Civilian Casualties, Hospital Attacks, Shelling on No Fire Zone and the hypocrisy of the Western media

Sensational News sells .No doubt but it should not be at the expense of the truth . Free media means media is free to report the truth not what ever it feels or thinks its right. Of course every body is entitled to their opinions but if it is their opinion it should be clearly stated so with out harping it like the absolute truth. With free media come the responsibility with out the responsibility it’s the freedom of the wildass.

Defeating a world class terror organization is no doubt sensational news. When that terror out fit is termed as the most ruthless in the world by the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation USA), is termed as undefeatable by the so called military pundits and now its being defeated fair & square by a Military force of a small island called Sri Lanka while the western world sophisticated military forces huff & puff in their wars against terror is sensational news of the highest order any media organization worth its soul would want to be a part of this history in the making .All want to be a part of this party .Alas but this tiny nation called Sri Lanka has decided that No one comes to the party uninvited but surely being big shot media institutions in the west would qualify them to get an invitation. But how on the earth a third world country like Sri Lanka say no to media moguls in the west .But surprise ,surprise Sri Lanka has decided enough is enough and had the spine to say No to these media organization. So since there are no invitations for the party these media institutions now has decided to crash the party. How dare a nation so small say no to the powers that matters .So some of the media institutions are hell bent on discrediting Sri Lanka. Teaching a lesson to Sri Lanka would be their revenge little they realize it is their own credibility ( If they had a credibility may be what is left of it) that they are putting at stake by raising baseless allegations by publishing information disseminated by a well known terrorist group aka LTTE ( Liberation tigers of Tamil Ealam ) a terrorist organization fighting for a separate mono ethnic Tamil homeland in Sri Lanka..

international media has no access to the conflict area

One of the most common and often highlighted issue is Western Media personnel are not allowed in to the conflict area or NFZ( No fire Zone) nor in to the IDP welfare centers. is it because the GOSL( Government of Sri Lanka )has any thing to hide .The answer is No what can the GOSL hide from the western prying eyes of the military satellites of the host countries of these media institutions. There are few reasons

The govt is not in a position to guarantee the security of the media personnel in the conflict area if they get hurt or get killed it would be the same institution that would start screaming at the top of their voices. It is not that far when a foreign journalist was shot and injured by the security forces when she was trying to cross over from the LTTE held area to the govt controlled area in the night after going in to the LTTE controlled area even with out informing the government. And what country allows media personnel access to war zones None of the counties which preaches media freedom to us allow reporters free access to the war zones Mainly due to sensitive information leaks which could be used by the enemy to their advantage so information which is vetted by the respective militaries will be released to the media nothing wrong in that .freedom of the press doesn’t mean that they can poke their nose in to any thing .

Why aren’t the government allow reporters to visit the NFZ( No Fire Zone) there cant be any harm to the reporters there .Theoretically yes all though designated as a NFZ it is a well known fact that the LTTE has its gun positions located inside NFZ even under international law permits to take out these targets even located amidst civilian areas with an appropriate and proportionate use of force .What is proportionate is adequate response to neutralize this threat so so still the reporters are at risk the government in no way can guarantee their safety. But if a reporter is willing to take the risk why does the govt. still refuse the media to go in .Simply they can be taken in as a part of the human shield if these reporters are taken hostage their respective governments would go berserk and will demand to get involved since then they have a right to get involved since lives of their citizens at stake .The GOSL doesn’t want other people to meddle and make things worse because the se saviors are known to mess things in style in which ever conflict they meddle with .The other reason is why should a legitimate government allow a bunch of terrorist thugs access to mass media at its expense to use for their propaganda .These media institutions want access to them because these idiotic media men have given parity status to a legitimate government and a terrorist organization.


then isn’t the IDP camps safer as per governments own declarations on paper this sounds ok here is the practical situation. The government has received any one who has come without arms to these welfare centers but it is a well-known fact that hardcore terrorists are also among them so until all of them are screened and identified only monitored access is provided. because these hardcore carders disseminate lies and bias information .which is taken as truth by unsuspecting media personnel given way these media people act now and they way they publish information from unverifiable sources no wonder the government have second thoughts about allowing them in .


