WWW Virtual Library - Sri Lanka

PART II

Continue from part I...

Ultimately the soldier was humiliated

India suffered a huge casualty. Some of it could have been avoided?

You cannot avoid casualties in fighting, in war. Whether they could be reduced? Somebody is wearing a flak jacket, he wouldn't die. My soldiers didn't have any. There were none. You cannot ask for something that was not there. Initially, we did not have good detectors for mines, for booby traps. We asked for and our army slowly and slowly acquired them. That is why I said, even our army was ill-equipped, not just the IPKF. It was different from fighting the Nagas. You were fighting, in the American assessment, one of the deadliest militant force. There to send your unsuspecting soldier, it was tough, isn't it?

Why was air power not properly used against the LTTE?

Air power would have only destroyed civilians. We had gone there to rehabilitate civilians. If we had used air power, it could have been the other way: we would have rendered more homeless. It is totally counterproductive. It is counterinsurgency, the application of military force has to be controlled. Even artillery, we used it sparingly, only in jungles where there were no civilian population.

We had that rifle, your old SLR, which is not designed for counterinsurgency. It is so cumbersome. Our army did not have any better. We tried sawing up half the barrel so that it wouldn't get caught in the branches. No army in the world uses such heavy, cumbersome rifle with such slow rate of fire.

Then, we didn't have the modern devise of night vision. Our radio sets were heavy. And communication was a problem. But slowly we overcame these. As far as the rifle went, I told my soldiers, if they capture AK-47s you can use them. So a lot of my soldiers were using it, they were captured. Then I ran short of ammunition. I had to arrange for ammunition. That is the way it was. The communication too was very bad. How do you command a force like that?

What were the most touching incidents during your command?

One was the six, seven days when Jaffna had to be captured. I had to move two battalions fast to attack from the rear. At some point they got into a fight with some LTTE group. There was concern. We got through, it was there we won the Param Vir Chakra. That was a tricky time.

The most critical time was when we were fighting the battle of Neethikaikulam, part of Vaani jungles. It is east of Vavoonia, a thick jungle. It was a major hideout of the LTTE. It was the month of August 1988, and I had planed my operations in a manner to clean up the area because we wanted elections in September. From Batticaloa in south to Jaffna in north. We cleaned up Batticaloa district, then we cleaned up Trincomalee, then we cleaned up Jaffna top.

The enemy had withdrawn into the jungles. Their backbone had to be broken. They were a potent force and so by a series of operations we got into the jungle. The battle was joint and that is the time when paracommandos went there and entered the tunnel and [LTTE chief] Prabhakaran escaped through the second tunnel from the right. We destroyed the LTTE headquarters.

There were a series of bunkers connecting to the tunnel. When they entered the first bunker, he was in the second bunker and he entered the third bunker and escaped. We captured a lot of their leaders, destroyed their leadership, captured a lot of headquarters papers.

You told your men to shoot Prabhakaran if he was caught?

No. I didn't tell them to kill him. I told them to capture him.

If you had caught Prabhakaran, what would have you done?

I would have treated him like any other militant. We had a concentration camp or whatever you call, where we put the militants under detention. Of course, if Prabhakaran was caught, what to do with him would have been a political decision.

You are taking a politically and morally right position.

No, no. This every soldier is to be taught. Soldiers are not to be assassination squads. One army has done it, to their discomfiture. The Indonesians did it. Military soldiers fight a war in a military manner.

Where were you when this particular operation was going on?

Right at the place of action. They were keeping a watch on my movements. Their code name for me was Eagle, the Tamil for it. I took off from Trincomalee. I said it was a tough battle, I should go there. I had a general there, General Goel.

As I was taking off, they [the LTTE] said, Eagle has taken off. I was landing right inside the battle area. Fighting was taking place all over. They had identified me, and they opened up rockets. While touching down, we hit the rocket and my helicopter burnt. I jumped out. It was hovering. Totally burnt out, and they had surrounded this place.

For the next two hours, there was firing all around. It is all part of the game. It was after this battle that I announced the time was now right, the situation is under control, the last command of the LTTE has been destroyed, and now I am ready for elections. It was that announcement that forced the Sri Lankan government to announce the elections.

That was the closest you came to death?

No. I came even closer to death. A number of times. Once I was driving into Jaffna, I was going on the road. There was this old black Morris car parked there. Some boy went and checked this car. When they checked, it was found that this car was ready to be exploded as I passed by. It was detected beforehand.

Once I was with General [Ashok] Mehta, the operation was going on in his area, Batticaloa. We saw the fighting from a helicopter. I saw some movement of Indian troops down below, I said, I must meet them. There were some LTTE there. They [Indian troops] knew I was there. I told my pilot, to go down and keep the rotators flying. The senior-most steps down first, and I jumped out. The pilot of the aircraft, he was a little worried, it was not a secure helipad. As I jumped out, the LTTE was sitting in ambush all around. They opened fire. I did not realise it because of the sound of the helicopter.

But the pilot realised, smoke and flashes coming out. He said, Come back, sir, so I got inside fast. And then the pilot put in what they call 'power retro' or something, I have never been whisked up in a helicopter so fast. Soon after, our troops rushed in and opened an elixir of fire. After 10 minutes I said I must go back. A commander cannot be seen as going back from the scene of action.

You interacted with key figures. What was your impression of them, especially of Prabhakaran?

The LTTE could not interfere with the elections, they could not assassinate even a single of our candidates. After that I said at Neethikaikulam that we marginalised the LTTE militarily, and in the elections they were politically marginalised. Then I got a message from my head of intelligence, he was a South Indian, a very good man. He said someone had been contacted by Prabhakaran's number two, Mahathiah, who had come around somewhere in Trincomalee. He wanted to contact the IPKF, no, Prabhakaran wanted to meet him.

I said I would meet him, I am a military man but if we were to meet for political discussions, I would not. If he wanted to meet, I would come. I can only talk about my military, I can't say terms of the Accord be changed. I think they got the message that I wouldn't get involved in talks, again the same old talks. So he backtracked.

Were some of your field commanders reluctant participants?

No. In fact, if anyone felt so, the choice was always there. He could have gone back. He could get another posting.

Did you come across any incident of people asking for leave?

Yes, indeed. Not for this reason. Not everyone is made to withstand rigours and dangers, battle fatigue gets hard. In protracted insurgency, these things come up, not just there, but anywhere. In counterinsurgency, there is no front and rear, the enemy is all around. I am aware that some people's performance dropped.

Any psychological disorders among your soldiers?

No... there may have been cases. But nothing did come to my notice. There was not a single case of desertion, no absent without leaves.

