"We fought the terrorists with unity & political will" - Fonseka

by lalith | August 27, 2009 at 10:32 pm

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"We fought the terrorists with unity and political will" - General. Sarath Fonseka

Speaking at a conference at the University of Sri Jayawadenepura in Colombo last week, Sri Lanka's former Army Commander General Sarath Fonseka who led the island nation to its historic military triumph said the victory was achieved by adopting guerilla tactics while letting the terrorist group adopt conventional military strategies.

Pakistan, another South Asian country, attacked by guerillas has already expressed their desire to send small groups of combat troops to Sri Lanka to learn from the Sri Lankan experience.

General Fonseka, who has now been elevated to the position of the Chief of Defense Staff by President Rajapaksa described the secret of success of the Sri Lanka Army at as the transformation of the way of going into battle at the Eelam War 4 and reversal of methods both by the army and the terrorists.

General Fonseka said the LTTE as expected behaved almost like a conventional army while his forces stepped into the shoes of a guerilla warfare.

He said the army, as guerillas do, started making incursions into LTTE strongholds in small groups carrying out daring attacks when the terrorists challenged the army inside the jungle.

He described the Sri Lanka resolution to go to war was a political one and said with the other forces, like the navy, air force police and the civil defense force in unity fought the war with that political will.

He said, "Thirty years of war had caused a lot of frustration to the people, who had lost their faith in the Army.... I restructured the entire Army deviating from traditional methods, appointed new people of my choice untainted with corruption and dramatically increased the manpower of the Army with recruitment.

"We commenced our assault from the A9 road, the Maddu road, Mannar and the Mullaittivu jungles. Sometimes it took us four to five days just to take control of one or two kilometres. But the results were good. We minimised our casualties and increased losses of the enemy."

Lt Gen. Shantha Kottegoda commanded the Army for only two years. He was sent on an Ambassadorial appointment to Brazil and the Government of Sri Lanka appointed General. Sarath Fonseka in his place.

General. Fonseka is a battle hardened officer who got injured multiple times and carries an umpteen number of scars and a a few pieces of unremovable shrapnel in his body.

Fonseka's will to accomplish a mission and utilization of unorthodox tactics in battles was seen in him even as a middle level commander. His innovative methods of battle finally bore fruit when he had Prabhakaran, whom some thought was invincible, on the run and then eliminated him.

General. Sarath Fonseka, the first ever serving four star General in the country will take a special place in the history of Sri Lanka.

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Athula (not verified)

at 00:07 on August 28th, 2009

In the history books of the world.

B12N

at 01:24 on August 28th, 2009

Victory?

Killing tens of thousands innocent life’s just to get few hundred LTTE is called victory and historic military triumph?

Yes he should be in the history books for killing 20.000+ innocent Tamils in just 5 months.
Detained 300.000 Tamils (80.000 children) in barbed wired camps.
Thousands of youth abducted and executed.
He was the leader of a COWARD army. He is just another Sri Lankan terrorist.

Pakistan, another South Asian country, attacked by guerillas has already expressed their desire to send small groups of combat troops to Sri Lanka to learn from the Sri Lankan experience.

Yes Sri Lanka can train these lands how to
-kill journalists
-kill innocents
-set up large open prisons and call it welfare camps
-to beg for money from western countries
-to be cowards and execute innocent people

Athula (not verified)

at 02:35 on August 28th, 2009

" to be cowards and execute innocent people"

Let's talk about the biggest coward - Prabhakaran

Biggest executor of innocent people - Prabhakaran

StopSriLankanStateTerrorism

at 01:40 on August 28th, 2009

Terrorist: http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2009/02/15/genocide_in_sri_lanka/

The State Department lists Sri Lanka as an investigatory target in the Office of War Crimes. The New York-based Genocide Prevention Project last December labeled Sri Lanka as a country of "highest concern." President Barack Obama has made the case for military intervention in Sudan or elsewhere to stop genocide. All the more justification for the United States to open an investigation of the voluminous and credible 12 counts of genocide against a United States citizen and permanent resident alien assembled by Tamils Against Genocide.

A genocide indictment would probably deter Rajapaksa and Fonseka from their ongoing atrocities against Tamil civilians. There is no time to tarry.

Deepal (not verified)

at 02:31 on August 28th, 2009

Fat Hope for all terrorists and terrorist supporters.

Irawwan

at 05:16 on August 28th, 2009

"....Eelam War 4 and reversal of methods both by the army and the terrorists."

A war won because of a certain level of cooperation from the enemy?

Hiranya Malwatta

at 07:06 on August 29th, 2009

LOL !

lalith

at 05:46 on August 28th, 2009

Yes. Victory. The once powerful tigers were made dogs. Annihilated.

That's a proven fact. Not speculation or assumption.

Senaka (not verified)

at 08:49 on August 28th, 2009

"to beg for money from western countries" That's anyway a million times better than virtually extorting from your own people living in western countries, a percentage of their hard earnings every month, and calling them 'dogs'. dogs?!!

Uncle Sam (not verified)

at 08:55 on August 28th, 2009

But....were the tigers supposed to be INVINCIBLE™ ?

Hiranya Malwatta

at 23:57 on August 28th, 2009

Good stuff Lalith.... I really enjoy your foreword on every one of your reports ! This one is Great !!

lalith

at 00:35 on August 29th, 2009

Thanks Hiranya. Hoping to give NP a rest after my 200th post. Two to go.

Too much work. Will get on NP on and off to see what's going on.

Hiranya Malwatta

at 06:25 on August 29th, 2009

That's good !

I know you have much more to do for our beloved Sri Lanka now. I'm sure the cry babies of LTTE terrorist following can take care of themselves at NP from now on.

Wish you the best always !!