The following day, the Tigers captured a distance of five miles on Jaffna-Vavuniya road and Kilinochchi town which had been wrested from their control in September 1996. Elephant Pass and Paranthan military bases, further north, were also attacked to block reinforcements.
Further south, Army’s Operation Jayasikurui (Certain Victory) troops captured Mankulam town on 29 September. Operation Jayasikurui was launched in May 1997 to open a landroute to Jaffna through Tiger-controlled Vanni. The Army victory at Mankulam, however, was overshadowed by the losses in Kilinochchi, which Colombo newspaper Sunday Times described as the ‘worst debacle’ in the 15-year war.
The Sri Lankan media has accused the government of covering-up military casualty figures using the current censorship. Reports say two-thirds of those killed were soldiers. The LTTE handed over 672 bodies of soldiers to the ICRC in early October. The Tigers also captured arms and military equipment, reports say. The fall of Kilinochchi has made the Army’s task of opening a landroute more difficult. With sea and air traffic under increasing LTTE threat, a supply line over land to the Army-held Jaffna has become vital.
A plane belonging to the private company LionAir, which took off from Jaffna’s Palaly airport on 29 September, with 48 civilian passengers and seven crew, disappeared over Iranaitivu Islands, 22 miles north of Mannar. Later, fishermen and the Sri Lankan Navy found some bodies in the area.
Beginning from early August, warnings had been issued, allegedly by the LTTE, to the private airlines Monera and LionAir which operated five flights a day to Jaffna. Notices and leaflets also appeared in Jaffna alleging that the air services were being used for military purposes, such as ferrying troops, and warning people not to use air travel after 23 September.
Following the threats, Monera airlines suspended their flights to Jaffna on 17 September. In a report titled The tragedy of flight 602 from Jaffna, the University Teachers for Human Rights (UTHR-Jaffna) points an accusing finger at the LTTE and says that a platform has been built by the Tigers on Iranaitivu for the purpose of firing missiles.
Jaffna’s troubles began earlier in the month. The peninsula’s new Mayor, Pon Sivapalan and 12 others were killed when a powerful bomb ripped through the Municipal Council building where a meeting was in progress on 11 September. Others killed included Jaffna town commander Brigadier Susantha Mendis and Assistant Municipal Commissioner Pathmanathan. Mr Sivapalan was appointed after the previous Mayor, Sarojini Yogeswaran, was assassinated in May.
Jaffna Army commander Lionel Balagalle says the bomb may have been placed in the roof of the building during repairs in April and detonated by remote control. Four council employees were taken into custody. A senior Municipal Council officer involved in the assassination has fled the country, police say.
Observers believe that the carnage was carried out by the Tigers, who in September again demanded the resignation of all elected local government officers. The NGO-based Sri Lankan National Peace Council (NPC) called the LTTE attack on the civilian administration as reprehensible. The NPC pointed out that the attack took place at a time when the People’s Alliance (PA) government, the main opposition United National Party (UNP) and the LTTE, all proclaimed their desire to solve the conflict through negotiations.
In an interview to Colombo newspaper Sunday Leader in early September, LTTE’s political wing leader, SP Thamilchelvan, said that only an independent third party could effectively build trust and confidence to overcome the present impasse in the Sri Lankan conflict.
Ethnic Reconciliation minister GL Peiris declared in early September that the government was ready to negotiate with the LTTE, but emphasised the need for consensus among the Sinhalese majority before talks. The UNP has continued to demand the government to seek unconditional talks with the Tigers. But President Chandrika Kumaratunge, addressing the UN General Assembly on 21 September, ruled out peace talks without pre-conditions. Subsequently, she also rejected third-party mediation.
On 23 September, the Sri Lankan Parliament approved an additional Rs 12.2 billion ($187 million) making the 1998 total defence expenditure as Rs 57.2 billion ($880 million). The direct war expenditure of the government and the LTTE from 1983 is estimated at a staggering Rs 335 billion ($5.2 billion). Observers believe the parties currently have no real desire for peace. The international community’s apathy towards the Sri Lankan conflict means, deaths on the highway to Jaffna are likely to continue.