By Feizal Samath
COLOMBO, May 21 1998 (IPS)

The longest-ever battle in Sri Lanka for control of a strategic highway entered a second year this month with combatants vowing to continue the fight to the finish amidst fresh reports of conscription and also peace talks.

At stake is a 76-km stretch of highway on the Colombo-Jaffna northern highway which government troops want to secure from Tamil rebel hands to establish a supply route to the northern Jaffna peninsula, for both the military and civilians.

The army has retaken just 56 kms of the highway from the rebels over the past year in the operation code-named ‘Jayasikuru’ (victory assured), that has become the most expensive battle seen so far in 15 years of fighting.

Kethesh Loganathan, a political columnist for the ‘Weekend Express’ newspaper, believes the operation is a failure. “Government troops are at a cul-de-sac — unable to proceed or withdraw. For the government the operation is a debacle because it has not achieved the stated objective.”

Nearly half the Sri Lankan army is involved in the battle, and according to defence analysts, the operation to wrest control of the highway has so far cost the government an estimated 8.3 million dollars.

“The operation was intended to last just a few months, but it has taken so long and is still going on adding to new problems like manpower shortages …” said analyst Iqbal Athas, who writes a widely-read column in the ‘Sunday Times’.

While the government says it has lost 1,400 men, the Tamil Tiger rebels or LTTE — fighting for a separate state called Eelam — have admitted losing 1,300 men, though government sources, who monitor the clandestine rebel radio, claim some 2,500 rebels have died in the year-long battle.

The operation was given the go-ahead by the Sri Lankan government which had hoped that a successful offensive would boost public support for its political peace package and force the LTTE rebels to the negotiating table.

The government’s political package, aimed at providing more autonomy for Tamil-majority areas, has no support from the main opposition party, the United National Party (UNP) and the influential Buddhist clergy.

However, since the military is bogged down in what looks like an unwinnable confrontation over the highway, the government’s peace plan is on the backburner, its popularity tarnished also by allegations of corruption.

Even talk of an early end to the fighting has been overshadowed by statements from both the Sri Lankan army commander, Rohan Daluwatte, and the Tamil rebel chief, Velupillai Prabhakaran, vowing to “fight to the finish” last week.

Daluwatte, who launched a new recruitment drive, part of a twin-pronged strategy that includes an amnesty offer to army deserters, said he had no doubt that his troops would be able to complete the offensive.

“We are determined and confident of defeating the LTTE (rebels),” he said, adding that there was no way the rebels will be able to prevent the army from linking up its troops in Kilinochchi and completing the takeover of the highway.

Prabhakaran, in a broadcast over rebel radio to mark the first anniversary of ‘Jayasikuru’, warned of more bloodshed. “Even if the army opens the road we have proved that we can infiltrate from any corner and take the troops by surprise,” he said.

Analysts said that the Colombo-Jaffna highway, if and when opened for traffic, would be an easy target for rebel attack as the road cuts through thick jungle, which is ideal for the LTTE, probably the world’s best guerrilla army.

The only way the road can be made safe is by maintaining the number of operational troops (roughly 40,000) to prevent attacks, they said. But this will be difficult since the army is already facing a shortage of manpower.

With casualties and the number of deserters from the army rising, Defence Minister Anuruddha Ratwatte said earlier this month that the government was considering conscription for those between the ages of 18 and 30 years if the plan to bring in 15,000 men through the amnesty offer and recruitment, failed.

Curiously other sections of government sought to downplay the conscription proposal, announced while Olara Otunnu, the U.N special envoy on children in armed conflict was on a week-long visit to Sri Lanka that ended May 9.

Though Otunnu said he received clear commitments from the

the Sri Lankan government and the rebels that children below 18 years won’t be used in combat, the Sri Lankan army says it is planning to promote the army as a career in schools. The rebel army has for long depended on boys and girls below 17 years.

Sri Lankan peace activists want the government to promote peace also in the classrooms. “If the government is compelled to resort to this step, in view of difficulties in recruiting personnel … then a parallel programme of peace education should also be promoted,” one activist said.

The government, however, seems more preoccupied with notching another major military victory to push forward the peace process,

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