How was your relations with [then Indian army chief] General Sunderji?

I had no problems. In fact the fact that he picked me up is the right indication. He might have been influenced by my performance. Obviously he had confidence in me.

Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw refused to go into war when Indira Gandhi wanted. Don't you think General Sunderji could have done something like that?

Sunderji as a chief is functioning within a government, what problems it was facing I had no preview. My sum total is that the Indian army that went to Sri Lanka was ill-equipped and unprepared for the kind of task that was undertaken. I say it categorically. The question is whether such a task was envisaged, I am not qualified to comment on that. You can ask people who took the decision. What was their understanding? What political understanding were they given?

The DMK and other Tamil parties were supporting the LTTE. What did you feel about that?

You know what happened? The government was dismissed. All of them were apprehended. They were put into jail, all those shops were closed. Earlier, the LTTE was there, they even participated in the elections there pasting posters etc. Mr [P C] Alexander was the governor. Earlier it was funny. All the local police were told to assist them when they were smuggling things in small boats. Such contradictions were adding to the problem. The policeman said, Earlier by assisting them I was becoming a martyr. Today I am a criminal. Where do I stand?

Did you expect Rajiv Gandhi's murder?

I did not think they would carry it across the shores.

The Americans and Israelis were providing active assistance in Lanka. How did you react when you reached there?

There was no American assistance. Israeli assistance was for the Sri Lankan special force. Their training camp was on the edge of Batticaloa district, my soldiers had discovered it. And I straight away took up the matter, if they don't leave in 24 hours, my soldiers will deal with them. And in 24 hours they left the place lock, stock and barrel, both Israeli trainers and Sri Lankans.

Was Rajiv Gandhi's assessment of the situation right?

By the time I was there, the assessment was history. On operational matters he listened to me. He was supportive.

Did the nation treat the IPKF well?

In the IPKF the number of bravery awards were totally commensurate with any such operation. Legal obligation of the government was fulfilled. You got the pension and all that. That was the part of the terms and conditions of service.

Whereas in the case mobilisation of nation and people, it did not happen. Initially it happened at lower levels in Tamil Nadu. Women's organisations used to come up, they did little little things. Over a period of time it needs mobilisation from the top. That did not happen. The IPKF operations fell in the same pattern of 1971. The mobilisation of the national support for the cause becomes more and more important today.

Do you have any major regrets?

The only thing is, if the Premadasa government was not allowed to get away the way he went back and, consequently, the IPKF had stayed on, then I think in six months time the government would have become efficient in the north-eastern province. After that, the Tamil parties in Sri Lanka would have been able to handle it.

So ultimately the soldier was humiliated.

Yes. The government in Delhi did not [humiliate him]. The prime minister received me. The government in Tamil Nadu did.

How do you assess the present situation in Lanka?

The problem has come to a stage where both parties realise that there is no military solution to the problem. For the LTTE, they can carry on fighting, but ultimately all that will be left will be Tamil babes-in-arms, no young men. The Sri Lankans, they can't also carry on fighting, it has economically hit them so badly. In the South, the JVP which had been wiped out once, will end up coming back due to poverty. And they will end up destroying their own systems. So for both of them, the future is doomed if they carry on fighting.

Both having understood that, I feel they would like to resolve it. The present president of Sri Lanka, Chandrika Kumaratunga, has shown a great amount of willingness to come down. Perhaps the realities of the political system has stopped her from showing so much of willingness. But in my heart of heart I am convinced that if she has to give in some, she will give in to resolve the issue.

The LTTE, if it can have some kind of face-saving, that we fought for Eelam, we couldn't get it, but we came the closest to it because it is Tamil Eelam, or otherwise it was not the end, but that was the means. The end was where the minority Tamils have their rights, their culture is protected, their religion is protected, everything is protected. That is the aim. Now the concern of the Tamils will be, even if a honest broker comes, what prevents the agreement? Even if they today amend the [Lankan] Constitution, what prevents a brute majority from changing it?

Today the broker, I believe, is Norway. Earlier on, the attempt was under the aegis of the International Alert, it is an NGO based in London. The critical issue is whatever the agreement is going to be, who will underwrite it? It will have to be a party acceptable to both the sides. I do not see any western country taking on the responsibility of underwriting it.

The IPKF in essence was really India committing to underwrite an agreement between the Tamils and the Sri Lankan government. Obviously, there may be or there will be pressure trying to get back India as the country to underwrite such an agreement. And I strongly feel that we must avoid giving any such undertaking or taking on any such commitment.

Why?

For the reason I explained, we have tried it once by sending out our soldiers. But one of the parties decided to break the Accord. And when national sovereignties are involved, it becomes very difficult for a third party to enforce it.

Secondly, the position taken by all the political parties other than the Congress is that it is wrong to involve ourselves in Sri Lanka. Those parties will not go back on that today.

 Till the LTTE get Eelam, they won't stop

One early morning in 1987, Indian army's 54 Division landed in Sri Lanka from Secunderabad. At its head was Major General Harkirat Singh, the Indian Peace Keeping Force's first commander.

General Singh first tried to buy peace with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. When that failed, he plunged his men into a blood war. And India suffered horrifying casualties.

After the infamous killing of Indian soldiers on the Jaffna University football ground under his command, New Delhi inducted Lieutenant General A S Kalkat. Thus, it slowly began relieving General Singh of his charge. Within a year, he returned to India.

General Singh has been subject to much criticism. But, except for an interview immediately after his retirement, he has kept his counsel.

A decade after those terrible days, he completed his memoirs on Lanka, wherein he blames key individuals involved in the IPKF operation for the unprecedented loss of life, and questions several long-held beliefs.

In a candid interview to Josy Joseph, he accuses several people -- including then Indian army chief General K Sunderji and high commissioner to Colombo J N Dixit -- and admits that "chaos" reigned in the jungles of Sri Lanka where the Indian troops faced humiliation.

How did the IPKF, sent to enforce peace, get involved in a bloody fight with the LTTE? Do you personally believe that it could have been prevented?

One afternoon I was in my operations room when then vice chief of army staff (S F) Rodrigues came. Later he became [army] chief. He talked of hard options. I advised him against it. I told him, If you adopt hard options you would be fighting for the next 10 to 20 years. And this will lead to insurgency and there is no stopping it. You are fighting in Nagaland, Mizoram, all over. This will be another. And sure enough, it has not ended to date. And it won't end.

Why?

I have all regards for Sri Lanka. The Tamils have sacrificed [a lot], the LTTE is highly motivated and there is one aim: Eelam. Independence. Till they get independence they are not going to stop. You see stray incidents everyday, they even attempted to kill the present president.

