Open Letter to President Kumaratunga
28 July 1996

In a previous statement addressed to Lawrence Thilakar, I appealed to him to do everything in his power not only to protect the lives of civilians inhabiting LTTE-controlled areas, but also to protect the lives of the Tiger combatants who are fighting for a cause they believe in. Tamil Eelam will have no future, Mr Thilakar heard me tell him, if the brilliant and committed young fighters who form the heart of the Eelam movement are all dead.

I now feel compelled to issue a similar appeal to President Kumaratunge to cherish the lives of the soldiers she has sent to defend Sri Lanka against the LTTE. With all due respect to the President, I am grieved to have to remind her of her paramount duty not only to avert needless deaths of combatants, but also to guard the lives of the civilians who remain, at least in principle, under her protection as Commander-in-Chief of the Sri Lankan Armed Forces.

Many have noted the relative absence of resistance mounted by the LTTE against the Sri Lankan Army during Operation Riviresa. Civilians were evacuated from Jaffna, and the LTTE retreated into the jungles. Few can doubt that many more lives would have been lost had civilians not been evacuated and had the LTTE put up a stronger fight during that time.

Now the LTTE has stormed the Sri Lankan Army Base in Mullaitivu, killing many soldiers. Both the President of Sri Lanka and her military staff stand accused by war-effort supporters of being inexcusably unprepared for this offensive.
The Sri Lankan Army long ago made known its intention to pursue its fight against the LTTE into the Vanni region, where many combatants are located, along with many civilians.

The Mullaitivu Army Base was an obvious site from which to launch conventional military offensives against the Vanni. If the LTTE had attacked Mullaitivu merely for revenge or for show, then its action would have been both morally and tactically indefensible. But if the objective of the LTTE was to forestall attacks upon the Vanni, then a reasonable move toward that end would be to attack the Mullaitivu Army Base, disable it militarily, and then pull out.

If Sri Lankan soldiers were stationed at Mullaitivu to guard the armaments stored there, then the LTTE would have had no choice but to fight those soldiers, and kill them if necessary, in order to get at the armaments. How much foresight would it have taken for the leaders of the Sri Lankan Army to anticipate this move? How much effort would it have taken for them to prepare an escape route for the soldiers in the event of an attack upon the base?

Look at the conclusion of Amit Baruah's report in "The Hindu" of July 18: "According to military sources, this camp, which was manned by two battalions of the 25 Brigade, was the most susceptible to attack by the crafty Tigers. Since it has no land linkage to other security force detachments, the Mullaitivu base was an 'attractive' target for the Tigers. There is considerable concern about the loss of heavy weaponry stored in the camp to the Tigers. Possibly, the capture of this weaponry, which is not part of the Tiger armoury, was the goal of the sensational attack on Mullaitivu."

Not a word about concern on the part of the military for the lives of the troops themselves.

On July 24, I read that the army had sent in "reinforcements" (more boys to die!) and had bombed and strafed the Mullaitivu area, but I combed the news reports in vain for word of the rescue of even a single wounded soldier. News came that one soldier escaped with his life, but even his escape was not assisted by the armed forces; he fled alone and had to seek the army out by himself. When he found them he had to avoid being shot by calling out that he was not of the LTTE. As of July 24, six days after commencement of the attack, the Sri Lankan military had still not made contact with the soldiers who remained trapped in the camp.

Some say that the Sri Lankan military underestimated the strength of the LTTE. Perhaps they thought that an attack would occur and lives would be lost, but the LTTE would lack the ability to remove the weaponry before air and sea forces arrived to drive out the LTTE fighters. This is the most charitable interpretation I can find for the indiscipline of the Sri Lankan military commanders at this crucial moment in the history of the war.

Time after time the LTTE has conducted surprise attacks upon army camps, killed soldiers, and stolen weapons. Time after time, unwary soldiers marching down the open road have been picked off by LTTE snipers. When only a handful of soldiers gets killed, we read that the LTTE is "harassing" the army. When the LTTE shoots a few soldiers here and a few soldiers there, we hear that they are engaging in "the war of the flea" with "pinprick attacks." Some flea and some pin! These soldiers are human beings with families, bleeding their lives out in the dust. Do the families of those dying soldiers feel nothing more than pinpricks and flea-bites? How do the families of the soldiers at Mullaitivu feel at this moment, not even knowing whether their own sons and brothers are alive or dead? My sister Chandrika, how would you feel if the young men dying were your own children? Would you have risked their becoming Tiger-bait in the first place?

