lanka is thrown further into war, the siege against independent attempts to bring out the "truth" grows tighter. The suppression of 'truth' has led to the deterioration of political culture and the criminalisation of the state.

It applies to those concerned with the 'truth' about human rights abuses, the 'truth' in relation to the suffering of civilians affected by the war or for that matter safeguarding the very institutions including the media that are responsible for unearthing the truth that is essential for a democratic and just society.

Playing with the "truth"

There are sections both in the government and the public sphere who claim that the war effort, and particularly a "war against terrorism," should freeze certain rights and delay the deliberations seeking "truth" until after the war.ÿ The LTTE has consistently suppressed "truth" over the last 20 years, including by systematically eliminating dissent and opposition to its fascist agenda.ÿ

There is no recourse to justice for the hundreds of thousands of people living under the jackboot of the LTTE.ÿ However, a government that claims to be democratic should never descend to such levels, and if the war and militarisation entails suppression of the 'truth,' the legitimacy of the government itself is necessarily at risk.ÿ The commissions and omissions of the current government are doing irreparable damage to the confidence of the minorities in the Sri Lankan state and their rights as citizens.ÿÿÿ

In a time of war, more than at any other time, the government should be under greater scrutiny, both through government appointed bodies as well as a vibrant and free media.ÿ

The absence of such checks is leading to the state losing the minorities' confidence and could have long-term repercussions of polarising the communities beyond repair. This has been one lesson from the last 25 years of the conflict, which the current government seems to disregard.

Precisely when the state lacks the commitment towards minorities and its citizens at large, civil society needs to act; the clergy, academics, trade unions, professional organisations, the NGOs and the business community should take on the formidable responsibility of defending the truth.

Over the last 18 months, a whole shadowy network of armed groups are believed to have been involved in abductions, threats and murder of media personnel. In all of these attacks, the perpetrators are as yet to be apprehended - police investigations are never concluded or pursued.

Independent defence reporting is virtually non-existent following the assault and attacks on two defence correspondents. All war related news is restricted to information disseminated by the military via different arms of the Ministry of Defence.

Access to covering the war is almost entirely confined to arm chair reporting as journalists are barred from war zones. The media have no way of independently confirming or verifying information on the war.

Staple diet

Instead what can be dispensed is what is vetted and handed out courtesy the Ministry of Defence.

Last week this is what the military said: Sri Lanka Army officials on Tuesday, December 9th, handed over 11 dead bodies of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) cadres, killed in confrontations in Olimadu in the general area of Mankulam, to the International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC). The ICRC was making arrangements to transport the remains of seven females and four males to the uncleared areas via Omanthai Entry/Exit point.

Sri Lankan security forces said 23 civilians escaped from the LTTE controlled areas and reached the troops at Nedunkerni in Mullaitivu District also on the 9th. The group of 12 women, 10 men and a child from deeper in the north in LTTE held areas has reportedly left their villages the previous night.

Sri Lanka Army Commandos intercepted an isolated group of LTTE terrorists infiltrated into the Bakmitiyawa jungle in the Ampara area on 8th December. According to the army, four LTTE terrorists were killed and bodies were found along with four T-56 assault rifles in a subsequent search operation conducted in the area.

Attacks

Facing stiff resistance from the LTTE guerrillas, the Sri Lanka Army has launched concerted attacks on the rebel stronghold of Mullaitivu, which borders the rebel's political capital Kilinochchi, killing at least five Tamil Tigers, officials said on Tuesday the 9th.

Tamil Tiger rebels have been trapped in a single district in Sri Lanka's Northern Province, the state radio said Tuesday, December 9. The Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation quoted defence officials as saying that Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels are now entrapped in the Mullaitivu District.

Nearly 53 Sri Lankan fishermen who had strayed into Indian waters off Chennai coast in the last two days were arrested and 10 boats seized from them, the police said. According to police, 42 fishermen were arrested and eight boats recovered on Sunday, December 7th, while 11 fishermen and two boats were detained the next day on Monday night by the Coast Guard, following which they were handed over to the police and later lodged in the Puzhal jail near here.

The Sri Lankan military on Monday claimed that three 'senior LTTE cadres' who fought for the outfit for more than a decade have surrendered to the army. The Defence Ministry said here the three LTTE cadres aged between 25-30 years showed themselves up to soldiers operating in the Pooneryn area and laid down their weapons.

Disarm

Meanwhile, the Thamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal Party (TMVP) also on December 9th reassured that they will disarm in the near future. The Eastern Province Chief Minister and the senior member of the party, Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan had given this assurance during a meeting with the Deputy British High Commissioner in Sri Lanka Mark Gooding.

Given the heavy losses the LTTE continues to incur in northern Sri Lanka, entering into a ceasefire agreement and peace negotiations with the Sri Lankan government might be the only opportunity it has to rebuild its offensive capability. With the escalation of violence, the Sri Lankan government did come under pressure from the international community and especially from India, to resort to a political solution. Even though Indian pressure hiked in October 2008, given the present security situation in India, pressure to go into peace talks may recede temporarily.

