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The escalating violence

The death of S.P. Thamilchelvan, the ‘Political Wing’ chief of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), in the November 2 Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) raid on Kilinochchi is a political and moral blow to the terrorist outfit. Killing of any kind cannot be condoned but the situation in Sri Lanka is abnormal. The military and the LTTE are engaged in an undeclared war for 16 months now and the Norway-brokered 2002 Cease Fire Agreement (CFA) is in shreds. The cyc le of bloodshed that began in August 2005 with the assassination of Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar by suspected LTTE cadres has shown no signs of halting. Several high profile personalities in the Mahinda Rajapaksa regime were either assassinated or had escaped death by a whisker. The current Army commander, Sarath Fonseka survived an attempt on his life in May 2006 and so did the Defence Secretary, Gothabaya Rajapaksa, who is the brother of the President and chief campaigner against the LTTE, seven months later. In June 2006, the Deputy Chief of Army, Maj. Gen. Parami Kulatunga, who was filling in for the recuperating Army Commander, was killed. All the killings in Colombo resulted from suicide missions, a dubious technique perfected by the LTTE. It is against this backdrop of an all-out offensive by the LTTE that the Kilinochchi air raid has to be assessed.

In the immediate context, the raid is in retaliation to the havoc caused on October 22 by the LTTE in a combined attack on the Anuradhapura air base by a suicide squad on the ground and aerial bombardment. The government has acknowledged the loss of eight aircraft and 14 air force personnel besides substantial military equipment, while unofficial reports put the number of aircraft destroyed at 23. With the latest Kilinochchi hit, the SLAF obviously intended to prove the point that despite Anuradhapura it has not lost its teeth and its intelligence gathering capabilities remained strong. Mr. Thamilchelvan may not have been the intended target but, through the operation, the military has demonstrated its capability to take the war right into the LTTE heartland. Being the ‘public and international face’ of the LTTE, in his capacity as the chief negotiator, Mr. Thamilchelvan was the contact point for the rest of the world engaged in peace efforts, although his role had been dwarfed in the last few months. The Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), mandated to keep a watch on the ground situation, is rightly concerned over the prospects of an escalation of the conflict and has appealed for restraint. However, given the belligerence on both sides, there seems to be no stopping the spiral of violence for now.

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