But this is just what those soldiers have turned out to be: Tiger-bait. And I cannot help but wonder if this is not precisely the reason why they were sent to Mullaitivu and left there alone, absolute sitting ducks, with no way out, too tempting a prey to resist...

Madam President, I understand the formidable problem you face: your generals want to rid the island of Tigers (as though they were indeed some kind of animal), but the young men and women who are nicknamed Tigers are scattered and hiding and difficult to get at. Unlike your soldiers in their camps, the Tigers are not concentrated in obvious places; therefore, to your military leaders' frustration, they cannot simply drop a bomb on a circumscribed target and inflict sure military damage upon their opponents. The only way to kill a large number of actual LTTE fighters is to bring them out by baiting them with ill-guarded soldiers and armaments. And so it has happened at Mullaitivu. Now some hundreds of soldiers have been killed and expensive armaments have been carried away by the Tigers and what have your military leaders accomplished exactly? Are they going to say that the LTTE has been "weakened" and "demoralized" by this action? Can they credibly claim that this (in Amit Baruah's words) "meticulously planned operation" is the desperate last stand of a dying movement? Or will they lament that in their trusting innocence they were suckered once again by those unscrupulous "terrorists", and will they point to their victimization as cause to summon the Green Berets to their defense? Do they really want Sri Lanka to go the way of Vietnam?
In late June, Marc Kaufman reported that Green Beret specialists were "training Sri Lankan soldiers in combat medi-vac techniques, radio work, and field exercises. Live fire exercises are next."
Just three weeks later, on July 18, Rohan Gunasekere of Reuter reported that "air force helicopters were unable to land to evacuate the wounded" in Mullaitivu (so much for "medi-vac techniques"), and that "the exact position of the defenders was unclear as the base had lost radio contact" (so much for "radio work").
On July 25, you, President Chandrika Kumaratunge, state that to "win the war" there must be cuts in food subsidies. "We cannot have free goodies and win the war at the same time," you announce to your people.
On the same day, July 25, the Sri Lankan military reports that it has penetrated the Mullaitivu Base, only to find there "nothing but dead bodies" and the stench of death. On the basis of this report, one surmises that the Tigers have left the camp. If there are any survivors from among the thousands of soldiers who were trapped in the camp initially, we hear nothing about them, nor about any search for them. The retrospective irony of the Green Beret's training tips in "field exercises" and "live fire exercises" is too grim even to contemplate.
On the next day, July 26, a report from UPI comes in stating the exact opposite of what was reported by Reuter the day before. According to UPI, "Sri Lankan forces Friday GAVE UP [emphases mine] trying to recapture the [Mullaitivu] army base" because "rebel resistance [was] too strong [for the military] to retake the camp." One surmises on the basis of THIS report, that, contrary to what one had thought before, the LTTE still remains in the Mullaitivu Camp and still holds control of it, and that the Sri Lankan military, if it managed to penetrate the camp at all, encountered more than dead bodies there.
Dexter Cruez of AP must have spoken to a different military official, because he reports that "thousands of soldiers began evacuating [the Mullaitivu base] AFTER RECAPTURING IT from rebel fighters, the military said" [emphases mine]. Cruez continues, "Only thirty soldiers from the 1200-man garrison were found to have survived and the camp was flattened by bulldozers."
If I were the sister, or wife, or mother of a Sri Lankan soldier, I would weep for joy at this news of thirty survivors, and pray continually that one of them will turn out to be mine. But among all the contradictory reports, how can we believe anything at all, except that there has been massive carnage? We hope that the whole thing will quickly be over, and that the remaining soldiers will soon be allowed to return home.
But the LTTE reports on July 26, not only that its forces are still in control of the Mullaitivu Camp, but that Sri Lankan reinforcements are "still struggling to reach the camp amidst heavy mortar fire" and that the battle at Mullaitivu continues to rage.
And this is not the worst. For on this same day, July 26, Matthew Chance of the VOA logs in with news that the Sri Lankan military is advancing in mass on the town of Kilinocchi, in order to "destroy the rebel headquarters there." Nearly 3000 soldiers, INCLUDING SURVIVORS FROM THE REINFORCEMENTS SENT JUST LAST WEEK TO MULLAITIVU, are now being sent to fight at Kilinocchi. "Heavy shelling is reported in the town," writes Matthew Chance, and "aid workers say hundreds of thousands of Tamil civilians are on the move to escape the intense bombardment."
The UPI, LTTE, and AP sources cited above confirm the essence of this report.
I very much doubt that the people of Sri Lanka are cheering the military on into Kilinochchi at this time.
I wonder whether it will comfort the mothers of the boys who did not perish at Mullaitivu to know that their sons have been given a second chance to die at Kilinocchi. And I wonder whether it will comfort the mothers of the boys who did die at Mullaitivu to learn that the army is heroically avenging their sons' deaths by sending other mothers' sons to die in yet another pointless battle.
