By Amantha Perera and Arthur Wamanan
At least 12,000 families who have fled
the fighting in the northwestern parts of
the Wanni are converging on Kilinochchi and
are staying within a 10km radius of the
town.
Government officials and relief workers
said that supplies to the displaced have
reached them despite the fighting, but if
they continue to remain in Kilinochchi,
their survival would depend on the
effectiveness of the delicate supply lines
that flow through Omanthai, 60 km south. The
supplies have to come through the stretch
where heavy fighting has been reported east
and west but not close to the highway in
recent days.
The IDPs also run the very serious risk
of getting caught in the face of government
forces moving into the Wanni and the Tigers
who at some point in time would have to face
the onslaught.
The Government Agent, Kilinochchi,
Nagalingam Vedanayagam said that some of the
displaced have been given shelter in schools
in Kilinochchi town.
He said that though authorities could
provide rice to the displaced persons with
the help of the World Food Programme (WFP),
shortages in dhal, oil, sugar and flour were
already being reported.
"According to WFP, the IDPs should be
provided with rice, flour, dhal and oil.
But, we are now getting the flour from
Trincomalee," he said.
"We are getting rice locally, from
Kilinochchi. We had called for tenders from
organisations here and are providing rice
for the IDPs with their help," Vedanayagam
who was in Colombo last week said.
Too early to assess
The Government Agent also said that it
was too early to assess the situation as
civilians continued their exodus towards
Kilinochchi.
Civilians are now moving away from areas
such as Musankavil, Jeyapuram, Vannerikkulam,
Akkarayan and Skanthapuram to the southwest
of Kilinochchi.
"They continue to come from these areas,
making it difficult for us to make permanent
or long term arrangements."
He however added that it would be
difficult to cope in the future as more than
30,000 families are in need of assistance.
"Already around 20,000 families have
moved near Kilinochchi. We will have to
provide food and dry rations for 30,000
families, including the IDPs who are already
in Kilinochchi."
Director, Kilinochchi Hospital, Dr.
Thangamuthu Sathyamurthi told The Sunday
Leader that humanitarian aid was still
being given to the IDPs for the time being.
None of the IDPs have been cut off and
all can be accessed, he said. Dr.
Sathyamurthi however said that there were
certain practical difficulties in conducting
mobile services as the amount of fuel
allocated for the hospital had been reduced
to 2800 litres per month.
More displacements
UN agencies and the ICRC said that
despite the delicate supply lines and a
fluid ground situation supplies were
reaching most IDPs. The UN however warned
that more displacements were expected in the
coming weeks and the IDP count in the Wanni
could rise to 200,000.
"Many people have received basic
humanitarian relief but as the number of
displaced persons increases, so do their
needs," ICRC’s Deputy Head of Delegation in
Sri Lanka, Anthony Dalziel said last week.
The organisation that mans the Omanthai
crossover point, the only open gateway to
the Wanni said that the crossover point was
functioning as usual but the situation in
the Wanni was being constantly monitored.
"Access to food, shelter, sanitation and
clean water is an urgent priority. Health
facilities in the area are struggling to
cope with the increased demand and they have
so far been able to meet the population’s
basic needs. However, the evolving situation
will require continuous monitoring," the
ICRC said last week.
Government officials in the Wanni said
that with rains due in the latter part of
September, shelter would be of great
importance. As at August 8, there was a need
for shelter material for 12,000 families and
material only for 2000 had been committed.
Dr. Sathyamurthi said that many IDPs were on
roadsides without proper sanitation and
health requirements.
"These IDPs would suffer from diarrhoea
and other water borne deceases." He also
said that there could arise a situation in
the future where IDPs would be affected due
to malnutrition.
Human shields
The government has maintained that
adequate supplies were being sent to the
Wanni and that there were genuine worries
that the surplus supplies could be used by
the Tigers. Last week it raised the
frightening spectre of tens of thousands of
civilians being used as human shields by the
Tigers.
