COLOMBO: Sri Lankan troops and Tigers are locked in fierce fighting over Jaffna, but analysts say the arid peninsula is of little real value to either party except as a symbol. Yet, more blood has been spilt over Jaffna than any other region in Sri Lanka. The latest fighting, which began 10 days ago despite a truce in place for the past four years, has seen at least 600 combatants killed on both sides according to an official count.

Government troops are using artillery and war planes to stall a rebel advance on the Jaffna peninsula, regarded by minority Tamils as their cultural home. For the government it is the fountainhead of Tamil separatism.

Security forces took control of Jaffna, 400 kilometres north of the capital Colombo, after a 50-day offensive in December 1995 and since then the region has also been an “Achilles’ heel” for the troops.

The military scored a psychological victory by capturing the former de facto Tiger state, but ended up having to feed 350,000 civilians and 40,000 soldiers using expensive sea and air transport, both vulnerable to Tiger attacks.

The Tigers control the only land access to Jaffna, linked to the rest of the island by a narrow causeway. Recent shell attacks on the only airfield at the northern edge of the peninsula cut off the air bridge and placed the troops under siege.

“The objective of the Tigers is to take Jaffna,” defence ministry spokesman Upali Rajapakse said. “If they can’t go all the way to Jaffna, at least they want to make it impossible for us to maintain supplies to Jaffna.”

President Mahinda Rajapakse vowed last week that he would defend Jaffna at any cost.

“What we have done is to take defensive action when we have been attacked...,” he said. “I can’t hand Jaffna over to the LTTE on a platter and withdraw troops to Colombo. I will not do that under any circumstances.”

Jaffna has more symbolic than strategic value for both sides.

“Jaffna is not a strategically important place for either the army or the Tigers,” said former Tamil legislator Dharmalingam Sithadthan. “Geographically and economically, Jaffna has little value for the Tigers or the army.

“As a symbol of Tamil culture and Tamil pride, it is very important,” Sithadthan said.

Defence analyst of the Sinhalese-language Ravaya Weekly, Namal Perera, says both sides are engaged in a prestige battle for Jaffna which is not known for any rich natural resources.

“The Tigers can’t talk about a separate state without Jaffna,” Perera said. “It will be a loss of face for the military to give it up. But the terrain is so hostile... it is a wonder why anyone would want to die for it.”

Tigers would have succeeded in capturing Jaffna in 2000 if not for multi-barrel rocket-launchers Pakistan gifted Sri Lanka to stall the advance at a time when neighbouring India offered ships to evacuate 40,000 Sri Lankan troops trapped on the peninsula.

Jaffna had a thriving economy before Sri Lanka liberalised imports in 1978 and killed a lucrative smuggling operation in the village of Velvedditurai, the birthplace of Tiger supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran.

His first high-profile assassination was that of Jaffna Mayor Alfred Duraippah in May 1975.

The killing marked a turning-point in the Tamil campaign for an independent homeland that has now claimed over 60,000 lives since 1972, the year the Tigers were formed.

Jaffna’s first woman mayor, ethnic Tamil Sarojini Yogeswaran, was also assassinated in 1998, just two months after she won local elections with a pledge to rebuild the war-ravaged region.

Shortly afterwards, Yogeswaran’s successor, P. Sivapalan, was also assassinated and both killings were blamed on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The local municipal authority in Jaffna no longer functions.

The region has a long history of bitter conflict.

Before the British imperialists, the Dutch established colonial rule over this Indian Ocean island in 1658 after capturing Jaffna. The Dutch retreated in 1796 when the British invaded Jaffna.

In more recent times, Indian troops, deployed on the island in 1987 to enforce a peace deal between Colombo and the Tigers, ended up fighting the guerrillas in Jaffna.

Indian troops left 32 months later. They lost 1,200 soldiers killed.

Tigers control about a third of the 2,400 square kilometre Jaffna peninsula since their previous offensive in 2000. The latest fighting is a re-run of the battle six years ago.—AFP