When did General Rodrigues speak to you about hard options?

A week before the war started. It started on the 10th of October 1987. He came about a fortnight before; he had just taken over as the vice-chief from J K Puri. So he came and spoke to me.

So you actually opposed what you went out to do?

Actually [yes]. And, you know, [General Rodrigues said], No, no, no...don't get cold feet. We will take care of them. I said, They have fought their entire lives in the jungles. I have flown over the jungles with Mahathiah, the number two man to Prabhakaran, in my helicopter. We flew over the jungles of Vavoonia and he explained to me how they fought against the Sri Lankans all these years. So they knew each inch of the land. We would push them out of Jaffna, they would get into the jungles. Then you would be fighting them for the next 10 years.

You had no intelligence inputs?

All these people who were in Delhi, I am afraid, they visited Sri Lanka because it was a foreign country. They went back without any hard intelligence. They had no intelligence to give me about terrain, about enemy. I had to buy tourist maps in Hyderabad before I went into operations. And I had to borrow a Sri Lankan photocopying machine to make copies for my staff.

Only one officer, now he is a general, Memon, he got hold of some maps, because he was my staff officer. He was my brigade major once upon a time. He said, Sir, we have only these maps. You please take them, you will need them. He was very nice, he gave me a dozen maps. For army a dozen maps is nothing. Every platoon commander has to have a map, a section commander has to have a map.

So you went in with a tourist map?

We went in with a tourist map. We didn't know the geography of this country at all, except that it was an island country. That is it. What it was inside, my God, you couldn't see A to B, it was such thick foliage.

It was total lack of intelligence. You are sending a formation into battle, it has to be properly briefed. What happened in Kargil? Lack of intelligence, lack of strategic intelligence, lack of technical intelligence. They were building up and all behind the lines we didn't know about it. Obviously our missions were sleeping.

When did you reach Delhi for the briefing? If they had no intelligence what were they discussing?

They were discussing various options. Various options of going into Sri Lanka. Now you will say what were these options? Firstly there was no aim to this entire battle. It was a wavering aim. When you have to spell out so many options, where is the set aim for you? There is no aim. It is against the basic principle of war.

What were the options given to you?

It was wavering. Like this: if there is a coup in Colombo, how will we reinstate [then Sri Lankan president] Jayewardane? Somebody came out with some kind of plan. All right. If we have to favour the LTTE, then how will we land in Sri Lanka? If we are to favour Sri Lankans, how will we land in Sri Lanka?

After all, you just cannot land, you are going overseas, you are going by sea, going by air. So various options had to be discussed. This kind of scenario we were working on. War was never thought of. Nobody told us that behind-the-scenes there was an Accord being worked out.

You were not told that the Indo-Lankan Accord was being worked on?

Of course not. What happened was, I was going back to Secunderabad. As I arrived at the airport, all my staff were lined up there. I said, Why are you all here, only my ADC is supposed to be here. They said, Sir, first flight is to take off at 1o'clock tonight. I said, For where? For Sri Lanka.

I said, It is 10 o'clock when I arrived and we are on a six-eight hour notice? Then my staff informed that me, Sir, the Accord has been signed in Sri Lanka, the prime minister is there, he rang up the army commander Depinder Singh to move a division to Sri Lanka.

I said, Get into the ops room. We talked about it. And the brigade commanders took off. And I get a message at 2 clock from signal-in-chief, not to leave, till I get a notice from the chief. The message came, lightning. Un dino hamare pas fax machine nahin the so telex spelled out the Accord.

Which day was it?

27th night [of June]. The Accord was signed, that thing came, so I read the Accord, it made no sense for operations. It meant I leave for Sri Lanka, go and establish peace. And we left. My flight took off at 5 o'clock. Every minute there used to be an aircraft taking off.

Your brigade commanders agreed to it?

They had no option, had to agree. Mentally we were prepared because we had been talking about the operation for sometime. Say, we may be talking about it for a month, but there was no intelligence given to us. I should have got a proper intelligence summary, this is the terrain, this is the enemy strength. I should have been given a proper operational instruction.

When you are going into the blue in army terminology, a proper operational instruction must be given. A proper overseas command must be formed. Nothing was done. The air force was commanding its own troops, army its own troops, navy its own troops. Who is there to co-ordinate? Nobody. Everybody went independently, there was no joint command. It was a tri-service operation, air force, navy and army involved, but there was no joint command. There should have been a single command to take this full force across.

Each one on his own?

Everybody did his own and we landed there. And we landed there like a refugee camp I saw in Assam, Chabua, when we were fighting the Chinese. Everybody was just being inducted, nobody knew anything. Anyway, I met the Sri Lankan brigade commander, went to his operations room and he told me what it was all about.

I said, Have you seen the Tigers, LTTE? He said, Never. I sit inside my bunker and at last light I have APCs outside my bunker. Why should I go and see the LTTE? I said, You have been there for a long time. Alright, let us do one thing, you take me to the LTTE, I want to establish contact with them.

We established contact. Kumaran, who got killed in the boat tragedy, he was the Jaffna commander, very nice chap, he came in a car and took me and one of my brigade commanders, who got killed in Srinagar, Fernandes, he got blown off by a mine aimed at the ammunition depot. We both went with Kumaran, Mahathiah was standing outside a bungalow. He said, General, I am not prepared to talk to you. I said, Why? I have come here with a message of peace, goodwill. He said, Unless you bring back Prabhakaran, we will not talk to you. I said, Where is Prabhakaran?

I didn't even know that. They kept the army absolutely in the dark. Prabhakaran was in the Ashoka Hotel in Delhi. Now I know the room number also, 512 or 522. And he was to see the prime minister, before the prime minister went in for the Accord. Anyway he saw him, the PM gave him certain assurances, and before he could say 'Jack Robinson', the prime minister was in Colombo, signing the Accord.

Prabhakaran learnt it on television that the Accord had been signed and they were not party to it. It was one reason why the LTTE never accepted the Accord and India's stand.

If we had taken the LTTE into confidence, they would have known the whole thing, their terms would have been put across to Jayewardane, and the situation would have been different. Dixit was in a great hurry to get the Accord signed, with his name up. He became foreign secretary; he got the award later. But he never studied the mood of the people, especially the JVP. And since he didn't study the mood of the people, there was an attempt to assassinate the prime minister.

We would have lost our prime minister. After signing the Accord, they themselves would have killed him. We didn't know of it. Why did they not tell us? We only saw it on television, newspapers never came.

Shoot Prabhakaran, shoot Mahathiah!

