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The inside story of how the LTTE, after it lost Jaffna in 1995, regrouped to take on the might of the Sri Lankan Army and why its dramatic resurgence worries both India and the world

By Raj Chengappa in Colombo

As the battle for control of Jaffna peninsula raged last week, in Colombo a senior Sri Lankan armed forces officer monitoring the string of surprising gains being notched up by the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), observed: "The difference is that our soldiers fight to live, the Tigers fight to die."

Perhaps that statement comes closest to explaining why an army that has pitted four of its elite divisions consisting of 25,000 well-armed men should be struggling to stave off a determined push by just 7,000 LTTE fighters, many of who are, as another officer disparagingly dismisses them, "just women and schoolchildren".

It was, however, clear that the Tigers had staged an awesome comeback in the peninsula after being driven out by the army in 1995. Last month the LTTE had overrun key Sri Lankan military posts, including the strategic Elephant Pass linking the peninsula to the mainland. By last week, its cadres were within pouncing distance of Jaffna town and its environs.

As the Tigers engaged in a virtual hand-to-hand combat with Lankan soldiers in the suburbs, just a day's fighting on Thursday, May 11, left over 100 dead and scores wounded with each side claiming more "kills" than the other. The army had imposed a round-the-clock curfew on the town's half a million residents, some of whom called up their friends in Colombo to report they could hear sounds of regular gunfire and mortar shelling.

The LTTE had earlier broadcast messages over its widely heard radio station, the Voice of the Tigers, asking Jaffna residents to vacate the town to avoid being used as human shields by the soldiers. Meanwhile, Sri Lankan Air Force jets, Israeli-built Kfirs, strafed LTTE positions in the peninsula in a bid to put the rebel forces on the defensive. But it appeared only a matter of days before the town fell to the Tigers.

It is a symbolic victory and the Tigers know it. To claim complete control over Jaffna peninsula the LTTE had to first defeat the Sri Lankan forces guarding the nearby Palali air-force base and the Kankasanturai naval port. Both these strategic military positions control movement of food supplies to the town apart from ammunition and reinforcements.

For Sri Lankan President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, who in a broadcast to the nation had vowed to protect the town at whatever cost, the Tigers' rapid advance has sent her credibility plummeting. It was also a major psychological blow to the already beleaguered army. Ranil Wickremasinghe, former prime minister and leader of the Opposition in Parliament, told India Today last week: "It is the biggest setback for her. In six years, Kumaratunga has proved that she is unable to run a war and is now incapable of achieving peace."

The President's response to the crisis was to acquire even more sweeping powers that she had arrogated to herself after declaring a national emergency the previous week. She moved desperately to still political dissent by prohibiting all gatherings, even arresting scores of right-wingers who threatened to violate her order in Colombo. The Government then tightened the already stringent press censorship laws by banning live telecasts and broadcasts. But the Internet revolution got the better of the censors with the Tigers freely sending reports and broadcasts of their military advances over such sites as www.eelamweb.com and www.tamilnet.com.

Still, with no credible information coming out, wild rumours did the rounds including one that the LTTE had recruited schoolgirls to act as suicide bombers in Colombo. That saw police stop and check children in several schools especially those dominated by Tamils.

Meanwhile, the Government desperately shopped for arms and ammunition to rush to the troops. Having hurriedly restored diplomatic relations with Israel after a gap of 17 years, the Sri Lankan Government asked it to ship five Kfir fighters on an emergency basis. With India ruling out military intervention or selling arms to the island nation, the Lankan Government approached Pakistan, China and Russia for purchasing artillery shells and mortars apart from armoured vehicles.
Continued in the next page

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