The highway war

Admitting heavy casualties, the LTTE announced on Tuesday that it had lost 1,700 cadres in the last 12 months and said it would mark the anniversary by sending special greetings to its fighters at the front over its clandestine radio, Voice of Tigers.

Sri Lanka8217;s military launched Operation Jaya Sekuru on May 13 last year from Vavuniya in northern Sri Lanka 8212; then the final government frontier, with the LTTE controlling almost the entire mainland north of that point.

Nearly 20,000 troops, backed by tanks and truckloads of supplies rolled out of Vavuniya on that day. The objective was to link up with the Killinochchi army camp, 75 kms north of Vavuniya, securing during the advance the A9 highway thatlinks Kandy in central Sri Lanka to Jaffna peninsula.

The road is considered essential for a main supply route to the peninsula where 30,000 troops are stationed and over 400,000 civilians live, dependent for supplies at the moment on air and sea transport, both vulnerable to attacks by the Tigers. The operation has proved to be not just Sri Lanka8217;s biggest, but also its costliest. One year later, the government claims to have taken control of some 50 kms of the road to Killinochchi. At least 1,400 soldiers have died and thousands more injured in the 12 months of fighting. The military has also had to suffer the ignominy of seeing some of its hardware, like artillery, ammunition, guns and vehicles being blown up or taken away by the LTTE during attacks. Only a little over 20 kms of what the army has managed to secure in this time is strictly on the A9, the rest comprising areas running parallel to the road on either side, with the army unable to dislodge LTTE combatants dug in on the main route. Over thelast four months, several attempts by government troops to advance from their present position in Kangarayankulam towards Mankulam have been repeatedly thwarted by the Tigers leading to a stalemate that could last indefinitely. Besides the artillery guns and shells that the LTTE took during its crushing attack on the Mullaithivu army camp in 1996, a shipload of mortars 8212; 30,000 rounds ordered by the army but believed to have been hijacked by the Tigers on the high seas en route from Zimbabwe in July last year 8212; has proved handy for the militants to push back advances made by the military.

In fact, a majority of the army casualties have been caused by the LTTE8217;s freshly acquired mortar power. According to a senior officer at the front, 8220;it rains mortars8221; during each confrontation with the Tigers. Casualties have been high for the LTTE as well. Though the Tigers have admitted to over 1,500 cadres killed, Government estimates of LTTE losses are much higher, in the region of nearly 3,500. If the army takescontrol of the road, the LTTE8217;s territory in the Vanni mainland would be bifurcated, with severe restrictions on movements between the two sides. This would in turn affect their supply lines and movements of cadres. For this reason, the Tigers have been determined not to let go of the road, launching three 8220;do-or-die8221; attacks and other smaller ones leading to the deaths of hundreds of their cadres.

Military officials said suicide cadres of the LTTE were entrenched in bunkers on the route to Mankulam and are determined to prevent the army from advancing at any cost. However, the government is also equally determined to take control of the road. Army commander Daluwatte told journalists last week that the manpower shortage would slow down the operation but would not stop it.

Contrary to the general view that the costs, both in terms of men and materials, of Operation Jaya Sekuru have been disproportionately high compared to its gains, Daluwatte said casualties were inevitable in battle. 8220;If you don8217;tfight, you won8217;t have casualties,8221; he said.

According to him, the government8217;s gains must also be counted in the number of LTTE cadres killed in the one year. 8220;One objective was also to reduce the the number of terrorists, which we have very effectively done,8221; he said, adding that the LTTE was also beset by desertions, with 8220;hundreds8221; of their cadres running away and surrendering to the army.

Pointing to the expansion of government-controlled areas from Vavuniya further north into Vanni, he said: 8220;This is really an operation for the Vanni. You don8217;t just open the road, you have to clear the land on either side. It8217;s not just one battle, it8217;s hundreds of battles, it is a campaign and campaigns take time,8221; he said.