IT IS now as clear as daylight that the LTTE has really and truly taken hostage of all Tamil civilians in the "no-fire-zone" (NFZ). Unable to face the army, the LTTE cadres have now run into the relative safety of this zone and are clearly holding the people as hostage there and have resorted to murdering them if they attempted to escape their captivity. The LTTE cadres are the "sole Murderers (not Representatives) of Tamils"
This is no different to what recently happened at some hotels in Mumbai. The terrorists captured these hotels, held the people therein as hostages and fought the Indian Police and the army for nearly three days before the innocent could be freed, and the beastly terrorist could be eliminated. Many lost their lives and many others survived the deadly ordeal. Without exception, everyone blamed the terrorists for the deaths. The Indian security forces took some flak for taking such a long time to make the rescue.
As it was the government that declared and designated this area in the northeast as "no-fire-zone" (NFZ), it will be called upon by all and sundry supporters of LTTE to abide by its declaration. They will ignore the fact that the LTTE has now shifted some of their heavy weapons to NFZ and are using them without any compunction on the army. We have already seen SAM missiles fired at our helicopters and artillery fire is a frequent occurrence. The army is unable to retaliate in equal measure for fear of killing the civilians. But the rescue of civilians must proceed in the same manner as it was done in Vakarai and Sampur in the east where civilian lives were safeguarded.
With the help of anti-LTTE hostages and surrendering LTTE cadres the army hopefully will obtain the vital information on the hiding places of top LTTE cadres and Prabakaran himself and then precision bomb the lot out of existence. That will soon end the misery for all even though this inevitably will result in innocent deaths for which the blame should be placed on Prabakaran himself.
In the meanwhile I salute our brave soldiers for risking their lives to save the Tamil civilians even though they have to fight with small arms and brave artillery and mortar fire from LTTE. As the Bible says "greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends" Our soldiers are today engaged in the most dangerous and the biggest hostage rescue operation in the world. When it is all over, as it will soon be, I shall hail our soldiers as the men of this century even though there is a long way to the end of this century. Their selfless sacrifice to save the Tamil civilians should be indelibly recorded in our history and acknowledged by the world at large notwithstanding the few men / women in high positions at the UN who are hostile to Sri Lanka and sympathetic to LTTE. (Courtesy: The Island)
