The supreme skill - winning over the Tamils – to defeat the LTTE

By Lalin Fernando
Fighting to win 100 victories in 100 battles is not the supreme skill. However to break the enemies’ resistance without fighting is the supreme skill" (Sun Tzu – circa 400-320 BC)

What is it that keeps the LTTE fighting despite completely losing its hold on the east and its eastern commander and cadres due to respectively the unrelenting actions of the defense forces and mass desertion by its eastern cadres while being restricted to just 5% of its claimed land? Add to this that the western international community (IC), amongst whom one million Tamils live, declared them terrorists, froze their bank accounts and began prosecuting their ‘collectors’. It must be something more than just their fighting skills and spirit or the very lucrative Diaspora funding or any other thing. It has to be their unbroken will power that comes from a deep belief in their cause and a courage that defies death. To defeat the LTTE the state whatever else it does must break that very will power by attacking and destroying the support, faith and confidence that sustains it.

It was not always clear as it must be now that the key to the state defeating the LTTE was by winning over the hearts and minds of the Tamils and thus isolating the LTTE. Without the support of the Tamils, the LTTE’s will power cannot be sustained. Defeating it in battle and destroying its international funding and supply chain will help to erode its morale and spirit considerably but will not stop it from continuing to fight. The state’s focus however appears to be to convince the IC, but not the affected Tamils, that while pursuing its military options it does not humiliate or discriminate against the Tamils. Even so very serious allegations are made of abductions and other violations of the human rights (HR) of the Tamils. The state has thus handed over a global propaganda bonanza to the LTTE and its local allies who look forward to deliverance by the IC by way of severe, mainly economic, strictures on the GoSL with the threat of direct intervention. Not surprisingly most Tamils believe the issue is still in the balance and are constrained to keep their own counsel.

The LTTE cannot sustain the high level of casualties it suffers for ever. The trapped Wanni Tamils, their only source of reinforcement, are steadily abandoning the dwindling areas controlled by it. It has to rely on its hard core and child cadres, many of them women to prop up its strength. All its fighters are either abducted or conscripted unlike the state forces which are purely voluntary, something that many tend to overlook when forecasting the future. Very many Tamils have already been decimated by the LTTE for refusing to accept its leadership. Karuna must have known that the LTTE would in time want to annihilate the easterners like the North Vietnamese army did to their spearhead, the Vietcong, after defeating the US backed Saigon government. Hitler did the same to his possible rivals like Roehm after the Reichstag fire. Fifty percent (400,000) of Tamils in the Jaffna district alone have already fled from the LTTE in the 25 years of fighting. This does not include 50,000 Muslims who were evicted overnight. Attrition in the ongoing conventional battles will cause further critical manpower shortages for the LTTE. However its ability to wage guerilla war and mount terrorist attacks can be sustained for as long as its will power remains unbroken and especially while its suicide cadres exist. They make the LTTE though considerably weakened, a still very formidable force. To believe otherwise is to fantasize. It unfailingly gives us reminders of its vapourizing suicide prowess. That power is as lethal as a nuclear deterrent. This is the reality. The LTTE threat cannot simply be willed away by politicians making hysterical claims to the media.

Mao Tse Dung said that ‘power comes out of the barrel of the gun’ but he more pointedly and importantly also said that to win in guerilla warfare one must drain the water (Tamils) from the pool in which the fish (LTTE) swim. He like all great leaders understood that without the support of all the people, victory in guerilla war would be unattainable. Maybe our leaders believe that the support of the majority of the people would be enough. However without the firm support of the Tamils for whom the LTTE says it is fighting, this war is unlikely to end.

Another fallacy is to believe that this conflict is a continuation of political intercourse by other means. It is not. This is about 2 cultures which have over 2000 years kept warm a shared antagonistic history mixed with bloody myths and legends which emphasize their differences, yet they share a great deal more in common. Despite the efforts of those who dare (and dared) to cross the lines it has been very difficult to consign these differences to where they belong –history. The problem will not be solved as long as the people concerned selfishly and supinely allow politicians to exploit these differences. By doing so they perpetuate the agony that they have suffered for 25 years.

The LTTE is and was a racist, totalitarian organization and can claim no place in a democracy. It claimed it was the sole representative of the Tamils which some politicians and a prejudiced IC used to regurgitate until very recently but Chilcott from St James has belatedly realized and openly admitted the LTTE is not and cannot be the ‘sole rep’. Its pretensions at wishing to negotiate, which earlier seduced the IC, no longer mesmerizes the general public. Minister Douglas Devananda, a former rebel, who has survived regular attempts at assassination by the LTTE, puts it more succinctly when he says that "even if you could achieve such a feat as brushing the teeth of a cobra, ploughing the sea or squeezing an elephant through the eye of a needle, you cannot make peace with the LTTE". However it still does not mean that a peaceful resolution to the problem should not be pursued.

Unlike the Jewish Diaspora which vowed "tomorrow Jerusalem" every day for nearly 800 years, the vast majority of Diaspora Tamils after 25 years of war, especially the younger generation, have little or no desire to return to SL even though their parents still give monetary and moral support to the LTTE. The Tamils of and in Colombo who have not done too badly for themselves, sacrificing little have no desire to live in a fascist state which extols and offers its unique gift- martyrdom. Yet even though they are 40% of the population of Colombo, the Tamils are loath to speak up mainly through fear of the long reach of the LTTE and their natural loyalty to members of their own community who are ‘fighting’ for them and exclusion from the decision making process of the state as to their own future. Well known Tamil leaders like Mr. Anandasangaree who has to be the bravest man in SL and the outspoken and blunt Professor Hoole who for his views on the villainy but not only of the LTTE, have unequivocally said that the LTTE and not the SL armed forces will destroy the remaining Tamils of SL.

