The end yesterday of the once-ferocious army of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) was as bitter and bloody as everyone had feared. Ignoring rebel calls for a ceasefire, in the same way it had brushed aside calls to halt the shelling, the Sri Lankan army launched its final assault on a pocket of territory no bigger than 400 by 600 metres. Wave after wave of suicide bombers blew themselves up on the frontline, after 70 were killed trying to flee in boats.
Their admission of defeat was belated after 25 years of warfare. In a statement on the pro-rebel website TamilNet, the Tigers’ chief of international relations said the LTTE had decided to silence their guns to remove the last excuse the Sri Lankan army had to attack Tamils. Between the fall of Kilinochchi, the Tigers’ administrative centre, earlier this year and 7 May, over 7,000 civilians were killed. Had the LTTE been concerned about the lives of civilians, thousands of whom have been used as human shields or forced labour on the battlefield, the Tigers would have surrendered months ago.
The commander of the Sea Tigers, Colonel Soosai, claimed on the same website that the frontline was piled high with bodies and predicted there would be a mass suicide by fighters equipped with cyanide pills. The fate of Velupillai Prabhakaran, the founder and leader of the LTTE, was unknown last night. There were contradictory reports that the bunker in which the Tiger high command was located had been destroyed by a large explosion, and that a body believed to be his had been taken away for identification.
It is the end of the Tamils’ army, but it is unlikely to be the end of a 25-year civil war. This will doubtless continue in the form of bombs and assassinations. If the Sri Lankan army continues to follow its present policy of restricting the access of aid workers, the United Nations and journalists, then considerable effort will now be put into hiding the evidence, by cleansing the beaches of Vanni of incriminating bodies. Much is still unclear, such as the fate of the medical staff who gave a running commentary on the bombardment which contradicted what the Sri Lankan army claimed was happening.
Hundreds of thousands of Tamil civilians (50,000 alone fled the fighting in the last 72 hours) are now in the hands of a government that might be tempted to be vengeful in its triumphalism. They are in camps to which there is restricted access. The international community, which put pressure on Colombo too late to stop a bloodbath, must insist on transparency and accountability. War crimes have undoubtedly been committed by both sides. The defeat of the Tamil Tigers will not stop the Sri Lankan army continuing to pursue every least last Tiger sympathiser, by any means – fair or foul.
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