THE Sri Lankan army has done the civilised world proud by undertaking probably the biggest ever rescue operation in the world to save tens of thousands of civilians taken hostage by a terrorist outfit banned in many countries.
Yesterday, the troops smashed the LTTE defences in the ‘civilian safe zone’ enabling over 35,000 men, women and children to move to safety in the government-held areas. Prabhakaran's death squads, true to form, used suicide bombers and fired heavy weapons killing as they did dozens of civilians in a desperate bid to prevent them from fleeing. But, civilians keep pouring out of the LTTE-held 'safe zone'. With the army breaching the LTTE's FDL at several points and facilitating a mass exodus, Prabhakaran and his fellow criminals will soon be left without any more women's clotheslines and babies' cots to hide behind. They will now have to come out and face the army or bite their cyanide phials.
The influx of civilians into the government-controlled terrain has once again given the lie to the Tiger lobby's claim of genocide in the Vanni. If those hapless people had any fear of genocidal violence, would they ever seek protection from the military?
Yesterday's daring rescue operation also exposed the international community's impotence. Not even the powerful countries like the US could pressure the LTTE to let go of civilians. All their pleas were in vain and they had egg on their face. But, the Sri Lanka army spoke the language the LTTE understood and 35,000 people were able to escape within hours.
No one in his or her proper senses would expect the LTTE to release civilians on its own. Prabhakaran took them hostage for a purpose. His strategy was to create a humanitarian catastrophe and jolt the world into stepping in to stop the war so that he and his partners in crime could escape death. His plans went awry for three reasons. The government wisely added a humanitarian prong to its war effort; the military, to its credit, acted with restraint in spite of all provocations by the LTTE; and civilians trusted the army and began to flee the LTTE, braving reprisals.
But, Prabhakaran is still under the delusion that his backers abroad will manage to extricate him from the mess of his own making on the pretext of saving civilians and commit Sri Lanka to a protracted truce so that he could make a comeback.
There is hardly any difference between Prabhakaran and the Somali pirates who took a US national hostage the other day or the terrorists who attacked Mumbai last year. The US and India swung into action, eliminated terrorists and rescued their citizens. Any other powerful state would have acted in a similar manner in case of a hostage drama. Therefore, Sri Lanka's right to neutralise terrorists and rescue her citizens cannot be questioned on any grounds.
Now that the army has opened up the LTTE-held 'civilian safe zone' for people to flee, as for his survival, Prabhakaran has the same chance as a cat in hell. Foreign governments and their diplomats here who are making a last-ditch attempt to throw a lifeline to Prabhakaran are only exposing themselves as bedfellows of terrorists.
The only way they can save their striped friends is to make them surrender without causing any more bloodletting. And fast!
(Courtesy: The Island)