So tell us more about your encounter with the LTTE.

Then I came back from there, from Mahathiah. He gave me a cold drink, I came back. I went straight to [Lieutenant General] Depinder Singh. He had landed. You know his habit. He would take off from Madras, land at 11.30, 12 in the afternoon, take off again by one, and go back to Madras. This was his daily routine. He never came and stayed with me, or saw anything. He used to land in Jaffna and move to Madras. His headquarters had moved to Madras.

All these people used to fly in from Madras to Jaffna and go back. If I was available, they met me. I was never available. I was working from Jaffna town to Ambarai, and I was working from Malaithevu in the east to Manar in the west. I had to hop by helicopter; our troops were all over, all over. So one would start the day early. So whatever it was, it was a sad story.

Then I spoke to Depinder. I said, Prabhakaran must come back if you want me to talk about surrender of weapons. That was the main issue. He picked up the Sri Lankan phone, spoke to Delhi. Then he went back to Madras and pursued the matter. He did a good job.

The next day Prabhakaran's aircraft landed in Jaffna with Prabhakaran and his bodyguards, his wife and children, Kitu, whose leg was blown up, who was his right hand then. The air force pilot wanted a receipt from me saying that I received these souls safely. Then I was told that you will ensure that he reaches safely to Jaffna town and handed over to his people. I said, Fine. We ensured that. We put him and the others in various APCs [armoured personnel carriers] so that if one is blown off, the other is alive. We took them through the Sri Lankan lines to Jaffna.

I told my staff, take a receipt from Mahathiah that he has received Prabhakaran. These are normal formalities. After all, Prabhakaran is not a small man. He is the leader, a charismatic leader of the LTTE. His life is very precious. And a very simple man. No bullshit about him. His wife lived with three saris -- one she wore, one she washed and one was ready to wear. That is all. They never drank Coca-Cola. They offered us Coca-Cola, but never drank it themselves. They drank that goliwala soda.

So that was your first encounter with him?

After all that I said, Prabhakaran, we must meet. He said, General, tomorrow, 11 o'clock. And we landed in the football ground of the Medical College, Jaffna. The entire area was manned by LTTE guns. I got down from the helicopter and looked around. I walked till I met Prabhakaran. He was standing outside a conference hall. He took me to his office. We spoke for five hours. I had to convince him that he should surrender weapons.

And he was convinced?

He gave it in writing. I can show you. The only letter he gave in writing. I flew to Colombo showed it to [then Indian high commissioner to Colombo J N] Dixit. His words: "General what you have achieved the nation will appreciate. And I speak on the behalf of the prime minister of India." These were his words to me at that point of time.

Right. The letter was flashed all over. Surrender ceremony was fixed for 5th of August. Surrender started. Prabhakaran said, I won't come, my political officer will come. Quite right. Atal Bihari tho nahi na jatha hain, minister hein jatha hain [the Indian prime minister doesn't go for surrenders, it is his minister who goes]. So, wo tho nahin aaya [Prabhakaran didn't come]. All the big shots of Sri Lanka were there. Aircraft was there, propellers on.

Athikule [then Sri Lankan defence secretary] said, My orders are that I have to take the first weapon to Colombo and give it to Jayewardane. The surrender took place. A token surrender. Yogi [Prabhakaran's representative] took his pistol and gave it. Then vehicle after vehicle the LTTE came, piled up the whole area with ammunition, guns. Bahut accha tha. Later on, all ran into trouble.

Why?

Because they did not stop arming the EPRLF [Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front]. RAW was doing it, ministry of foreign affairs knew about it, Dixit knew about it, but they couldn't stop it. With the result that handing over arms by 21st of August came to a virtual standstill. And the whole thing took an ugly turn. They started anti-IPKF demonstrations. Who is to answer? The general officer.

My God, thousands of young girls and children used to come in front in whites and later on what used to happen? When they used to come we used to be careful, they used to go to the ground and behind would be Tigers, with guns. That is how they used to take out our people. You couldn't kill them because there were children in the front, women in the front. We were always fighting with our hands tied behind our backs.

Did you tell the army headquarters that the EPRLF was being armed?

Of course.

What was the reaction?

Nothing. No reaction. [Indian army chief] General [K] Sunderji never said anything. In the army headquarters there was a core group headed by defence minister, three chiefs and a few senior officers. They used to take decisions, decisions are given to me by the staff officer. Decisions, if I question, the answer will come, These are orders from higher echelons. Higher echelons, that is the famous answer we got. Higher echelons.

What happened after the surrender came to a standstill?

There was a lot of problems. Ethnic riots broke out. They killed a lot of Sri Lankans, tortured them. Between Tamils, Sinhalese, Tamil Muslims. We did the spadework to stop it. But then the Thilappan fast happened. We tried out best. I went and tried to meet him. LTTE chaps told me, General, the people's emotions are so high that if you appear on the scene they might create a problem. They asked me to stay there. I wanted to go and tell him, Give up. How will he give up?

Unless the assurances given by the prime minister of India are fulfilled I am not giving up, he said. I kept requesting the high commissioner, Come and meet, come and meet, come and meet. He dragged his feet, he delayed it, he didn't come. Finally he came when the man was dead. We should have saved his life, one life.

Then the boat tragedy, I was in a meeting with Mahathiah and Prabhakaran. You know, when we go for a meeting, they used to have two video cameras focused on us, tape recorders, everything. With great difficulty we had a thing like this [he points at this correspondent's recorder]. The poor brigade commander used to keep that recording, then give it to his PA, and then send it to the army headquarters. Whether anybody took action on what our reports were, I don't know.

Even after the riots you were in touch with Prabhakaran?

Oh yes. I never gave up with Prabhakaran. He is a leader of the LTTE. I had all the time to meet him because I knew he was the only man who could solve the problem. Nobody else. Otherwise, you take up arms, and we took arms and look what happened.

And what exactly happened during the boat tragedy in which the LTTE cadres committed mass suicide?

Yes, I was having a meeting with him, I came down from the boat. Mahathiah had come down a little later. Kumaran, the Trincomalee leader, and Pulinderan, the Jaffna leader, they were in the boat. Mahathiah said, General, I want to talk to you. I had a major who could translate. Prabhakaran spoke to me in English many a time. He appeared well-read. He [Mahathiah] said, At all cost these people [who were surrounded by Lankan troops] must be released. IPKF is here to protect the LTTE, and they should not go to Colombo. Otherwise, they will be tortured.

