Captain Pradeep Undugoda was wounded in action in the Jaffna peninsula in 1999. After passing out from the Kotelawala Defence Academy (KDA), Undugoda had served the 10 SLLI (Sri Lanka Light Infantry) less than ten years before being forced out of the army due to injuries caused in an LTTE mortar attack. A member of the KDA’s ninth intake, he had joined country’s premier defence academy in late November 91. After leaving the army he was promoted to the rank of Major.

Lieutenant Pradeeep Perera quit the army in June 1998 after being wounded in a blast caused by anti-personnel mine at Vakaneri in the Batticaloa district. At the time of the incident, Perera who had joined the army in 1991 served the 7 GR (Gajaba Regiment), a volunteer battalion deployed in the East. A product of the Diyatalawa Military Academy, he was subsequently promoted Captain.

Other ranker Vikum Gunasekera of the First Field Engineers, the oldest of the three, had joined the army as far back as 1981. He enlisted in the country’s then largely ceremonial army before India triggered a bloody war in Sri Lanka by stepping up direct assistance to several terrorist groups.

Gunasekera, now a Corporal left the army in 1989 before the eruption of the Eelam War II in June the following year after receiving injuries in a mine blast in Mullaitivu.

They are among thousands of wounded war veterans in the country. Their brief careers in the army wouldn’t have attracted any special public interest but for a recent decision to field wounded army officers and men to run at Provincial Council elections on the government ticket setting an unprecedented trend.

Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa wanted veterans on the UPFA lists as part of the administration’s overall political strategy. In keeping with this strategy, Undugoda, Perera and Gunasekera would contest Colombo, Gampaha and Kalutara districts respectively.

Retired Senior DIG H. M. G. B. Kotakadeniya, a JHU nominee running in the Gampaha District on the government ticket is undoubtedly responsible for a series of successful operations against the LTTE in the city and its suburbs during President Chandrika Kumaratunga’s tenure. Although he had been criticized for high handed actions, Kotakadeniya resolutely battled the LTTE until the CWC used political muscle to make life uncomfortable for this senior policemen.

Interestingly the government hasn’t picked anyone involved in Eelam War IV which the Defence Secretary told The Sunday Island would be the final phase.

The two officers and the other ranker selected by an army board are expected to be among the candidates eyeing highest preference votes at the next week’s WPC polls. Government strategists are confident that their decision to field war veterans would be appreciated by the people.

They believe that the growing public backing for the war effort would be reflected in the number of preferences received by war veterans. With the war against the LTTE taking the centre-stage in Sri Lanka’s politics, the ruling coalition is exploiting its battlefield success to the hilt. With a view to maximize this strategy, the government would field war veterans at the forthcoming elections to the Southern and Uva PCs.

Depending on the success of its PC polls stratagem, the possibility of some veterans receiving invitations to contest the next parliamentary elections on the UPFA ticket cannot be ruled out. There is a likelihood of some veterans from other services too being considered. As in the PC polls for East, Sabaragamuwa, North Central, Wayamba and Central Provinces, the war would be the Rajapaksas’ trump card. As long as the government keeps it war on track, the UNP and JVP will find it extremely difficult to counter President Rajapaksa’s propaganda offensive.

The UNP’s mood was reflected by what S. B. Dissanayake told a press conference in Kandy immediately after losing the recent battle for the CPC. A dejected Dissanayake said that the party had failed to realize the outcome of a successful military campaign was having on the electorate. Had the liberation of Paranthan, Kilinochchi and Elephant Pass boosted the UPFA ahead of the CPC poll on the Valentine’s Day, it wouldn’t be hard to fathom the situation now. The WPC goes to poll with the army under Lieutenant General Sarath Fonseka’s command on the verge of wiping off what is left of the enemy’s so-called conventional fighting capability.

Had the President not been increasingly under international pressure to call off the offensive, the LTTE including its remaining leadership would have been wiped out by now. The army has amassed enough firepower on the Vanni front to cut across the civilian safety zone. In fact, some of the fighting formations had to be withdrawn as the size of the area didn’t permit such a large force.

Although the international community has denied the government a sensational final victory on the Vanni front ahead of the WPC polls, the UPFA launched a massive propaganda blitz with President Rajapaksa visiting Kilinochchi. Accompanied by the Defence Secretary and the service commanders, he visited Kilinochchi town and several other places including the headquarters of the 58 Division (formerly the Task Force I) where he had received a briefing on the ground operations to overrun the remaining area under LTTE control.

The President also had the opportunity to view footage obtained by the Unmanned Aerial vehicles (UAVs) operating over the LTTE-held area on the Mullaitivu coast. Rajapaksa was so confident of the LTTE’s current state of debilitation that he walked out in the open along the A9 road at Kilinochchi with his entourage although some officers believed there was a risk.

