Jaffna: Action Replay

08 Jun, 2000    ·   357

Maj. Gen. Yashwant Deva says that India should only fight wars that are short, popular and winnable
Maj. Gen. Yashwant Deva (Retd)
The ( Jaffna ) town, when we drove through, was more or less empty with the few people we saw, looking on with anguished faces, no doubt dreading the tomorrow, which had  promised to be different but was in fact, turning out to be just like yesterday. 

 

 

- Lt Gen Depinder Singh, The IPKF in Sri Lanka . 

 

 

 

 

This fateful day described by the Overall Force Commander of the IPKF was 7th October 1987 when he went to meet Prabhakran in a last-ditch attempt to avert hostilities. Prabhakaran had gone underground. Mahatya, acting on his behalf, spurned the peace overtures with His Master’s rhetoric, “We are prepared to die and will not live in dishonour.”  The LTTE information warfare was as intense as its insensitivity to killings. The victim could be anyone, a blue blooded Jaffna-Tamil airing anti-LTTE views, or accused of being a collaborator, or the despised Sinhla soldier, or their own cadre guilty of either revisionism or dereliction of duty. War hysteria was built through brainwashing of Tamils in their early teens. Depinder describes an incident when the exit gate of Jaffna Fort was “blocked by about 200 children with what appeared to be three drug-crazed grown-ups, teachers may be, shouting slogans in Tamil.” I, too, was witness to a couple of similar incidents. 

 

 

When the battle of Jaffna was joined, the LTTE used women and children as human shields. Sample this intercept of a message from Vicky to Veedu and Prabhu picked up on 21 October 1987 at 1010 AM, “ Is Suti Annan there? If there send him. They are advancing towards you after jumping the wall. If you send children in front, they will stop firing.” And children they did send ahead of the troops. The troops stopped firing. 

 

 

The growing popularity of the IPKF amongst the Jaffna Tamils was anathema to the LTTE's designs. In their perception this had to be countered and the IPKF maligned.  So the LTTE described themselves as victims of a “betrayal” by India and the IPKF as “killers of Tamils,” an epithet that fit the LTTE better than the IPKF. I met a wide cross-section of Jaffna residents in my efforts to rehabilitate telephone services for the civil administration, International Red Cross, and civic services like hospital, power supply, water and sewage. Most citizens were scared to talk, and those who were appreciative of the IPKF efforts, were eliminated. A tell-tale message intercepted in Jaffna on October 31, 1997 illustrates the psyche and proclivity of the LTTE to eliminate dissidents, “These persons should be disposed off on the lines that we told the people. Ensure that nothing adverse comes on you. Whoever resists must be disposed off first. But the Big Boss said that if we do this we would find it difficult to justify to the people. Never mind. Do it in public but if you think this will put you in trouble, then select another place. ---” 

 

 

The LTTE were very apprehensive of being displaced as the sole representatives of the Tamils. This apprehension grew, so did denunciation of the IPKF, as the civic action intensified.  Imposed civil disobedience, propaganda, and inculcation of fear were instruments to keep the recalcitrant under check. They held IPKF, and not their fanaticism, responsible for the death of Thileepan on 26 September in Nellur Temple and the suicide of 12 LTTE prisoners swallowing kupi. 

 

 

Today, Jaffna is gripped by fear. While the MDMK in Tamil Nadu is making merry, the Tamils in Jaffna await an action replay of blood-letting and victimization with bated breath - bombing of homes and hearths, cold-blooded killings, nocturnal visits leading to reprisals and “eliminations”, and children running macabre errands for the blood thirsty Black Tigers. If anyone is to be blamed for the misery of Jaffna Tamils, it is the LTTE. They have killed more Tamils than they have killed SLAF or IPKF personnel. Glorification of fascism is no advertisement for Eelam. Our media also needs to carryout introspection and stop using expressions like “IPKF misadventure” (Star TV: the Big Fight) and “humiliating reverses suffered by the IPKF” (Namboodiri in Hindustan Times, May 6, 2000). 

 

 

Let us not forget that the IPKF was not for the hard option but, when so tasked, it liberated Jaffna in 13 days against heavy odds. In this gory replay, there is a lesson for our leaders; if fight we must, then let us fight wars:

 

 

That are short, 

 

 

That are popular, 

 

 

That are winnable

 

 

 

 

 

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