How Sri Lanka defeated the LTTE

[Bill Moore]

The term defeat is relative, thus it is used here only to refer to the battlefield defeat that the LTTE clearly were handed. It will take several months before we know if the defeat is complete. The LTTE diaspora is alive and well and they have already vowed to continued the fight. There are also LTTE splinter groups that were not under Prabakaran's sway that can now emerge as dominate players over time if the Sri Lankan government does not rapidly and satisfactorly address the thousands of Tamils displaced by the fighting.

Recent articles written by those who appear to have good access indicate that several factors contributed to the defeat to the LTTE, but the following seemed to be essential:

1. Strong Sri Lankan political resolve
2. External support primarily from China, both military and political
3. Joint operations
a. Naval operations to isolate the LTTE by sinking their supply ships
b. Air operations to conduct deep attack opertions (and close air support)
c. Special opertions forces conducting raids deep in LTTE territory
d. Most important militarily large scale, multi-front ground offensive where Sri Lankan Soldiers took and held ground.
4. Important split within the LTTE ranks in 2004 that the LTTE never recovered from.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8063409.stm

Today, Sri Lanka is among the few nations that can say it has successfully quelled a nearly three-decade insurgency by military means.

This quote along is worthy of discussion.

So many factors have contributed to the success of the Sri Lankan forces. There was a clear aim and mandate from the political level to the official level and to the military level to destroy the LTTE at any cost.

Political will and mandate

They also had international political support from China. China helped keep the UN off Sri Lanka's back, while Sri Lanka conducted aggressive military operations. These operations were viewed by many in the West as inhumane (what war isn't?) and perhaps outside the bounds of what is considered legal by the international community. It can be argued that ending the war is more humane in the long run than tying one's hands behind their back and dragging the conflict out for years. Perhaps this is a wake up call as to the true nature of war, and why so many western countries recently congratulated Sri Lanka on their success?

A massive recruitment drive for the armed forces was launched (it increased from about 80,000 to more than 160,000 personnel). New weapons - including fighter jets, artillery guns and multi-barrel rocket launchers - were bought from countries like China, Pakistan and Russia, and new military strategies and tactics were evolved.

Sustained military build up

Small teams of commandoes were sent behind enemy lines to carry out attacks against rebel leaders and key defence lines.

Disruption, destroy their sense of confidence

The military also started to stretch them thin by opening up a number of fronts in the north.

Perfect application of conventional forces to take and hold the ground.

The Tamil Tigers had no answer to the bombing missions by air force jets.

Asymmetric mismatches are always desired.

The Sri Lankan military juggernaut cruised ahead despite mounting civilian casualties. The rebels thought the international community, especially neighbouring India, would intervene looking at the civilian suffering and bring about a ceasefire in the final stages. When that did not happen, they ran out of options

The LTTE was isolated politically and then defeated militarly.

the following is an interesting article on China's support (note the turn around in the fight started after 2004 long after most western countries withdrew their support from Sri Lanka, so China, Pakistan and Russian apparently made the biggest contributions in foreign aid and training).

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/new...cle6297463.ece

Chinese support crucial to Sri Lankan victory over Tamils

Sri Lanka’s imminent victory over the Tamil Tigers owes much to a badly needed injection of arms and aid from China, as well as robust Chinese support at the United Nations, ever since the Government began its new offensive in 2007.

Beijing appears, however, to have increased arms sales significantly to Sri Lanka since 2007, when the US suspended military aid over human rights issues.

China's contributions were not altruistic, they want access to Sri Lankan ports so they can protect their trade lanes. They upped their aid to Sri Lanka from a few millions dollars to one billion dollars last year which must have enabled Sri Lanka to sustain their offensive against the LTTE.

In addition, China has provided crucial diplomatic support in the UN Security Council, blocking efforts to put Sri Lanka on the agenda.