``The LTTE would have been aware of the possibility of the President making an unannounced visit to Kilinochchi. On and off confrontations between the army and LTTE infiltrators disguised as soldiers have increased the threat on VVIPs visiting the liberated areas,’’ a senior officer said.

A few hours before helicopters equipped with anti-missile systems carrying VVIPs had touched down in Kilinochchi under cover of an unprecedented security cordon, the 53 Division launched offensive action targeting Vellamullivaikkal. Despite heavy fire, the army had pushed the Tigers from their positions east of Puthukkudyirippu with close air support provided by Mi 24 helicopter gunships of the No 09 Attack Helicopter Squadron.

As the President left the Vanni, the army reported the recovery of three bodies of LTTE cadres along with 10 T-56 assault rifles by 1GW (Gemunu Watch) conducting operations under the command of 53 Division. The 5 GW also assigned to the 53 Division recovered two bodies of LTTE cadres along with 5 T-56 assault weapons and one multi purpose machine gun.

Fighting continued on Friday as the 53 Division moved from west to east with some of the defenders withdrawing towards the civilian safety zone. According to intercepted LTTE communications, at least eight LTTE cadres had been killed and a dozen wounded in action.

Although the army hadn’t pounced on the LTTE leadership trapped on the Mullaitivu coast, it would be just matter of days before fighting erupts in the civilian safety zone, analysts said.

Like a recent terrorist attack on Mumbai facilitated the battle for Kilinochchi liberated in the first week of January this year, the raid on Sri Lanka mission in Oslo on April 12 by a group of Norwegian Tamils couldn’t have come at a better time for the Sri Lankan government. It caused irreparable damage to an international effort to throw a lifeline to the LTTE now facing extinction and gave Sri Lanka another opportunity to denounce the one-time peace facilitator.

Norway bashing too has become part of the political campaign with a section of the government and the dissident JVP parliamentary group calling themselves the National Freedom Front attacking both Norway and Vijay Nambiar, Chief of Staff of UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon who visited Colombo to press for a pause in the offensive.

To the credit of the government it has managed to keep its offensive on track amidst immense pressure. But with New Delhi publicly backing UK-EU-UN call for a longer pause in the offensive, the government is in a dilemma but is determined to finish off what it started in August 2006.

Had the President received public applause for visiting Kilinochchi, the presence at `Temple Trees’ of Sarana Gunawardena, MP, wanted by police for an alleged abduction and assault of a 12-year-old student in the Yakkala police area, would have disappointed any right thinking person. Nothing could have been as deplorable as accommodating a wanted person at a gathering of UPFA candidates contesting the Gampaha district.

The assault on the son of an employee who had switched his allegiance to Prasanna Ranatunga, one of the chief ministerial aspirants among the UPFA candidates, captured front-page attention of national newspapers. The MP, the SLFP’s choice as its Attanagalle organizer following the demise of Anura Bandaranaike, is alleged to have pistol whipped the employee before abducting the boy at gun point. He is also alleged to have fired in the air before fleeing the scene. The police have twice told the local Magistrate that the MP couldn’t be located and that they were making an effort to track him down.

Sarana Gunawardene was a notable absentee at a recent dana given at Horogolla to invoke merit on Anura Bandaranaike. In fact, there had been only a few politicians among the invitees unlike at a function held in Colombo in memory of slain Jeyaraj Fernandopulle. Among the invitees at the lunch at Horagolla were D. M. Jayaratne, Pandu Bandaranaike, Arjuna Ranatunga, Thirukumar Nadesan, Harry Jayawardena and Pam Cooray.

The failure of the police to arrest persons responsible for the recent killing of a JVP member in the Veyangoda electorate and the brutal attack on a 12-year-old boy by a group of drunken police personnel at Seeduwa underlined the frightening situation of impunity to those connected to the government. The JVP has accused the Wimal Weerawansa Group of carrying out the attack, a charge hotly denied by the dissidents.

In the Vanni, the war is rapidly coming to an end. Although those who had remained silent when the LTTE held sway, complain about what they perceived as an inordinate delay in the clearing of the last obstacles.

Gamini Tillakasiri and Hector Bethmage would be among the beneficiaries of the government’s battlefield success. The former Ministers of the WPC are under investigation over their involvement of smuggling an assassin and his wife to the UK during President Kumaratunga’s tenure. The contracted killer is alleged to have made an attempt on the life of K. H. Buddhadasa, Chairman of the Kaduwela Pradeshiya Sabha. Ironically, he is a long standing SLFP member.

Although an SLFP disciplinary committee had found fault with both Tillakasiri and Bethmage, they had received nominations to contest the April 25 poll.

But if all shady characters and the offspring of politicians were denied nomination there would be hardly anyone to contest election at any level.