Hospitals are shelled by SLA(Sri lanka Army)

Ironically as per the western media the Sri Lankan forces have targeted all the hospitals sensational headlines isn’t it .this is all the so called media institutions want they don’t give a rat about the civilians of Sri Lanka if they are so concerned about the civilians why not shout in the same tone and pitch when western forces attacks results in deaths .Oh how can they be so careless .ok ok they have apologized saying they are extremely disturbed oh what do they call it “collateral damage. This is a clear ploy of the LTTE to evoke international sympathy and when the army rolls in to these areas what do they find strange the hospitals which were suppose to be shelled are intact may be Sri Lankan hospitals are built with self healing/construction properties .But quiet contrary to the claims we find enough evidence that the tigers have used hospital buildings as their command centers. Not like the sophisticated air forces in the world the Sri Lankan air force (SLAF) uses less complex target acquisition mechanisms due to this SLAF targets are accurate they even managed to bomb the LTTE police centre & The secretariat which was located surrounded by NGO offices in killinochchi with out even the slightest damage to those offices so we don’t miss our targets and hit stray targets like the more advanced air forces .well even the UN was taken on a ride and they had to apologized to the govt but the so called media giants just don’t give the same prominence to the correction .

misreporting instances


shelled hospital in good condition UAV footage

UN Appologises for cluster bomb comment

Various pro LTTE websites constantly publish photographs which they claimed to be the pictures of the shelled sites ,Mysteriously the so called hospitals hit by shells have their roofs ,walls intact even the small glass bottles on tables remain the same and the submitted photographic evidence doesn’t have any shrapnel damage or burn marks.

Shelled hospital and dead people but every equipment intact not a single damage consistant with a shell attack Wall claimed to be damaged by a shell yet the name board close to the wall has not even a single fragment mark or burn mark and still stands upright


Any person who has an iota of knowledge about a site which is hit be shells know the nature of damage to be expected yet none of the usual damage is visible . they claim that people are killed and photographs show dead people who are well inside rooms and theaters were damaged yet no structural damages to the hospital.

Then came the story of 5600 shells being fired with in one night .Oh come on 5600 shells falling on a 4sqkm stretch should flatten the entire area to the ground because any sane army would not fix its arty target on a single grid. Yet even the trees in this area seem to be intact so where have all the shells which is supposed to be hit this area have gone. this is the nature of the reporting of the propaganda machinery of LTTE ,yet the westerners and their so called free media treat these as gospel truth if you want more look at the following photograph which was published in the tamil net isn’t it heart breaking to see a photo graph of this nature

Civilians running for safty . or is it

Don’t let your eyes fool you now look at the actual picture see how a smiling photographer takes pictures (Right side lady with the light blue shawl covering her head)

so much for the credibility of Tamilnet and the LTTE this is what they have being doing for 30 odd years carrying out disinformation campaign after disinformation campaign ,lies to demonize the Sri Lankan government .even after all these if the western media still want to believe what the terror sympathizers say over that of a legitimate democratically elected government. it just shows the idiotic nature of the western media


Civilian Casualties

When the westerners here the word LTTE they think it has all the features characteristics of a conventional army at least that is what the western media has let the people believe. So how do we identify a LTTE cader ? of course by the uniform isn’t it or is it . but the reality is LTTE rarely wear uniforms for combat what you see is managed photo operations where they pose in uniform in reality they come to battle not in uniform but in civilian clothing


The reason is if ever they are killed in the fighting LTTE just take away the guns vola the gun wielding terrorist now becomes an innocent civilian LTTE takes photographs of these carders in civilian cloths who are actually killed in action and photograph and shows to the entire (LTT

So it is up to the western media BBC, Aljaseera ,AFP,CNN and all who are getting mislead by terrorists its your own credibility which is at stake and its your choice whether to be a part of this and loose what ever the remaining credibility you may have being left with or act now as a responsible media organization tomorrow may be too late.

Does History Repeats it self....

During the recent past a lot has being said of history repeating itself with regard to the conflict of Sri lanka .Most of these examples were quoted by the pro LTTE  lobby(Liberation tigers of Tamil Elam –A banned terrorist organization in Sri Lanka, EU ,USA & India ) two of the most quoted are Stalingrad( WW2 battle) and the battle field reversals faced by the Sri Lankan Army (SLA) during ‘operation jayasikuru” period.  

 

I will not go in to an in-depth analysis of these battles but will emphasize on the similarities drawn with the Sri Lankan battle theater by the pro LTTE propagandists

 

Battle of Stalingrad (July 1942 & Feb 1943)

This was a world War 2 (WW2) battle fought  between Germany and the Soviet Union for the  control of the city of Stalingrad  this is considered as a  turning point of WW2 and is one of the bloodiest with casualties running in to well over 1.5 Mn  The German offensive trust to take Stalingrad, the battle inside the city and the devastating counter attack by the soviets which trapped and destroyed the 6th German army ..