LTTE survival tactics too have seriously eroded its self proclaimed posture as the saviour of the Tamils. The Tamils are aware that it is the Tamil children less Prabakaran’s and women but not the LTTE hard core cadres in the Wanni, who make the greatest sacrifice. They are used as expendable screens in human wave attacks and female suicide bombings. A movement that makes a pact and virtue of suicide, a negation of the human spirit, must lead itself to the grave. But the Tamils in general without choosing alternate leaders, have not dared to take a stand. The very comfortably well off Colombo Tamils, must now be encouraged to come out of their luxury bunkers and take their places in the FDLs by speaking out if they wish the war to end so that at least the children of this country might prosper. They must not stay on the side lines any longer, silently watching the LTTE destroy every chance for peace whenever it surfaces, use poor women and children in the Wanni as human shields and murder democratic Tamil political leaders or ‘moderates’ as Chilcott calls them They must be aware that the LTTE’s plan to deal with them later for not taking part in the struggle will not be painless.

Winning over the remaining SL Tamils, here and abroad will be the winning factor. Simply ‘developing’ the east and the north however well that is done, will not be enough, unless those areas are as free as the south to administer themselves and develop in the way its wants. The anti Syrian politicians in the Lebanon who on being compelled to be state guests for their own safety in the luxurious International Hotel said it best when they remarked that though they were well fed and looked after but did not have the liberty to leave their hotel, they were no better off than prisoners. Who would want to live under those conditions? The Tamils wherever they are, like the Muslims and the Sinhalese, must be able to have equal administrative power in the provinces they outnumber others. If steps are taken rapidly to initiate meaningful steps, the Tamils who are sitting on the fence will be encouraged to get off it onto the side of the state. The acid test however will be to persuade the TNA, the 22 proxies of the LTTE. When that happens it will be a decisive and mortal blow to the LTTE .At the moment being afraid of the merciless justice of the LTTE, the TNA 22 are soulless.

"Results of war in the last resort are an affair of body not mind, of physical force not plans or intelligence. …There is no known example in military history of a weaker force achieving victory in a protracted conflict". (Intelligence in War - John Keegan). It is known that in war however well one side performs it is the side that has the endurance to slog it out, bigger troop strength, demographic advantages and resources that will prevail. This is something the Tamils should take cognizance of when looking at the future without relying on the warped dreams of a megalomaniac and manna from the IC. The LTTE believed that endurance of the government, affected by pressures of the IC together with political bickering and combat difficulties, would run out. The hypnotic power of suggestion made the state doubt that which seems so obvious now, that having over 70% of the population on its side, it could never be held to ransom by at most 3-5 % of its people to hand over anything. According to the very reliable University Teachers’ for Human Rights, Jaffna (UTHR) communiqués the people in the Wanni curse the LTTE silently as they remove the dead bodies of their conscripted children who had been used as machine gun fodder by the LTTE. Thamilchelvam's death brought on no mass demos. Few in the Wanni readily express themselves for fear of extreme reaction by the LTTE pistol gangs and the Gestapo like justice there but it does not mean they support them. They wait the day of liberation from the LTTE after making sacrifices and suffering deep despair for 25 years such as seeing their children being abducted and their loved ones being conscripted to die so that Prabakaran can succeed. Their liberation will come when the Tamils finally desert the Wanni in great numbers and the Colombo Tamils step up and toe the line in the affairs of state. As the LTTE’s dream of eelam evaporates its will power will crack. It will then be up to Prabakaran to take Hitler’s remedy.


"In the conduct of war it is better to take the whole state than destroy it; it is better to capture the enemies’ army intact than to destroy it". (Sun Tzu). Surely this is the time and manner to drain the water (Tamils) from the pond and put the fish (LTTE) in tanks. The LTTE will not voluntarily lay down its arms and talk as long as the vast majority of Tamils remain leaderless and silent. The state must seek the support of the ‘moderate’ Tamils by initiating development and giving them political power. It could start with the return of Tamil lands especially in the HSZs as soon a possible. This should apply to the Muslim lands in Ampara too. The Tamil language must have equal status with Sinhalese in affairs of the state. There should be rapid development of the economy and infra structure of the affected areas, easing of travel restrictions, improving personal security and the conditions for refugees to return, provision of land, securing jobs with priority being given to the integration of youth of all communities into development plans and into the forces and police and sharing all the benefits of life enjoyed by those not in the conflict areas. Under such an onslaught when the LTTE realizes that even their protégés prefer desertion to living under them in the Wanni, their ongoing moral collapse will reach its inevitable end. Their weapons will no longer be of any use. They will want peace. That is the time they will lay down their arms.


What is required to defeat the LTTE without destroying them in battle is the unqualified support of the majority of the Tamils for the state. The Tamils will then not feel the bitterness of defeat and have any desire for revenge which was the LTTE’s motivating force, because being equal partners; this will be their victory too. That will be the supreme skill.


Given below is a quotation which may be relevant to all actors and communities:

"I consider it an offense against the Serbian people and the betrayal of the civic notion of society when evil is identified with the Serbian nationality. But I find it equally misguided when evil is not defined at all, for fear of hurting Serbian feelings. All people have their Karadzics and Mladics, either real or potential. If such men - as a result of a mix of historical, social and cultural circumstances gain greater influence than they have in other parts of the world, it does not mean that they come from a criminal people… (This) is a conflict of principles not of nationalities … in other words let us beware of attempts to lay the evil on whole peoples. That would be tantamount to adopting the ideology of fanatics"

(Vackev Havel- former Czech president who was said to have been one of contemporary Europe’s great visionaries)


(The writer is a retired career military officer holding the rank of Major General)

[Source: http://www.island.lk/2007/12/30/features1.html]