"A reliable source in the Wanni
non-liberated area revealed this morning
(August 13), that the LTTE leader has issued
orders to create a ‘human-catastrophic
situation’ in areas where security forces
are now fighting the terrorists. The sources
said that the LTTE cadres in Kilinochchi
have been asked to hoard all the vehicles of
NGOs, government offices and hospitals to
take the civilians to the warfronts
shortly," the Defence Ministry said.
Former LTTE Eastern Military Wing head
Vinayagamoorthi Muralitharan alias
Karuna also told The Sunday Leader
that civilians may be held against their
consent in the Wanni.
"The LTTE will use civilians as human
shields. I urge the government not to fall
prey to LTTE’s tricks and make the same
mistake it made in Vaharai during the
liberation of the east where several
civilians were killed." He also urged the
government to declare civilian safe zones.
"The LTTE cannot be active from within
civilian areas. Therefore, it is better if
the government declares civilian areas as
security zones and target the places where
the LTTE is more active."
Amnesty International also said that the
Tigers may be holding civilians by force —
"The Tigers have hindered thousands of
families from moving to safer places by
imposing a strict pass system, and in some
instances, forcing some family members to
stay behind to ensure the return of the rest
of the family."
Hindering supplies
In the same vein AI said that the
government was also hindering supplies —
"The Tigers are keeping them in harm’s way
and the government is not doing enough to
ensure they receive essential assistance,"
Yolanda Foster, Amnesty International’s Sri
Lanka researcher said.
The Tigers have said indiscriminate
shelling and aerial attacks by government
forces had left thousands displaced and on
the run, and killed others. "LTTE Political
Wing has issued an urgent call to the people
to dig bunkers in homes and work places to
protect people from the indiscriminate
attacks by the Sri Lanka Military," it said
last week.
There have been public appeals to make
sure that civilians are not caught in the
fighting. The Bishop of Jaffna, Rev. Thomas
Saundranayagam made the appeal three weeks
back and now AI has joined in.
Karuna who should know a thing or two
about what happens in Kilinochchi when
government forces and Tigers clash head on
said, "The civilians will definitely be
severely affected when the fighting
intensifies. A humanitarian corridor is a
necessity for the civilians who have been
displaced and for those stuck within the
LTTE areas."
The only such corridor is the A9, where
fighting has been reported on either side,
mainly to the east. The survival of the
civilians now depends on how long the
infamous A9 is open for civilian traffic, at
least the trickle that is there now.
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Military closing in on Thunukkai/Mallavi
By Amantha Perera
It is exactly two years ago that full
blown fighting between government forces
and the Tamil Tigers erupted. August 11,
2006 was a day of reckoning, faced with
a mounting onslaught by government
forces on its eastern political and
military hub — Sampur.
The Tigers launched an artillery
attack on the Trincomalee harbour while
a troop carrier was sailing through it
and on the same day attacked the
government’s forward defence lines in
Muhamalai south of Jaffna. The attack on
Muhamalai was then seen as a
diversionary tactic by the Tigers to
shift the military epicentre from Sampur
to Muhamalai. They had already lost
Mawil Aru and would lose more.
With the attack, the Muhamalai
crossover point closed and has remained
closed since — the rest is history as
Tiger losses continued in the east —
they lost control of all the areas they
held in the east in 11 months from
August 2006 and have been reduced to
operating from deep jungles in small
batches, a far cry from what its
strength was in 2006 in the east.
More importantly they are facing
government forces that have been moving
into the Wanni on four fronts along the
stretch of the southern Wanni FDL and
despite at least three major clashes in
Muhamalai — August and October 2006, and
April 2008, there has been hardly any
shift in the line in the last year and a
half.
The farthest inroads to the Wanni
have been made on the western-most
front, along the A 32 that links Mannar
with Pooneryn on the Killali coast. The
road hugs the coast and runs parallel to
the A9.
Tiger cemetery
Last week the 58th Division or Task
Force One had reached Mulungavil, south
of Nachchikudah by August 13 afternoon.
Mulungavil lies just south of
Nachchikudah, about a kilometre and a
half, and two days earlier, troops had
secured a minor jetty at Kalekadhu,
south of Mulungavil.