Fighting meanwhile continued in northern Sri Lanka where Sri Lankan security forces are moving in on the LTTE stronghold of Kilinochchi. On November 25, security forces captured the village of Olumadu near the town of Mullaitivu which remains under LTTE control.

On November 29, troops of the 59 Division were able to enter the area of Otiyamalai which is also in Mullaitivu. Security forces had been engaged in fighting for several days prior to entering the area. According to the Sri Lankan Ministry of Defence, Otiyamalai is a key LTTE fortification and the loss of this fortification is likely to weaken the LTTE garrisons at Nedunkerni, Nainamadu and Oddusudan.

Heavy fighting

On 30 November troops of the 57 Division moving towards Alampil were engaged in heavy fighting with the LTTE. Alampil is located about 10km south of Mullaitivu, and is also where the LTTE's main Sea Tiger base is located. Troops of the 59 Division are presently focused on capturing the Kumalamunai-Alampil road by clearing the northern bank of the Nayaru lagoon.

The Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) carried out several attacks in northern Sri Lanka. On 29 November MI-24 helicopter gunships targeted LTTE positions in Piramanthalkulam, south of Adampan, Kilinochchi. According to SLAF Spokesperson Wing Commander Janaka Nanayakkara, the targets were LTTE training camps.

On 30 November 2008, jets of the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) bombed several LTTE targets in northern Sri Lanka. According to the SLAF Spokesperson, MI-24 helicopter gunships of the SLAF targeted LTTE resistance positions in Murukandy, East of Akkarayankulama.

There were several incidents of violence reported from the Eastern Province. On 25th November, seven civilians were killed by unidentified gunmen. The victims belonged to two Tamil families in the Batticaloa District. More killings were carried out on 26 and 27 November. Some reports stated that almost 23 people were gunned down but the exact number of killings has not been confirmed.

Warning

Prior to this on 25 November, Human Rights Watch had warned that killings and abductions in the Eastern Province had increased. According to HRW, 30 extra-judicial killings were documented in September 2008, including the case of two men detained by Batticaloa Police who were found dead on the beach six days later. HRW has attributed most of the killings and abductions to the Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal (TMVP). However the government has accused LTTE gunmen of carrying out most of the killings in the province.

In light of these developments, security forces carried out large scale combing operations in the eastern district of Batticaloa on 30 November 2008. The operation which lasted the whole day had Batticaloa town under curfew. According to the Sri Lankan Ministry of Defence, 11,963 people were screened.

The Defence Ministry stated that the search operations were carried out after it received intelligence reports about LTTE infiltrators and criminal activity in the wake of the killings and criminal activities in the areas of Batticaloa, Valachchenai, Karadiyanaru, Vakarai, Aithiyamalai, Vavunathivu, Kokkadichcholai, Kattankudi and Kalawanchikudi.

On 28 November 2008 police recovered a pair of shoes laden with C-4 explosives at Kapuwatte, Kandana. The shoes which were left along the Negombo-Colombo main road and were discovered by Kandana Police. The shoes had been filled with about 1.2kg of C-4 explosives.

According to Police Media Spokesperson Ranjith Gunasekera, it is believed that the shoes may have been left behind to avoid being detected at a nearby police checkpoint. The army bomb disposal unit defused the explosives while police launched a cordon and search operation in the area.

Another cycle

The country is mired in another brutal cycle of war, the effect of which is particularly made worse by the scuttling of the political process to address minority grievances.ÿ The rampant killings, abductions, enforced disappearances, and attacks on the media - all have worsened the prevailing climate of fear and the culture of impunity; these developments, coupled with the government's increasing authoritarianism, debilitate democratic institutions and the democratic fabric of society.ÿ

President Rajapakse's interference in the political process has undermined the All Party Representative Committee's efforts to produce credible proposals for a political solution, which would have also provided the opening to address broader concerns of human rights and rule of law in the country.ÿ

Instead, the escalation of violence inherent to a military approach, the targeting of civilians and the virulent nationalist rhetoric espoused by both the state and the LTTE are further polarising the communities and eroding the possibility of a sustainable peace.ÿ

On the other hand, the LTTE's agenda seems to be one of further polarizing the communities, including the instigation of a backlash against the Tamil community, as a way of gaining legitimacy for its bankrupt separatist politics. The reports coming out of LTTE-controlled territory in the Wanni also point to horrific repression of the civilian population there.ÿ

Identical position

Dayan Jayatilleke, Sri Lanka's Ambassador to the UN in Geneva assures us, "human rights violations will drop off drastically when the war is over, when the enemy has been defeated - just as human rights violations in the South of Sri Lanka dropped off sharply when the JVP had been militarily defeated."ÿ

The LTTE's position is identical - human rights certainly, once the war of liberation ends.ÿ There is an eerie similarity between the two positions and a callous disregard of civilian suffering.ÿ

Both positions treat civilian life as an expendable commodity valuable only as a means towards the objective of winning the war. This perspective is in direct contradiction of the "laws of war" or better known as international humanitarian law, the violation of which is a war crime.

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