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We’re fighting LTTE, not Tamils: Rajapaksa

— Photo: AFP

Fight to the finish: LTTE fighters walk past soldiers’ bodies near the village of Uruththirapuram, 300 km north of Colombo, in this LTTE handout picture released on Tuesday.

COLOMBO: As diplomatic and political observers awaited the November 27 “Hero’s Day” annual speech of LTTE chief Velupillai Prabakaran, the Sri Lankan military said the fall of Kilinochchi is “imminent.”

Also, Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapaksa reiterated the state is not waging a war against the Tamil community, but engaged in “humanitarian operation” to liberate the people from the LTTE. Minister and Defence spokesperson, Keheliya Rembukwella, said here on Wednesday that the soldiers are advancing in their campaign to capture Kilinochchi, the LTTE’s administrative headquarters, and said the town’s capture is “imminent.”

Prabakaran, who turned 54 on Wednesday, is to deliver his annual address from an undisclosed location in Wanni’s jungles. November 27 is observed as “Hero’s Day” by the LTTE in honour of the first LTTE cadre who died during an operation.

The annual address, a ritual followed since 1989, is considered a policy statement of the LTTE.

This year’s address acquires added importance in view of the ongoing war and the much-anticipated fall of Kilinochchi. At an interaction with foreign and local religious dignitaries at the Presidential Palace here, Mr. Rajapaksa asserted his government would not negotiate with the LTTE unless it laid down its weapons.

He said after being voted to power in November 2005, for over seven months he did not take any action against the LTTE because he believed it would join the peace initiative. The LTTE, however, resorted to violence, killing soldiers and unarmed civilians. “It was the terror unleashed by the LTTE itself that necessitated the humanitarian operation,” he said.

Separately, the military said 59th Division troops, now consolidating their positions north of Kumulamunai in Mullathivu, killed five LTTE cadre.

“Terrorists have suffered serious damages in the fighting, which lasted for a few hours, since this morning. Unable to resist the military onslaught, terrorists have fled leaving the dead and a cache of weapons behind,” said a Defence Ministry statement.

Citing LTTE communication, the military said demoralised and defeated LTTE cadre lashed out at their Mullathivu leadership for failing to send reinforcements.

“The intense military assaults and the small-group operations have confined major movements of terrorists in the area. The victimisation of Wanni’s youth by LTTE continues as the outfit is reportedly drawing more and more into its ranks, many underage and youth, forcibly and through coercion methods from the families detained under its tyranny in Mullathivu and Kilinochchi districts,” it said.

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