They were 17, four we were able to save. So instead of going to Colombo, we flew them from the naval base to the Jaffna airbase. Now, the tamasha started. There were LTTE, around them were the Indian troops, around us were the Sri Lankan troops, around them were the Indian troops, around them the APCs of Sri Lanka. Now tell me, if you try to fight, there would have been a conflict between the Sri Lankan and Indian troops. Of course, the orders were very clear to the [Sri Lankan] brigade commander, otherwise get into the helicopter and reach Colombo, relinquish the command. Wo tho haath jhod tha tha, ke mein mara ja raha hum kaam kaam kar ke.

Anyway I was told, you go to Trincomalee and prevent reinforcement of Trincomalee by Sri Lankans. Deny the airport to them. I reached Trincomalee, and we took over the control tower, commandos were deployed, no troop movement was allowed. It created lot of ill-feeling with the Sri Lankan troops.

In the meantime, I had said that it was high time that Dixit, who was on leave in Delhi, go to Colombo, and mediate their release in the boat. Depinder Singh also flew, I generally had my hat off to him but he was not a strong man. I needed a commander like Maneckshaw or Rolli who could stand up to the government at the cost of their own service.

So how did the boat tragedy end?

I was guarding the airfield. And all of them came, Depinder, Dixit and some other staff officers. They landed there, they could not convince Jayewardane, and he was too clever for them. Too clever. I cannot have that much say in my country? he asked them. You are given amnesty to them, fulfill it, but these politicians, they couldn't. Depinder next day flew into Trincomalee and told me, Hand over, let them go and do whatever they want. Let us go and have a cup of tea with them, with the three chiefs. They were staring at me: This man created all the problems.

Anyway, we had a cup of tea. At 2 o'clock I get a message, why is the G-o-C IPKF interfering in the 'constitutional activities of Sri Lanka? These were the exact words. This message came all the way from the force headquarters in Madras. And, 'Please lift your siege in Jaffna, let the Sri Lankans do what they want to.'

I was upset. I was in Trincomalee; they were in Jaffna, my staff officers, everybody was taking charge of everything. I spoke to my Colonel G S Hoshiar Singh. He said, Saab ea hukhum aya hein. I said, Chod do, aap tho ye mili gaya tho. Chod gaya tho mare jayenge saren. He said, Anyway we have got ambulances, cars, 13, 14 of them, the hospital is all geared up to flush poison.

Our troops withdrew, the Sri Lankan troops charged, and these fellows swallowed cyanide. Those who chewed, they died on the spot, those who swallowed were saved. This created chaos in the Indo-Sri Lankan entity. That the Indian army, IPKF, could not save them. Now this man blames me. This Dixit. The general left them off. Bhai, mene kya bola?

What was Dixit's approach to your attempts to buy peace with LTTE?

Once he said, Shoot Prabhakaran, shoot Mahathiah. I said, Sorry I don't do that. Those were his orders. When they came to me at 12 o'clock at night for some work, he said shoot them. General, I have told you what I have ordered. I said, I don't take your orders. And we are meeting under a white flag, you don't shoot people under white flag.

So who messed up during the boat tragedy?

The responsibility is entirely on the diplomats, entirely on the army headquarters. Otherwise, for me to save those people was no problem. I would have just put them into few APCs and smuggled them out. Sri Lankans tho dekthe raha jathe [The Sri Lankans would have just looked on]. We would have taken them out, we had all the troops there. No problem.

What did you feel when the orders came to leave the LTTE men to their fate?

I felt terribly bad about it. Because Kumaran's wedding was attended by one of my brigadiers. Pulinderan was also there. A dreadful man. Wanted for 34 murders by Ranatunga. Every day he used to tell me, General, mujhePulinderan de do. [give me Pulinderan] " I used to tell him, Pulinderan nahi detha, Pulinderan mere saath mere Jeep mein jhatha hain [I won't give you Pulinderan, he will travel with me in my Jeep]. And they [the LTTE] were very cordial. They would take me anywhere. I had lot of time for them.

Specifically, did Dixit fail?

Dixit had the backing of the prime minister of India. He had a free hand in the affairs of Sri Lanka. He could have thumbed the table and told Jayewardane, sorry you have to do it. And if you don't do it, you know what the results will be. There will be riots, ethnic killings. Dixit could have done it. There was no question about Jayewardane not listening to him. Dixit may be a high commissioner, but he was a high commissioner of great standing. When you have the backing of the boss, you will be on the top of the world. You can make any statement to these people.

Nobody sounded even a Last Post for our dead in Colombo

Could you tell us precisely what happened once the 17 Tigers swallowed cyanide?

Riots all over. The entire Jaffna was red. We had to move, take up defences. We had no defence stores. Remember, we had no defence stores. We went with rifles. We did not have supporting weapons, we did not have our defence stores... barbed by mines, pickets around your positions so that nobody assaults the infantry without a stop. We were in naked barracks. I had stopped even tents, because aircraft as it is were few.

We carried our weapons and ammunition. We improvised wire around us, put electricity on that so that nobody crosses over at night. We had to improve everything, there was nothing till the war started and things started coming. And all the time they wanted us to fraternise with the LTTE. All Madras battalions were flown into Sri Lanka. So that we had more Tamil-speaking people. So that we spoke to the LTTE, spread the message of goodwill, We are here to protect you. Surrender your weapons.

They were no fools. They knew that the Sri Lankan police was totally ineffective. Police tho bil kul kadam thi naa? [The Sri Lankan police was completely finished, na?] If they surrendered their weapons who would protect them?

Then they said, No, we will give 20 rifles for the protection of Prabhakaran, 15 for Mahathiah... Jayewardane himself said this. And Prabhakaran knew he could not survive with 15 people. He used to have three-tier security around him. If Prabhakaran is here, here [the innermost ring] will be the suicide people who will sacrifice their lives. The next ring will be the fighters and the third ring will be for early warning. We could never lay hands on him even during the war once he left Jaffna. I got him only once where he said, Now, I am not going to survive, all commanders are independent and will take over... When we did that bloody para drop.

You mean the attack in the university campus?

Yeah. That was also a tragedy.

But what exactly happened?

What happened? I planned with nine helicopters. I needed nine helicopters to land the troops. When the hour came, when the flight had taken off to mark the landing zone, the next flight had taken off to land the people to secure the landing zone, I am told, Sorry, helicopters are not available hereafter.

Who said that?

The air force. Why are helicopters not available? They have gone to the east, there is some exercise going on. But my requirement was nine helicopters, it was accepted by [Lieutenant General] Depinder Singh. [Lieutenant General A S] Kalkat had confirmed that your plans are approved. And now you are saying the helicopters are not available? It is too late!