And most of all, I wonder who can sincerely believe that Deputy Defense Minister Anuruddha Ratwatte, with all his experience and military zeal, was simply unprepared for the attack on Mullaitivu. I wonder whether any mother will ask, "Why did you send my son there at all, loading him and his comrades with so many armaments, if you had no idea that the Tigers might descend on the place in force?"
I wonder if it would comfort that mother more to be advised that the death of her son was foreseen, had a definite military purpose, was perhaps even planned in advance. How would that mother respond if she even suspected (as I do) that her son was used as a decoy to draw the enemy out, so that the whole area could be productively bombed and strafed, with soldiers, Tigers and civilians dying by the scores together? Who among your brigadiers will dare to refer to the death of a few hundred soldiers as "a minor military setback"?
Your Excellency, I believe that you want peace in Sri Lanka, and I know that it must be difficult with the Tigers on one side and your generals on the other. Both sides have been accused of intransigence. And yet, each side says it is the other that refuses to negotiate. I think you should put to the test the alleged intransigence, at least of the LTTE. It is not inconceivable that, despite the unfulfilled promises, they trust the sincerity of your desire for peace. And they may also reasonably consider that once you leave office, someone truly bloodthirsty will take your place, and all hope of a peaceful settlement would be lost. There is, therefore, genuine pressure on the LTTE to negotiate with you while you are still available. I implore you to take advantage of this opportunity. As for your military leaders, they should not have to be reminded that you remain their Commander-in-Chief. Regardless of what they desire to do, if they are proper soldiers, they must obey you first.
I therefore respectfully request, Madam President, that you stand up and assert yourself! You cannot dictate to your people how to vote, but you can tell your military what and what not to do. I suggest that you concern yourself later with proposals and elections and other things out of your control. Do the right thing militarily and the world will be at your feet.
What is the right thing? This is just my opinion. Heed it and consider it for whatever merit it has.
First: stop providing open targets for the LTTE. Get your soldiers off the roads and out of the camps that are just death-traps for many of them. If the LTTE has nothing to shoot at, they'll stop shooting. As for their destruction of non-military targets, the LTTE cannot be deterred from such activity by your own military doing the same. Wide-spectrum attacks on Tamil villages and round-ups of Tamil people just lead to further civilian deaths and provoke the LTTE to retaliate, as numerous previous exchanges of this kind have demonstrated.
Second: display your courage by inviting Prabhakaran to meet with you. It is your prerogative as President to do this. On frequent occasions, you have publically expressed your dislike for Prabhakaran's personality. You may even find "dislike" to be too mild a word for your judgement of his character. But his likeability to you should not be an issue at this time. As President you are responsible for the future of your country, and you must put aside your personal pride when countless human lives are at stake.
For months, the LTTE has stood ready to meet with you, provided only that you treat them as equals. They together with you hold the fate of Sri Lanka in their hands. This may not be a happy fact, but it is nevertheless a fact from which you cannot hide your people's eyes.
My third and final request is that you start mediated peace negotiations with the LTTE immediately. Tamil people all over the world, including LTTE leaders and their supporters, have been calling precisely for this: NOT for more arms to the Tigers, NOT for the destruction of your government. Both you and Prabhakaran have been advised that you cannot negotiate from a position of weakness. As long as you both have that attitude, you will never get anywhere at all. The war will drag on for years and years, a few people will become rich because of it, but many thousands more will be killed. You know by now that the Tigers cannot easily be beaten. If you continue to pursue a military solution to the conflict, the war will continue to escalate, and when you leave office you will leave at best a deeply embittered nation behind you.
Would it not be worth great personal sacrifice to bring a genuine peace to your war-torn country? Sometimes it seems as though you have just given up; sometimes it seems as though the warmongers and war-profiteers have got you where they want you: trapped and helpless as the soldiers in Mullaitivu. Please don't give up! Make the killing stop! Think of the millions who voted for you who want to see you succeed in delivering the peace you promised them. It will take hard work, sleepless nights, and no end of frustration and pain, but I know you can endure all that for the cause of your people.
Call your soldiers to safety, meet face-to-face with your adversary, oppose warfare with all your might, and with all your will, make peace happen. Follow this course, and I, for one, will stand among your supporters.
Sincerely,
Margaret Trawick
Massey University New Zealand