COLOMBO: Last week it was reported that cadres supporting the dissident LTTE militant Karuna were training in remote jungles bordering the north-eastern region assumedly in preparation for battle with the LTTE leader Prabhakaran. An open display of hostilities between the two LTTE factions will be the climax to the series of sporadic killings carried out since early last year when the powerful LTTE militant in charge of the eastern Batticaloa district, Karuna, decided to break away from the leadership of the Tiger supremo. While the military had officially declared that the killings carried out between the two factions is an ‘internal issue’— the same has been worrying the government for the past two months. Another point of concern for the government is the fact that the LTTE owns its own airstrip. The government came to know about the LTTE’s airstrip and air capability in January this year.
Ever since Karuna, the estranged dissident Tiger commander began to charter his own course, the LTTE faction of Vellupillai Prabhakaran has been relentless in its accusations that the government was supporting the breakaway militant. An accusation that the government denies.
The Sri Lankan government’s biggest headache is the LTTE’s airfield which the Tigers claim had existed even before the ceasefire was signed in January 2002.
Several attempts made by the ceasefire monitors to inspect the LTTE’s airstrip in Killinochchi region have failed as the LTTE had refused access to the region.
Meanwhile, President Chandrika Kumaratunga had written to Norway’s Prime Minister, Kjell Magne Bondevik regarding the issue submitting a set of pictures of the airstrip as well of the aircraft owned by the LTTE. However, when later the Norwegian premier sent his peace envoy Erik Solheim to meet London-based LTTE theoretician Anton Balasingham, he had merely assured the Norwegian facilitator that the governments fears were ‘unfounded’, claiming the airstrip had ‘existed before the ceasefire’.
Interestingly, the government’s attempts to create global awareness of the newly-discovered LTTE air strength coincides with the European tour undertaken by a team of top LTTE cadres headed by the LTTE political wing leader, to apparently portray its organization as a liberation movement solely representing the Tamil people.
Meanwhile, Hagrup Haukland, head of the ceasefire monitoring mission in Sri Lanka, in an interview with Dawn blasted the LTTE for denying access to them to see the airfield, claiming that it tantamount to ceasefire violation.
In the face of security threats posed by the LTTE, sources point out that Sri Lanka would look towards getting as much of international military support as possible – expecting aid and assistance from both India and Pakistan.
Meanwhile, the Pakistan embassy in Colombo when contacted neither denied nor acknowledged the report in a Colombo-based Tamil daily, Sudaroli, which said Islamabad had offered a sophisticated radar system to Sri Lanka.
A senior-ranking official of the Pakistan Embassy, however, described the recent visit of the Pakistan Air Force chief, Air Marshal Kaleem Saadat as a routine one stating that no undue importance should be attached to the visit.
On the other hand, three Indian naval ships have anchored on the shores of Colombo to train Lankan cadets.