The capture of Stalingrad was important to Hitler for the following reasons.

1.      Stalingrad was a major industrial city on a vital Main supply route (MSR ) between the Caspian sea & the northern Russia

2.      It will secure a flank for the German army on its way to Caucasus to cut off fuel lines to USSR

3.      The city bore the name of the ruler of USSR and is a vital propaganda opportunity

4.      Stalingrad was an industrial city if captured would be a blow to war machinery of USSR

 

The Battle formations of the German army and its allies has vulnerabilities due to thinly defended northern & southern flanks .Due to overstretching of its forces .And they were ill equipped to fight in the hard soviet winter.

 

The soviet counter attack

The red army counterattacked from the northern & southern boundaries of Stalingrad targeting the flanks of the German trust in a double envelopment and boxed the  6^th army destroying it comprehensively.

The double envelopment formations broke in to two o each front forming a defensive front to the outside of the city while attacking the boxed in 06th army on the interior of the city thus blocking reinforcements and reducing the enclave held by the 06^th army at the same time.Source: http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/battle_of_stalingrad.htm

In the Sri Lankan context Parallels of the battle were drawn to the siege of Killinochchi by the Sri Lankan army and it was forecasted that LTTE would deal a crippling blow to the SLA as the USSR did to the Nazi Germany. The highlighted parallels to the battle of Stalingrad were

1.      Killinochchi was the de-facto capital of LTTE and is of more symbolic value than of any military value

2.      SLA attached a more significance to the fall of killinochchi (a wide publicity was given)

3.      The on setting monsoon & adverse weather conditions would reduce the effectiveness of the SLA while the LTTE would be operating on more familiar conditions to them.

4.      Urban l house to house close quarter fighting would render close air support and artillery support a non consideration due to vague line of controls

5.      The rubble and the urbanized nature would render the mechanized units of the SLA ineffective thus reducing the disadvantages to the LTTE

6.      Urban fighting would drag for long thus bogging down the SLA and leaving LTTE enough time to regroup & counter attack

 

This hypothesis was that Killinochchi would be Sri Lankan army’s Stalingrad but this was flawed from the beginning as to the numerical and technological superiority of the Sri Lankan defense forces(SLDF). In Stalingrad both the USSR & the German armies are evenly poised which resulted in advantageous positions were created due to weather conditions and superior strategy .How ever in the Sri Lankan case the SLDF had a clear advantage over strategy, Firepower, Numerical Strength & Air Superiority. It seems that this was mere psychological warfare by LTTE than close to reality. The actual ground situation prior to the battle of killinochchi was  

 

1.      The adverse weather conditions did not give a clear advantage to the LTTE both sides were affected equally while the SLDF with more resources came on top of the situation.

2.      SLA never left its flanks vulnerable and each division moved in clockwork precision in support of each other

 

3.      SLAF virtually had a monopoly in the skies and had the capability to hit strategic targets as well as tactical targets.

4.      SLDF made sure that the LTTE is not in a position to commit a larger number of fighters to the killinochchi front or to a significant counter attack by activating the national front (Muhamale & Nagarkovil) and pinning a considerable force of LTTE for the defense of the aforesaid..

5.      All though much hype was created by the SLDF about the eminent fall of killinochchi this appeared to be a diversionary tactic as battle formations in other sectors(Mullative -59 Division & Poonerin -58 division ) gained significant ground while the LTTE focused on defending killinochchi city . By the time LTTE realized this tactic and focused on other sectors both Mulathieve and poonarin were either threatened or run over by SLA during the confusion prevailed SLA laid siege to killinocchi as well LTTE’s response was to little too late. and was completely outfoxed by the movements of SLA  

6.      The military value of killinochchi is less when compared to paranthan which was a strategic gateway to the northern jaffna peninsula when the actual attack on paranthan came and was overrun by the SLA killinochchi began to fall automatically and SLA managed to overrun Killinochchi with out much resistance .This tactics aaoided a potential urban war situation for the SLA.

Finally the Stalingrad came but ironically it was LTTE’s Stalingrad not SLA’s .not at Killinochchi but in the battle for east  & south of puthukudirippu which  two text book style flanking attacks by the SLA trapped the major force of the LTTE boxing them and ultimately were wiped out like the 6^th German army in WW2  at Stalingrad.

