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To The New York Times
Your report "UN Tells of Blood Bath in Sri Lanka" (May 11, 2009) states that there are an estimated 50,000 civilians...and a maximum of 500 rebel fighters". This makes it a ratio of 100:1 civilians to rebel fighters. The objective of the military is to get to the LTTE. Would they have to kill 100 cicilians to get to 1 LTTE cadre? This makes no sense militarily. Therefore, for foreign governments and agencies to accuse Sri Lanka of shelling does not make sense because there is no tactical advantage in killing civilians.
The LTTE’s primary aim at this time is to halt the military offensive. Its strategy is to precipitate a humanitarian crisis, exaggerate its scope and give it maximum publicity in order to get world attention. All your reports come from LTTE sources within the conflict zone, and are not verifiable. These unverifiable reports of gore and horror are presented in the most gruesome light for maximum advantage. It is only by bringing the situation to closure as speedily as possible that relief can truly be brought to the civilians. A delay means that more civilians will die in order for the LTTE to retain the world’s attention.
Neville Ladduwahetty
To The Washington Post
Your AP report of May 11, "Hundreds Are Killed In Sri Lanka Attack" admits: "Reports of fighting are difficult to verify". Clearly, the immediate objective of the LTTE is to halt the military offensive. It is to the LTTE’s advantage to create crises, exaggerate their extent and give publicity, using their own websites, biased INGOs and media. Publicity is grist to the LTTE mill. Their charge that "hundreds" have died because of Government shelling makes no sense. If there are 50,000 civilians and a maximum of 1000 LTTE cadres, the ratio of 50 to 1 makes indiscriminate shelling militarily senseless.
Desperate to halt the military operations, it would be tactically to the LTTE’s advantage to kill "hundreds" of Tamil civilians whom they have trapped into a human shield to get the attention of the world. The LTTE will kill more civilians until they get the attention they seek and a ceasefire in order to fight another day. The longer military operations are delayed the more civilians will be killed until the LTTE achieves what they want. Therefore, the world community has to realize the stark humanitarian need to bring closure as quickly as possible.
Neville Ladduwahetty
