Sri Lankan Army takes back 'ghost town'

By Nirupama Subramanian

CHAVAKACHCHERI (JAFFNA PENINSULA), SEPT. 20 The flattened ruins of this once bustling town are evidence of the devastation and destruction that the Sri Lankan forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) can now cause in the peninsula with their long-range weapons.

The whole place is a mess of tangled metal and concrete. Structures that once housed families and shops have caved in. Tiles that must have once adorned roofs lie scattered about. Not a single building has survived the impact of the ``stand-off'' weapons that both sides used in the battle for control of this town earlier this week.

Operation Kiniheera was launched on Sunday by the security forces to wrest the town from the LTTE, an objective it achieved despite stiff resistance by the Tigers. The Army now holds the town.

``Chavakachcheri town is now secure,'' said an Army official who briefed a contingent of journalists taken on a tour of the area by the Government today. But it would be several years before people can once again inhabit it. Its residents had fled long before the latest round of fighting, in May this year, when the LTTE fought the Army and took control of it.

So when fighting broke out again on Sunday, there were no civilian casualties. Had there been any people here, there would have been no survivors. According to military estimates, at least 3,000 rounds of artillery shells, mortars, and rockets must have hit the town that day as first the Army offensive began, and later, the LTTE responded with a counter-attack.

``One thing is clear from this. All forthcoming battles in Jaffna peninsula will cause so much physical destruction that it will be impossible for people to return to their homes,'' murmured a Tamil journalist in stunned awe as he took in the devastation. His family owns four shops here, but a quick survey revealed that all had been destroyed.

Major General Anton Wijendra, who took over as the Jaffna security forces commander in August, describing the operation for Chavakakchcheri as ``very fast,'' said at a press conference at Palaly earlier today that the recently purchased Multi-Barrel Rocket Launchers(MBRLs) were effective in the offensive.

``The (LTTE) are very frightened of them. Later, they launched a counter-attack, but we were able to easily repulse that with our firepower,'' he said.

Gen. Wijendra said the operation had been launched purely for military considerations and the fact that general elections were around the corner, was a coincidence. But, he said, the success of the operation meant that the LTTE would be unable to ``interfere'' with the election.

``Last month, the scenario was that the LTTE was going to launch an operation to recapture Jaffna peninsula. The situation has been completely reversed now, and it is we who are launching the offensives,'' Gen. Wijendra said.

He said the main reason for the Army's success in recapturing Chavakachcheri was the ``high morale'' of the men, combined with the depleted ranks of the LTTE. ``They are pushing youngsters into the battle who know that if they don't fight, they will be shot. With that kind of morale, they cannot be effective,'' he said.

According to him, the Army has also secured Colombothurai, on the eastern outskirts of Jaffna town in an operation that preceded the one for Chavakakchcheri. ``Control over Colombothurai has given us depth to Jaffna town, and pushed the LTTE further away from the outskirts. The threat to the town does not exist anymore,'' Gen. Wijendra said. It also served to cut-off LTTE supply lines in the area.

The Army's control over Chavakachcheri has removed the threat to Palaly air field, the Jaffna security forces commander said. In all, over 500 LTTE cadres have been killed in the offensives launched since the beginning of September. ``Our objective is to inflict maximum casualties on the LTTE,'' Gen. Wijendra said.

The Army has also suffered a large number of casualties, with nearly 150 soldiers killed and a large number wounded, though it has claimed that many had only minor injuries and were put back into the battlefield.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : International
Previous : Mbeki changes tack on globalisation
Next     : Clintons not to be charged in Whitewater case