Sri Lanka's government says rebel attack caused more damage than previously reported

Sri Lanka's government says rebel attack caused more damage than previously reported

The Associated PressPublished: October 23, 2007

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka: A rebel attack on an air base this week caused far more damage than previously acknowledged, destroying eight aircraft, including a vital surveillance plane, Sri Lanka's prime minister said Wednesday.

The admission, in a statement to parliament, came amid growing accusations from the opposition that officials lied about the destruction from Monday's pre-dawn attack on Anuradhapura air base in an effort to limit their embarrassment.

The incident was likely to further damage the credibility of a government already facing accusations it underreports casualties and is downplaying the financial cost of its renewed offensive against the Tamil Tiger separatists in northern Sri Lanka.

The government also faced rebel accusations that it violated international law when troops drove the naked bodies of the guerrillas slain in the battle through Anuradhapura on Tuesday while residents took photos with their mobile phones.

"It's not only a violation of the Geneva Convention, but it's also breaching the norms observed by every decent military worldwide," rebel spokesman Rasiah Ilanthirayan said Wednesday.

Military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara said the incident — which was witnessed by several journalists and widely photographed — never happened.

"We never did such a thing," he said. "They all are doctored photographs. They have done it to tarnish the image of the security forces."

Military and government officials said Monday that the pre-dawn attack by 21 Tamil Tiger suicide fighters damaged three aircraft. A fourth helicopter was destroyed when it crashed due to technical failure, the government said, though media reports said it may have been shot down when the military's anti-aircraft batteries tried to repel an attack by rebel planes. The attack and the crash killed 14 troops and 20 rebels, the military said.

However, opposition parliamentarian Lakshman Senewiratne said 18 aircraft — along with sophisticated surveillance equipment — totaling nearly US$60 million (€42 million) were destroyed.

"The government is not coming out with the truth to the people," he said. In response, Nanayakkara reiterated that only four craft were damaged or destroyed. However, minutes later, Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayake stood before parliament and announced that three helicopters, four training planes and a Beechcraft surveillance plane were completely destroyed in the attack, essentially confirming the Tamil Tigers' reports of the damage. He did not explain the discrepancy.

Wickramanayake denied the attack was a defeat for the military and called on all political parties to fight the rebels, known as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

"(The attack) was an act of desperation by the LTTE to build their flagging morale and also to get the attention of the international community," he said.

The opposition called the attack a major embarrassment for the government and Senewiratne demanded President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his brother, Defense Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, resign.

The rebels have been fighting since 1983 for an independent homeland for minority ethnic Tamils after decades of discrimination at the hands of the Sinhalese majority. More than 70,000 people have been killed in the fighting, 5,000 of them since a 2002 cease-fire broke down in late 2005.

Fighting in the north has escalated in recent weeks ahead of what many believe is a planned government offensive to retake the area and crush the rebels.

On Wednesday, the air force launched two airstrikes on a training facility for the Black Tigers — the rebel suicide squad behind Monday's attack — in the rebel-held northern Mullaitivu district, a defense official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. Details of the damage were not immediately available, he said.

The military also announced that two rebels were killed in an attack on army forces Tuesday evening along the front lines between rebel-held territory and government-controlled lands in northern Sri Lanka. Other gunbattles Tuesday killed nine rebels and a soldier, the military said.

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