It was too late for an operation: half on the ground, half in the air. Bad luck. But that chap of a major who landed there in the third flight... Five flights went in, he landed in the third. Out of the five, one had a hole in it, so it never came back. So paanch ke char reh gaye next time ke liye. Then, wo keh the hai, saab kal subah ration kel liye kaise jaayenge?

Anyway, this major of the 17 Sikh Light Infantry, he did not dig down. In army the moment you land, the first requirement is to give yourself protection. So that you can fire your weapon and don't get shot. Whereas the commandos got into the barracks. They told the chap, You also come into the barracks. He said, No, no, my commanding officer is going to come. So I must meet him here. At that time Prabhakaran said, I have had it, I am not going to survive.

We had surrounded his headquarters. All the commandos were behind the back. And we were very happy because this intercept was taken by the Sri Lankans. The Sri Lankans were our interceptors, incidentally. We had no interception set-up, everyday, every morning ithni [draws a long line in the air] intercept athi thee. And we had a good rapport with the Sri Lankan people; they were ready to give us all intercepts.

The Indian soldiers were killed after they entered the campus?

Yes, they never went into the campus. They went to the football ground. Jahan ye pahle ho tha tha open mein. Prabhakaran came there and kicked one chap. Let him survive to tell the story, he said. All the others were killed. And much hungama -- so many people are dead, 24 people are dead. So what? Ask me, so what? I said, so what? Do you go to fight a war with no casualties? What did you do in Kargil?

Thousand of people were killed. So many officers were killed. And knowing that they will be killed and slaughtered, they still went up to 18,000 feet through one path where you can kill a person by throwing a stone at him. And here you are telling me casualties are so much? I took no notice of it. I said casualty tho honi hai. If it was a success, it would have been a success, what a great success! Prabhakaran captured! It is unfortunate that persons were killed.

Why did you in the first place carry out the operation without proper intelligence inputs?

This one? You see, this is also great. Ye athe the Dilli se [It used to come from Delhi]. All these. The [army] chief came, he said do something. Something must be achieved. He had pink papers issued by the government, top secret. He gave me to read as if I was doing a fast-reading exercise. I was reading that we must adopt 'hard options'. Depinder was standing next to us. Then we went to the airport to see off the chief, who was going to Trincomalee. By that time another division was brought to Trincomalee under R P Singh. All these time I was single, now there were two generals. He was [in charge of] Trincomalee downwards, I was [ in charge of] Vavoonia this side.

So we went to see him off. So Depinder said, Harry, now do something. I explained the strategy which I and my officer Hoshiar Singh, a para-commando, best in the country, trained in US, had drawn up. We had discussed the plan. He had commanded the troops, he said they will do it. I was convinced logistically and operationally. Go. Start at first light so that we had the whole night to fight the operation.

I explained it all to General Depinder Singh. He says, Okay, go ahead. He gets into his aircraft, back to Madras and from there Kalkat rings up. He says your requirement of aircraft is approved. He was staff officer in Southern Command. He had nothing to do with Jaffna.Wo tho iski kismat thi woh ban gaya woh. Otherwise that man...Anyway I won't talk about that.

You were worried after the boat tragedy?

One should not worry about this and that. That is OK. The boat incident was a diplomatic failure, diplomatic-political failure. The IPKF had nothing to do with it. I can write in bold letters that even if an open court is held people will talk about it. Operations, we had planned and we had executed them. But our aircraft support at the last minute was called off. In place of nine helicopters, we were given five and four in the second sorties. So we had to ground operations to link with that. That upset the whole thing, we suffered casualty.

Did you protest with the air force?

No protests in war. If you had an overall command, if you had air force, army, and navy under you, you would have sorted them out there and then. There was no single command. They were all fighting their own battles. A piddling little squadron leader will turn up and say, Sorry sir, aircraft not available, helicopter not available. How can you do that? We are fighting overseas. We are away from the country.

Did you bring this to the notice of your chief?

Of course. Sunderji was well-informed. Sunderji, Depinder everybody knew about it. But they didn't have the courage to speak out to the press. Why did they not speak to the press regularly? When we were fighting in Lanka, why was press briefing not done, like during the Kargil time? Roz raat ko bhashan ho jatha tha, yeh ho gayi, ye ho gayi. Why wasn't it done in Sri Lanka?

When five fellows sacrificed their lives in Kargil they were given a ceremonial reception in Delhi and a burial. Nobody sounded even a Last Post for our dead in Colombo. I brought the bodies in one of the aircraft to Gwalior, then I was told no bodies should go to Gwalior. They should all be cremated there only.

Oh, it was told to you?

Of course. By this gentleman Mr Kalkat. He was in command headquarters. And Khajuria, his boss. They said last rites should be done there only, ashes should be send home. I said, Yeh tho Gwalior ke troops hai, inko bodies jaane tho [These are the troops from Gwalior, let their bodies go home]. The sentiments of the parents... Nobody sounded even a Last Post. Nobody shed tears for them... in Kargil because we were fighting in our own country and there we were fighting in an alien country.

The bodies [of our soldiers] were burnt by the LTTE. What they used to do, they used to put a tyre around the body, fill up the tyre with kerosene and put it on fire. And tell us, X is being burnt, please go and take it from the centre of the town. That kind of treatment they used to give to our bodies. When one body was mutilated in Kargil, what hungama it created! Same thing, here the troops were just burnt alive.

All that because you had no idea of the LTTE?

Only that we didn't know their dispossession. Their caches. They had buried all their weapons, they had buried all their ammunition, they had buried all their supplies, they buried their money. And they knew where to dig. Their caches were all over. Not like us. We had a long administration tail. Ek aadmi ke puri bhi jaana hai, Hindustan se bakri aam bhi jaana he. Ye bhi jaana, woh bhi jaane. Even live goats were being sent. You can't fight a war like this.

How was it that your division was chosen for the operation?

54 Division was being trained for air landing operations. It was the assault division. We were sitting in Secunderabad. Probably our selection was due to being the nearest to Sri Lanka. Otherwise, knowing the terrain in Sri Lanka, it warranted a division from East, 8 Div, 57 Div, those divisions should have come. Sure enough, by April all those divisions were in Sri Lanka. They were flown down from Mizoram, from Nagaland. Where was the problem with India? They could have been flown even from Dimapur. Our division was not trained to fight jungle warfare. Our division was being given training to re-equip itself, or reorganise itself, as an air landed division, or assault air division or airborne division, something like that.

India should not have withdrawn

So from word go it was flawed?