 

Operation Jayasikuru -1997 may- 1998 may

The main objective of the Operation was to clear a land based MSR ( main supply route) to Jaffna and the military gains of the SLA of months  was reversed with in a few weeks by the LTTE with  devastating counter attacks which pushed the SLA to the brink of defeat trapping apx 50,000 in the jaffna peninsula which pave the way for the now infamous Norwegian brokered ceasefire(CFA).Iit was predicted that the same fate will befall on SLA when the LTTE counter attack at the appropriate time in the current offensive too .

 The troops advanced in narrow columns along he A9 ( Jaffna – kandy Road  leaving both their flanks vulnerable and overstretching the supply lines this weakness was exploited by LTTE by attacking  the middle of these advancing columns successfully cutting off supply lines which isolated the front some times for days until commando teams were able to re-link the formations & MSR .In the mean time isolated formations were hit badly and a large number perished .

But during the current face of the war SLA advanced not in columns but in larger wide fronts. and offensive divisions of the SLA moved in such a way that flanks of the each division are well protected thus drastically reducing the opportunity of a counter attack for the LTTE

In addition SLA always kept multiple fronts active which required LTTE to thin out its resources thus largely reducing its ability to concentrate its resources on a singular front (Which is a common tactic by LTTE).Inability to co-ordinate and operate multiple fronts  was the Achilles heal of LTTEand this vulnerability was exploited to the maximum by SLA by advancing along wider fronts in multiple theaters.

The small team tactics were extensively used to harass the LTTE and to conduct attrition war fare until the full brunt of the offensive came .Further this tactic minimized the SLA casualties since even if LTTE counter attacked large number of troops were not exposed.

Due to the above factors and many more logistical inconveniences the much publicized and expected counter attack by the LTTE never came.

An historic battle in Sri Lanka bears an undeniable resemblance to the current operation

Forget about Stalingrad, and operation Jayasikuru where the ground realities are far far from what we experience in Sri lanka today . It is noteworthy to examine the battle of king Vijayabahu the 1^st to drive out the cholas (A race of South Indian invaders ) which was fought on the same battle grounds of  northern & eastern parts of sri lanka, What similarities are there in a battle fought thousands of years ago .to a battle being fought now which is being fought with more destructive weapons, today we have a war which is fought on land, sea & air where as in the yester years it was mostly confined to sea and land .But it is said that what ever the technology ,what ever the tactics the final battle will be fought on the ground by infantry units or foot soldiers .historically it was the cavalry, elephant corps, and archers which played the supporting role for the foot soldiers today this supporting role is performed by the artillery regiments, mechanized infantry  divisions & armored corps. so where is the similarity, is it the battle tactics ? due to the introduction of the technology and new weapons battle tactics have undergone a drastic change but the undeniable and mind boggling similarity comes in the path taken by the Sri Lankan army of king Vijayabahu the 1^st  to defeat the cholas and the offensive trusts of the modern Sri Lankan army.

Kinh Vijayabahu sent 03 armies to defeat the cholas in polonnaruwa from ruhuna .The offensive started in 1069 AD he sent one army along the east cost up to mahathiththa (Present day mannar) to block reinforcements arriving from south india part of this army branched off to attack pollonnaruwaa.He send the 2^nd army across the country to attack pollonaruwa from the south .Them he sent the third army along the western cost to attack pollonnaruwa .the 03 armies boxed in the chola army from three directions at pollonnaruwa and in 1070  AD ,pollonnaruwa was overrun .

Here is the interesting part in the modern war  against the Tamil Tigers (LTTE ) the launching pad or the nerve centre of operations was vaunia .The Army General Sarath fonseka deployed three divisions in the main theater of war .58 division went along the western cost up to poonerin to secure and prevent any reinforcements coming in from south india. Part of this division branched off and went along route A35 to mullative .59 division went along the western cost to mulative while the 57 division went across the northern sri lanka via kilinochchi to mullative. These are the three main divisions used the rest of the divisions 55 & 53 played a defensive part for a major part of the battle and they were deployed in offensive roles  only during the latter part of the war 

The blue colour markings show the offensive path of the afore mentioned divisions and the green line shows the boundary at the start of the operations. Is this mere coincident or is it the way historically Sri Lankans found out as a feasible battle plan in driving out invaders from southern India .was the Sri Lankan General  following his great fore fathers in eliminating the terrorist threats from Sri Lanka. Its History in the making in Sri Lanka and but I would say history is indeed repeating.

 

References

Battle of Stalingrad –wikipedia

Operation Jayasikuru-Sri Lanka Army -wikipedia

King Viijayabahu 1-wikipedia

Photo credits belong to the original creators