The Sri Lanka Army on Wednesday (May 20) afternoon marked the end of Eelam War with an awesome display of firepower. The army top brass involved in the Vanni campaign gathered on the Mullaitivu coast close to Jordanian ship Farah III which ran aground in December 2006 to declare the war over.

Two mobile multi barrel rocket launchers fired 40 rounds each over the Farah III’s wreckage as thousands of troops cheered. The MBTs (Main Battle Tanks), too, joined the firing. It marked the end of the bloodiest phase of the conflict which decimated almost the entire LTTE leadership leaving several thousand LTTE cadres in government custody.

The Eelam War IV saw the unprecedented use of armour, artillery and air strikes in a combined effort to facilitate ground operations and large scale manoeuvers undertaken by the infantry along with the Special Forces and Commandos.

Although counter-insurgency operations would continue for some time in the northern and eastern provinces as well as in Colombo and its suburbs, where LTTE operatives were still hiding, Sri Lanka’s heavy armaments could take a well earned rest.

The heavy guns of the navy and the SLAF jet squadrons, too, would stop booming along with billions worth of equipment ordered over the years to fight the LTTE.

The army paid a heavy price to corner the LTTE in an area encompassing the Nanthikadal lagoon in the Mullaitivu district in a series of well executed moves that wiped out what was left of once proud LTTE fighting force. Despite a series of counter attacks, the LTTE failed to deter the army which gradually destroyed the opposing fighting formations.

Had the LTTE correctly identified the threat of total destruction of its fighting capacity and membership in heavy confrontations, it would have made an attempt to smuggle out some of their key leaders after the fall of Kilinoichchi in January this year.

But the Tigers’ unwavering belief that the Tamil Diaspora could influence the international intervention on its behalf in Sri Lanka allowed the army to wipe out the LTTE leadership. Had it at least considered a possible failure on the part of the international community to force a halt to the Sri Lankan offensive, LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran would have made an attempt to flee the country or negotiate an unconditional surrender.

But it had confidently ignored both options believing that the international community would come to its rescue. Had the LTTE recognized the threat on its very survival, Prabhakaran would have made his move immediately after the fall of Paranthan and Kilinochchi in the first week of January this year.

The LTTE made a last ditch attempt to negotiate a deal through the ICRC as the army was on the verge of carrying out the last phase of its offensive on the Mullaitivu coast. The government was not interested in discussing a possible surrender. It didn’t make sense allowing the LTTE leaders to escape after paying this heavy a price to bring the 33-year conflict close to its end.

To the credit of General Sarath Fonseka’s army, it thwarted a large scale LTTE attempt to pierce through the defences of the 53 Division to help Prabhakaran to reach the Mullaitivu jungles. The LTTE launched a series of attacks beginning the early hours of Sunday ((May 17) after the 58 and 59 Divisions sealed the north-eastern coast with sizeable losses to both sides. But at the end of three days of confrontations, in the area covered by the 53 Division, the army recovered Prabhakaran’s body Tuesday morning.

General Fonseka swiftly reinforced the 53 Division with elements from the 58 Division, Special Forces and Commandos to finish off the Tigers. Brigadier Shavindra Silva, the General Officer Commanding (GOC) of the 58 Division who was preparing to overrun the last remaining LTTE held area about one sq. km in size had been directed to help repulse the LTTE assault on the 53 Division.

Amidst the battle in the area covered by the 53 Division, the army had successfully cleared the LTTE-held one sq. km in the Mullaitivu district. During the three-day battle ending on Tuesday (May 19) the army killed over 400 LTTE cadres including its entire leadership. Of them about 250 perished in action with a combined force of 53 and 58 Divisions plus the Special Forces and Commandos.

The rest died at the hands of the 58 Division. It was the LTTE’s second recent major battlefield defeat on the Mullaitivu front in the recent past. In the first week of April, the army slaughtered over 600 LTTE cadres in an operation near Nanthikadal lagoon. Although Prabhakaran and his top aides had managed to escape shortly before the army moved in April, the army achieved its target the following month.

General Fonseka announced the death of Prabhakaran a few hours after the pro-LTTE TamilNet in a statement posted on its website declared that the LTTE leader was alive. The tough talking general in a live broadcast over Rupavahini said that Prabhakaran had been killed by his troops. He declared that the three decades long scourge of terrorism had been brought to an end.

The SLAF flew one-time confidante of Prabhakaran turned Rajapaksa loyalist, Karuna, and former LTTE spokesman Daya Master to Puthukudirippu east and from their overland to the northern edge of the Nanthikadal lagoon where they identified the body.

Karuna told The Sunday Island that the army had killed Prabhakaran on Tuesday (May 19) morning in the Nanthikadal lagoon area.