They should have had a proper war game. They should have known which troops to send. They should have known the terrain in Sri Lanka. Not that we rescinded it, we were pretty happy. I had in my mind that we would have the settlement by December and be back in Secunderabad. But then the whole critical political failure. We had no political backing. There should have had a civil-military liaison office. They should have come from the beginning. All IAS, IFS officers came much later. All political problems, it is not for the army to handle. We don't handle political problems, we only fight.

At the end of it all, when you were transferred out in an year, you felt humiliated?

No. Why should I feel humiliated? No question. I never felt guilty. It is this [then Indian high commissioner to Colombo J N] Dixit. When I refused his orders it was Dixit who went and spoke to the chief. A Sri Lankan author has written in his book. I walked into Dixit's office in Delhi, I said, You have done this? No Harry, I haven't done it. Come, I will come with you to the chief. I said, the chief was on the Chinese border. But he never went. He told me a lie. The same man who told me, What you have done the nation will appreciate and I speak on the behalf of the prime minister!

How was General Sunderji as chief?

He was with us in the Staff College. Jab log army chief ban jathi hain, they have high hopes. Ambassador ban jayenge, governor ban jayenge. They have a carrot hanging. Sunderji as lieutenant colonel [in the Staff College], one could say, he is The Man. A genius, very well-read. But he fell under the impressions of the government, Maneckshaw didn't give in to Indira Gandhi. He said, I am not ready to fight in the Bangladesh war, I need time. I have to re-deploy my troops. He chose his time in December.

Should the IPKF deployment have been delayed?

The IPKF should have waited. When they said hard options, what should have happened? I should have got instructions, then there would have been discussions. I would have presented my plans, I would have made my bid for additional troops. It should have been flown in, we would have regrouped. And then launched the plan. Where was the hurry? What was the hurry, I don't understand. This was nothing that we were losing. We were holding on to our land.

They pushed us like this. It was chaos at the airfield, how troops were being landed. Commanders kahin,, troops kahim. Hatya hai nahin, guns hai nahin. Unless an infantry is self-reliant, it can't fight wars. Infantry must fight with its weapons. What he gets from artillery, what he gets from air force, what he gets from armoured corps is complimentary. To enhance the firepower of the infantry.

The political system pushed the Indian army into the furnace?

Pushed the Indian army.

After you left that command, did you face any harassment?

No, no. Nobody could harass me. I was better off than the chief. I was senior advisor to Ratan Tata for six years. Ratan Tata just picked me up.

But people humiliated you?

Nobody. Even Dixit did not dare to talk to me. Mein to uska patloon utaroonga [I will take off his pants]. Really, I have not forgiven him. He has done the greatest damage.

Your bosses failed to defend you?

That is why I said I wanted a commander like Maneckshaw, or Rolli. They were strong chaps. Unfortunately, they are gone. That is the kind of people you need. I saved all my brigade commanders. A week I was away, they sacked brigade commanders, sacked battalion commanders. The moment I landed at the airport, I was given a list. I said, They will not leave Jaffna. They will be back in their command immediately. And they were back in their command.

I could have been a national hero by sacking all my brigade commanders, all my battalion commanders. In saalo ne kami nahin kiya. Me tho inko dodatha rahe, in logo ne aage tho nahin chala [These people did not work. I kept on driving them, but they would not move forward], I could have said lies. That is what many people do. They could not go out of my area. Bechare, they all retired in the same rank, they were not promoted. But at least they were not humiliated. And I went and visited them in each battalion and praised them in front of the soldiers.

Was the withdrawal rightly timed?

The IPKF should have never withdrawn. Why should they be withdrawn? Why they got withdrawn? Because [then Sri Lankan prime minister] Premadasa wanted them to withdraw. At what cost have we come back? We lost 1,500 to 2,000 people. All the weapons we imported, we handed them over to the EPRLF.

He had no business to do that, [Lieutenant General] Kalkat. The IPKF boarded the ships, the EPRLF was annihilated by the LTTE, and all the weapons were taken away. EPRLF was put into a ship and rehabilitated in some island off Orissa. They deserted Jaffna. And Jaffna is back with the LTTE.

This fellow was the commander on the ground, he should have convinced V P Singh. People had lost their children. This chap should have rescinded. Aaj tak tho peace hua nahin Sri Lanka mein. We should have stayed on, we should have ensured that elections took place, we should have ensured that an interim provincial government was formed within the constitution of Sri Lanka, and was administered by the Tamils. Aren't you doing that in India? We could have done that. And left peacefully, honourably.

Why are you not given security though you are high on the LTTE's hit list?

The Intelligence Bureau people came, investigated the whole thing. I said, no thanks, I don't need security.

But you asked for a pistol, and it was rejected by the army?

I think I should write a personal letter to [army chief General V P ] Malik that I be given a pistol. They should have given a pistol at least. For personal protection you need a pistol, I am not going to sell it. They can put an embargo, that it is only for lifetime.

You have your children in the army?

No, no. Thank God. I have only one son, he is vice-president HRD with Netsell360.

Will the fight in Sri Lanka go on?

They are going to fight. We have parallels in Nagaland. Troops were inducted in 1957, now how many years? Still, fighting...roz mar jatha hain [Every day they are getting killed]. This will carry on. The LTTE is not a simple soul to crack. A hard nut. Lead by Prabhakaran, a highly-motivated man. He has only one aim, Eelam.

When India went in, they didn't want them to win independence outside the constitution because it had problems in Kashmir etc. They didn't want Trincomalee to become Diego Garcia, because there were oil wells there. I don't see any peace in the near future.

More than ever, Eelam seems a reality now

Major General Ashok K Mehta

Blaming the Indian Peace Keeping Force for the political and diplomatic failures of New Delhi that led to its pullout from Sri Lanka is quite reprehensible. The Indian government caved in to Sri Lankan pressure and made scapegoats of its soldiers.

The IPKF was invited there by the president of Sri Lanka. His successor stabbed the force in the back by joining hands with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. The Greek tragedy was re-enacted with the LTTE back-stabbing the Sri Lankans: first [then Sri Lankan prime minister R] Premadasa, then [the current PM, Chandrika] Kumartunga.

The latter, having survived a Tamil human bomb attack, is now being led up the garden path -- to the Norway-brokered peace talks with the LTTE. Given their track record, the Oslo talks are unlikely to succeed.

On the ground in the north the Tigers have pushed the Sri Lankan army against the wall. Their attacks came precisely when optimism over the Norwegian peace talks was building, and exactly as Sri Lankan intelligence had predicted: on February 16, 1999, against the mighty Elephant Pass garrison, the strategic causeway linking the mainland with Jaffna peninsula. It is that pass that keeps Sri Lanka united and is at the heart of preventing Eelam.

