Sri Lanka News Updates with Discussions

By Dilrukshi Handunnetti

The suave, elegant Minister of Foreign Affairs, Rohitha Bogollagama has been flying high during the year 2007, and the financial cost of his official flying together with his entourages amounts to a mammoth Rs. 76 million.

The actual cost for flying to 26 destinations during the past year is Rs.76,178,113 to be exact.

But here is the brow raising fact for all that travel, there is a budgetary process. The budgeted allowances for airfare, hotel charges, combined allowances, incidental expenses for the year 2007 was Rs. 30 million. Needless to say all that travel, while necessary they may have been, had far exceeded the allocation, and in fact cost more than double.

Likewise, the budgeted amount for Rs. 2005 was Rs.15 million and for year 2006, it was Rs. 25 million. Two supplementary estimates had to be moved in support of the incurred expenses in the years 2005 and 2006, with an extra Rs. 4 million and Rs. 5 million being voted in to settle bills.

However, no supplementary estimate has been moved for the year 2007.

Hikzzz berty forceful rape cant be torture..which i just did to GAJA..hak hakhak.

'Kilinochchi within kissing distance'.

So said the disinformation warriors of Lt.Gen.Sarath Fonseka, the Sri Lankan Army Commander, more than a week ago..

It has been a long and fatal kiss-more for the Army than for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). It has been a long kiss of death for the young hastily-trained Sinhalese recruits to the Sri Lankan Army who were rushed to the battle front by the General in his keenness to keep his promise of 'In Kilinochchi before the New Year'.

Similar to the promise which Gen.Douglas McArthur, commanding the allied troops in South Korea during the Korean war, repeatedly made to the US troops fighting against the North Korean and Chinese Armies.

Christmas time

'To home before Christmas', he used to promise.

Christmas came and Christmas went, but the North Koreans and the Chinese fought fiercely. McArthur's promises were repeatedly belied.'Which Christmas?' people started asking sarcastically.

Ultimately, there were neither victors nor losers in the war. It ended in a stalemate after the loss of thousands of lives on both sides.

Bitter fighting

In bitter fighting on the outskirts of Kilinochchi since the beginning of this week, the SL Army and the LTTE have sustained heavy casualties. As normally happens in military conflicts, both sides are playing down their own casualties and exaggerating those of the adversary. However, the claims of the LTTE seem to be nearer the truth than those of the Army.

The LTTE claims to have killed 170 soldiers of the SL Army, but the Army insists that only 25 of its soldiers have been killed. However, the LTTE has been able to release the photographs of at least 36 soldiers killed, thereby proving that the fatalities sustained by the Army are many more than the 25 admitted by it.

Odds against LTTE

Reliable accounts show that both sides have been fighting fiercely and losing many young people. The Army has lost many more arms and ammunition and other equipment than the LTTE. The fighting has been a bonanza for the LTTE, which has been able to replenish its dwindling stocks of arms and ammunition.

The odds are still against the LTTE. It has well-trained and well-motivated cadres, who have been fighting with great determination, but it is running short of arms and ammunition despite the seizures from the Army. It has no air cover against the repeated air strikes by the Sri Lankan Air Force.

The SL Army has the advantage of numbers and arms and ammunition procured with funds from China and Iran, but its soldiers are not as well-motivated and as well-trained as those of the LTTE.

The LTTE had shifted its offices from Kilinochchi many weeks ago in anticipation of the battle. Kilinochchi has now nothing but the death traps for the SL Army laid by the LTTE. The LTTE knows where those death-traps are, but not the Army. This gives an advantage to the LTTE.

Nazi army

The battle being fought for Kilinochchi is a combined miniature version of the battles of Stalingrad in the erstwhile USSR and El Alamein in North Africa. At Stalingrad, the Soviet Army beat back the Nazis after inflicting repeated heavy casualties on them. At El Alamein, the allied troops commanded by Gen. Bernard Montgomery (later a Field Marshal) beat back the advancing Nazi Army commanded by Gen.Rommel with heavy casualties. These two battles marked the turning points in the Second World War.

Making a statement on the defeat of Rommel's army at El Alamein, Sir Winston Churchill, the then British Prime Minister, told the House of Commons: ' There was no victory before Al Alamein.There will be no defeat after El Alamein.' He was proved right.

Will Kilinochchi prove a similar turning point in the battle being fought between the SL Army and the LTTE? If the LTTE loses the battle, it could mark the beginning of its end as an insurgent force, but not as a terrorist organisation. If the SL Army wins, it will be a Pyrrhic victory.

B. Raman is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai

Chamal Rajapakse may be fantasising about an administrative office for the Ports Authority at a five star hotel but his other responsibility, Mihin Lanka, is set to lose millions as it runs into another spot of bother over the recent wet lease of an aircraft.

Despite the enchantment that obviously surrounds the name - at least for Rajapakse loyalists, Mihin Lanka is doomed to stay grounded, at least for the rest of this year.

Amidst bitter rivalry and allegations of sabotage within, the Boeing 737-800 Aircraft due to arrive in time to re-launch Mihin on December 15 was delayed as money matters, clearance certificates and flying rights over India had not been sorted out.

Sources say Chairman Raja Edirisuriya and CEO Kapila Chandrasena have been at loggerheads with both blaming each other for the fiasco over the wet leased plane.

Raja Edirisuriya, an engineer working in Los Angeles California was hand picked by Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapakse and recommended to his brother Aviation Minister Chamal as a more professional replacement for Sajin Vass Gunawardena.

Minister Chamal who could never quite fathom his younger brother, President Mahinda Rajapakse's fascination for Sajin Vass was only too happy to find a quick replacement having earlier told parliament he believed Mihin was run to the ground through mismanagement.

LTTE admits presence in the east

LTTE Political Wing Head, B. Nadesan has said that the LTTE still has cadres in the east, despite government claims that the region has been liberated.

Nadesan in an interview to the Australian Tamil broadcasting Corporation on December 9, according to pro-Tiger sites, said that the people in the east did not accept the government and the TMVP and were awaiting the Tigers to return.

'The people in the east have rejected the government and the paramilitary. The government cannot tolerate this. That is why the government is abducting and killing our supporters and our people,' Nadesan had said.

The military and the TMVP had also stated that the LTTE was active in the east.

Nadesan had said that the situation in the northern battlefront was in favour of the LTTE and that the government forces were weak.

'Our cadres are giving stiff resistance in all the fronts and are causing heavy damages to the forces,' Nadesan had said.

'In fact, the military is facing heavy losses and are in a very weak state. Our leader, commandos and the people are confident that we will definitely achieve a victory, an unprecedented victory,' he said.

Nadesan, responding to a question also said that the government forces were militarily weak despite capturing several areas.

'Everyone's expectation is that this situation would militarily weaken them (government troops). Military analysts also say the same. When one looks at the present ground situation, the forces are fast becoming weak,' he said.

The LTTE had last week said that it had killed more than 170 soldiers in clashes in the outskirts of Kilinochchi.

The military however denied reports, stating that it was the LTTE, which had suffered heavy losses.