Prabhakaran’s death fuelled some wild rumours. Some speculated that the LTTE leader had been brought to the Panagoda cantonment where President Mahinda Rajapaksa met him before he was executed. Others claimed that the President had cut short his visit to Jordan due to Prabhakaran’s capture. Some speculated that Prabhakaran had been brought to Colombo and hanged and then taken back to Nanthikadal where the army displayed his body.

Die hard LTTE supporters, too, didn’t want to believe Prabhakaran’s death. One Indian magazine went to the extent of marketing a doctored image claiming LTTE leader Vellupillai Prabakaran is alive. Some others asserted that the body was that of a Prabhakaarn look alike.

Although people didn’t question the way JVP leader Rohana Wijeweera met his maker two decades ago at the hands of the army, Prabhakaran’s killing seemed to trigger a plethora of theories. At a press conference called by the then State Minister for Defence, Ranjan Wijeratne, the government declared that Wijeweera was killed when the army opened fire at JVP Politburo member H. B. Herath. Wijeratne declared that after their arrest, both had been taken to JVP military and propaganda headquarters in Colombo where Herath suddenly pulled out a pistol hidden there and fired at his leader. Although the army had fired at Herath in a bid to save Wijeweera, he died in the cross fire.

Among the officials present when the announcement made on how Wijeweera died were Army Chief Lt. General Hamilton Wanasinghe, IGP Ernest Perera, Minister John Amaratunga and General Cyril Ranatunga. Responding to a query raised by this writer, Wijeratne said that Wijeweera’s body along with that of Herath had been cremated.

In fact, almost all JVP leaders except Somawansa Amarasinghe were executed by the security forces and police. Had Amarasinghe failed to reach India by boat and then secure passage to the UK where he lived until the UNP’s defeat in 1994, he, too, would have been killed with no questions asked. Some time later a soldier turned JVP Provincial Councillor who had access to Wijeweera before his execution revealed the events leading to his death.

The bottom line is that the people didn’t question the UNP but were delighted to get rid of the JVP terrorism. The fact that Prabhakaran and his top lieutenants had been killed and cremated should have been enough to appease the public.

The UNP cremated Wijeweera at the Gneral Cemetery in Colombo while Prabhakaran’s body was reduced to ashes on the banks of the Nanthikadal lagoon.

Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa warned that anyone trying to follow Prabhakaran would end up like the LTTE leader – shot dead. Appearing on the ITN on Wednesday night, a smiling Rajapaksa said that Prabhakaran had to hide in the Nanthikadal lagoon area in an amude. He said that Prabhakaran’s fate would be a clear message to anyone planning to take up arms against the State.

The capture of Sea Tiger leader’s wife and two children on May 15 and the finishing off of the LTTE leadership including Prabhakaran’s son, Charles Anthony, brought an end to speculation that some of them had escaped through a naval cordon put in place off Mullaitivu.

Although the navy had been successful in placing a tight cordon to thwart a possible breakout, the recovery of a range of equipment including artillery and mobile anti-aircraft guns of Chinese origin was evidence of the enemy’s strength to procure arms abroad and then smuggle them into the country by ship over a period of time.

The navy crippled the supply line in a series of successful operations on the high seas during Eelam War IV.

Premier Ratnasiri Wickramanayake in his brief address at Friday’s rally in Colombo requested the President to appoint a Special Commission to identify the sources of LTTE’s arsenal. It is no secret that the bulk of arms, ammunition and equipment in their arsenal are of Chinese origin.

Some of them hadn’t been even available to the Sri Lankan armed forces as in the case of four barrelled anti-aircraft guns.

Gotabhaya Rjapaksa’s revelation of the losses suffered by the armed forces, police and the Civil Defence Force thwarted an opposition move to raise the issue in Parliament. He said that the armed forces had paid a heavy price in their successful campaign against the LTTE losing 6,260 officers and men killed in action since the outbreak of hostilities at Mavil Aru in June 2006. A further 29,551 officers and men had been wounded in action. Of them 2,556 had been permanently disabled.

While the government called a massive pubic meeting on Friday (May 22) in Colombo to celebrate the armed forces’ triumph over the LTTE, General Sarath Fonseka flew to Kilinochchi to meet officers and men involved in the offensive.

After receiving a guard of honour presented by the 7 SR (Sinha Regiment), the first serving four star General emphasized that tremendous sacrifices made by the war heroes made a unitary State a reality. Had it not been for their sacrifices, a unitary state would have been a dream, he declared.

While likening the triumph over the LTTE to that Great victory achieved by King Dutugemunu, the war veteran asserted that theirs was even greater than the defeat of Elara.

For the first time since the eruption of war in 1983 the LTTE had been denied an area under its direct control where it could give military training to youth. From now on it would be mainly a job for the police, the infantry and the Intelligence Serviced to neutralize any attempt to launch EELAM WAR FIVE.