The Sri Lankan army was tipped off two weeks in advance. Therefore, it beat back the attackers, inflicting heavy casualties but losing a helicopter. These were not the first attacks this season on the Elephant Pass, the most valued and coveted real estate of this war.

The military situation in the north is precarious. Chances of holding on to Elephant Pass are rated 50:50, with some outlying defences already lost to the Tigers a month ago. The LTTE is no longer just a guerrilla force using terrorism to multiply its military edge. It has turned from a hit-and-run outfit into a conventional force fighting fixed battles.

During six days in November last year, it recaptured ground lost in the Wanni sector in over 18 months. The SLA regards this as its worst-ever debacle.

The loss of Elephant Pass could become Sri Lanka's Dien Bien Phu, the strategic battle the French lost to the Vietnamese half a century ago. A 17,000-strong SLA division is holding Elephant Pass. In 1991, soon after the LTTE sabotaged peace talks with the Premadasa government, it laid siege on the Elephant Pass, then occupied by just 800 soldiers. For nearly five weeks, the LTTE used unsuccessfully conventional tactics to dislodge the army and learnt the lesson that a guerrilla force cannot win a conventional battle.

The SLA victory came after it launched an amphibious assault at Vettilaikerni on the coast 10 km north-east of the pass. It was SLA's finest hour and the worst defeat for the LTTE. That was nearly 10 years ago.

Since then, the military balance and equation of firepower have kept changing as results on the ground have shown. So have tactics and weapon systems. The string of spectacular defeats suffered by the army, notably at Mullaittivu and Kilinochchi, and more recently along the central highway tell one side of the story. The SLA's capture of Jaffna says the other.

Going by the rate of desertion and demotivation in the Sri Lankan army and the mutinous behaviour of its ranks, the military appears to be at the end of its tether. The recent rout and reversal of Operation Sure Victory has confirmed the LTTE's claim that it was not defeated at Jaffna but had only carried out a tactical withdrawal. At the time the government had ignored intelligence reports that its victory at Jaffna was hollow as the LTTE had escaped in order to fight another day.

For the third Eelam war, the LTTE reorganised its forces, training and tactics. Most of the heavy guns and new weapons in its possession are part of its war booty recovered from the SLA. The fear of the LTTE taking Elephant Pass and then Jaffna is real. If this happens, it could prove catastrophic for a leadership itself tormented by perpetual fear of the suicide bomber. This doomsday scenario comes easily after one saw SLA defences north of Vavuniya collapse and crumble.

The LTTE waited four years to be fully prepared before it struck back in strength in the north. It gauged correctly that the SLA was fatigued and over-stretched. No one has forgotten [LTTE chief Velupillai] Prabhakaran's vow to retake Jaffna soon after losing it. The pledge has to be taken more seriously than the routine pledges taken by Sri Lankan leaders to finish the LTTE and end the war.

What after Jaffna? Trincomalee, maybe? Perhaps Batticaloa. Now more than ever before, Eelam seems a horrible reality with disastrous consequences for the neighbourhood.

Just above the Elephant Pass is Jaffna. It is under the absolute control of the SLA. The surface calm here would belie this worst-case contingency. Major General Chula Seneviratne is Jaffna's new general officer commanding. Last month he replaced General Jayakode, who died of heart-attack days after taking charge.

The battle for the hearts and minds of Jaffna's 500,000 Tamils continues in full swing. The LTTE is horrified the government is succeeding in this. Nearly 60 per cent of the Jaffna administration is in the charge of security forces, with the reminder in the hands of the civilian government agent. In 1996, the Jaffna development plan and programme was made with considerable foreign aid including India's. Many of the 30 big projects had to be abandoned as funds dried up. What is left its smaller schemes, courtesy resident donors.

Local business and small scale industry operate normally despite power cuts, inadequate transportation and the fact that it can take two-and-a-half days to get from Jaffna to Colombo. The ICRC runs a steamer services from Jaffna to Trincomalee. Commercial flights have been suspended after LTTE shot down a Lion Air aircraft recently over Elephant Pass.

Besides the International Committee of Red Cross, German, Dutch, Norwegian and British aid workers have their offices in Jaffna. Some operate through local agents. Jaffna Tamils recall with envy the days of plenty when the IPKF was there. The economy was booming. Today there are as many as 40 jewellery shops and a dozen utensils shops.

There is no dearth of money there. Only opportunities to spend it. Salaries in Jaffna are three times as much they are in Colombo. Foreign remittances for each family who has a member abroad is an average Rs 25,000 to 30,000 per month. Every family tries to keep one person overseas.

There are 490 functioning schools in Jaffna with about 120,000 students. The dropout rate which used to be 20,000 in 1996 has fallen to just 3,000. The historic Jaffna library destroyed accidentally by the air force has not yet been reconstructed due to local politics. There are six banks that handle the currency and loan markets.

There is no interference in their functioning by militant groups as was the case earlier. The law and order situation in Jaffna is the best anywhere in Sri Lanka because the army with assistance from the local police is in charge. It should be the other way round and officially is.

There are no card-carrying LTTE cadres in Jaffna. Nor are there any armed activists. But the LTTE manages to collect a parallel tax and create incidents at will.

These are all part of the bright side of Jaffna. The bad news is that some of the 50,000 small farmers cannot till their land as nearly 12,000 hectares is under the control of security forces. Similarly, only half the 20,000 fishing families can fish due to security restrictions. Although food and vegetables are plentiful, paddy is in short supply. Young men, torn between joining the LTTE and going abroad, are also in short supply.

In its most insensitive reprisal after reclaiming Jaffna, the SLA bulldozed the LTTE's graveyard commemorating its martyrs. Yet, on November 27, 1999, on the LTTE's Heroes' Day, oil lamps were lit mysteriously at the memorial. People say that when the LTTE returns to Jaffna, at least 1,000 Tamils who consorted with the government will be executed. The announcement has been made.

Jaffna is suffering from autarchy. It is living in a bubble created by remittances. Assured and regular sustenance can come only from development of infrastructure and opening up Jaffna which is blockaded by both sides.

Unfortunately, it is in a state of siege from within and without. Worse, a short fuse separates Jaffna from the Elephant Pass, also under siege and perched on a tinder box.

The LTTE will try desperately to further improve the military balance in its favour before joining the Oslo talks. The SLA too has to redeem its honour before that.

That, then, is the Catch 22 to Oslo.

Major General Ashok K Mehta, a frequent contributor to these pages, served with the IPKF in Sri Lanka.

Concluded

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