Mulungavil according to troops was
named ‘Mahaviru Town’ by the Tigers and
the 58th Division had come across a
large Tiger cemetery replete with stone
and cement tombstones that are identical
other than for the inscriptions. The
cemetery also included newly dug graves,
some as recent as July 24. Over 5000
dead Tigers were suspected to be buried
at the cemetery and according to
troops over 500 had been buried in the
last two months.
Off the coast, in a wooded area,
troops had also located a 25m high
communications tower that may have been
used to communicate between Nachchikudah
on the coast and Kilinochchi.
The army said that Mulungavil was a
major operational hub for the Tigers
along the western coast.
"This area remained the most central
coordinating unit for Tiger terrorists
to carry out their urgent administrative
work, conduct clandestine conversations
attended by top LTTE leaders, to
evacuate their injured Tiger cadres into
various other LTTE-controlled places, to
coordinate sea movements, to maintain a
high frequency communication network and
recruit new cadres until it was cleared
of terrorists."
Advances
So far troops have moved over 35 km
on the road and are less than 20 km
south of Pooneryn. The loss of control
over large portions of the A32 will
clearly affect Tiger supply lines from
South India, even if they can manage the
supplies out of Tamil Nadu using
hundreds of fishing boats as cover. They
now would be hard pressed to find
offloading posts on the northwestern
coast.
Troops last week were operating south
of the Devil’s Point Peninsula, where
the Tigers are known to have Sea Tiger
bases in the Kiranchi area and also on
the Iranthivu islands just off the
coast.
The navy’s Special Boat Squadron
launched a sea borne attack on a Tiger
base in the island two weeks back. Also,
as troops move further on the A32, the
seas become deeper for some of the
offshore craft of the navy to patrol,
and the A32 and its environs too are
flat, arid terrain over which heavy
vehicles could be moved.
Southwest of Mulugavil, three units
of the 57th Division have been besieging
the strategic Thunukkai/Mallavi area, a
hub where several roads meet. The Tigers
have said that Mallavi was the fourth
largest town in the Wanni, and it was
used as a hub by non-governmental
organisations prior to their operations
and civilians pulling out towards
Kilinochchi.
One line of attack has been from
southwest of Thunukkai through
Oddankulam and into Kalivilan that lies
just southwest of Thunukkai. Troops had
reached Kalivilan last week.
Stiffer resistance
Two other approaches have also been
opened, from the south of Mallavi, that
lies just east of Thunukkai, and troops
have moved north from the Vavunikulam
tank, south of Mallavi. They have so far
cleared areas up to the famous Shiva
Kovil just south of Mallavi. Another
approach has been between the two that
has been targeting Thunukkai.
The Tigers have put up stiffer
resistance than what was seen in
Vellankulam or other areas that fell
into government hands at Thunukkai and
Mallavi. Heavy bunker lines have been
dug into the banks of the Pali Aru river
that runs through the area and seasoned
cadres from Imran Pandiyan units were
reportedly stationed in the area.
The government’s concern over the
Tigers using heavy machinery brought
into the Wanni by non-governmental
organisations has been heightened since
the machinery could have been used in
the construction of deep bunker lines
that otherwise would have taken months
of manual labour.
Tire and wear
The bunker lines so far have only
slowed down advances as with the case of
booby traps and mines, but have not
succeeded in thwarting advances in their
tracks. The government military has been
ready to tire and wear the Tiger
defences with relentless assaults over a
longer time period.
The aim has been to create stress on
vital points of the front lines that are
being targeted on several locations.
They showed that in Madhu and
Vidattalthivu and are showing it in
Mallavi/Thunukkai, where heavy
resistance has not meant a pull back.
Troop formations have also gone around
strategic targets and encircled them,
thus providing the Tigers little
fallback space.
Air cover has also been provided with
Mi24 gunships and jets targeting Tiger
positions ahead of troop positions, like
the one that was carried out ahead of
troop positions in Thunukkai and Mallavi
on August 14 morning. The raid was
carried over Uliyankulam, a village that
lies north of Thunukkai.
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