{"id":177506,"date":"2017-05-18T10:45:47","date_gmt":"2017-05-18T05:15:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=177506"},"modified":"2017-05-21T00:03:00","modified_gmt":"2017-05-20T18:33:00","slug":"road-to-nandikadal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/road-to-nandikadal\/","title":{"rendered":"Road To Nandikadal"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Noel Nadesan<\/a> –<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Dr Noel Nadesan<\/p><\/div>\n

Former Major\u00a0General\u00a0Kamal Gunaratne\u2019s \u2018Road to Nandikadal<\/a>\u2019 surveys\u00a0the 30-year Sri Lankan separatist war through the eyes of\u00a0an\u00a0Army Officer.\u00a0It is a remarkable book with factual\u00a0matters\u00a0 reported\u00a0as well as laced with his reflections\u00a0on the war. This book in not a history of Eelam\u00a0War and\u00a0his views and facts are presented together as a\u00a0creative nonfiction. History books are normally written with corroborative documents to\u00a0 back up the author\u2019s thesis. Creative nonfiction contains true incidents along with authors\u2019 reflections.<\/p>\n

This book gives an insight\u00a0into the operations of Sri Lankan Army during the 30 years of war and their sacrifices to defend their country. Without them, the country would have been divided\u00a0\u00a0like Somalia or Afghanistan. Some Tamils\u00a0would have been happy if that happened. But the consequences of that scenario would\u00a0 have been disastrous. With the intransigent attitude of war-lord Prabhakaran, the chances are that we would still be fighting and many more killed, more on Tamil side and may be no young men and women left in Vanni.<\/p>\n

Looking back it is\u00a0 clear that it is the failure of the politicians to properly identify the issues affecting both communities that gave rise to 3 different arm uprisings from both\u00a0communities. Two rounds of JVP violent\u00a0episodes of Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna resulted in comparable death and destruction.\u00a0Apart from destruction, both\u00a0developments\u00a0also resulted in foreign intervention, with India stepping in to intervene in domestic affairs. Sinhala hardliners always indulge in anti- Indian\u00a0rhetoric, but\u00a0they should remember that the Sri Lankan government invited the Indians in\u00a0the 1971 insurgency\u00a0to rescue the country from JVP.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Back to the \u201cRoad to Nandikadal”,\u00a0the book gives\u00a0\u00a0 an insight into the Army\u2019s\u00a0strengths and weaknesses\u00a0during the years\u00a0 as well as\u00a0the politicians’ inability\u00a0of providing leadership to conduct the war during the years, resulting in the loss of many precious young lives from both\u00a0sides\u00a0of the conflict.<\/p>\n

The army\u00a0alone cannot win the war in any country.\u00a0An army is always the\u00a0sharp\u00a0end of the\u00a0arrow, but\u00a0many factors govern the play of\u00a0killing of the animal by\u00a0an\u00a0the arrow before it\u00a0 hits the\u00a0 target.\u00a0This book only gives an inside view of the movement of\u00a0the arrow, but many\u00a0 factors, including\u00a0international and Indian support,\u00a0intelligence, Tamils like Karuna and Douglas Devananda along with political and civilian leadership involved in finishing the LTTE are left out\u00a0for\u00a0others to contribute.\u00a0To give\u00a0an\u00a0example, funds contributed by expatriate LTTErs from\u00a0France and Australia came to\u00a0 a dead end in December 2005 after these two\u00a0 countries intervened to stop the flow of money. These two countries were contributing large amounts of funds to the LTTE coffer.<\/p>\n

A majority of Tamils,\u00a0a large section\u00a0of\u00a0Sinhalese\u00a0and the international community, believed mistakenly that the LTTE could be brought to the negotiating\u00a0 table to discuss peace.\u00a0But they failed to read Prabhaharan accurately. He was killing and torturing his\u00a0 own Tamil people not to make peace but\u00a0 to secure\u00a0 his\u00a0 position located deep in the inaccessible jungle. It was his survival and desire to hang on to power that drove him to the edge. He was not the first in the history. I can quote the UNITA leader Jonathan\u00a0Malheiro Savimbi from Angola who was supported by\u00a0the CIA. Even Donald Regan invited him to\u00a0White House. But\u00a0once America settled with Angola after the end of the cold war, he refused to give up his arms. His intransigence led to his end. He was killed in jungle like an animal and found many days later.\u00a0He was survived by several wives and dozens of children the latter numbering at least 25, unlike Prabhakaran.<\/p>\n

The 4th\u00a0Eelam war was fought \u00a0ferociously by both sides, in a win or lose battle. This resulted in deaths of over 5800 army\u00a0\u00a0personnel and 25000 injured, according to the book. Probably more died\u00a0 in the LTTE camps. As a father I can feel the pain of parents and family. Pain does not have any race nor linguistic or religious identities.<\/p>\n

Major General Kamal Gunaratne had an objective appraisal of\u00a0 his enemies. He\u00a0 did not belittle his enemy. He gives credit to the enemies’ bravery and ferocity. LTTE commander Theepan was praised for his Muhamalai battle with the Army.<\/p>\n

I have been to Sri Lanka many times and met important people who were involved in the conflict. My understanding is that the communal passions among Sinhalese and Tamils do not run deep. Nor is it unresolvable. It was generated by politicians of two generations to achieve power or to maintain a seat in parliament. Unfortunately, it\u00a0 is the ordinary people who paid for the ambitions of the politicians\u00a0 with their lives. So politicians from both sides need to rethink with an imaginative and compassionate mind.<\/p>\n

Tamils have been wallowing in self-pity eternally. This book gives the other side of the information about the war. By reading this book, we learn that everyone is a loser and there are no winners in the war.<\/p>\n

There are\u00a0 minor errors in the book like blaming Indira Gandhi for Indian peace keeping forces, but she had already passed away. Another one is about killing Uma Maheswaran which was an inside job of the PLOTE. The printer\u2019s error of duplicating some pages is also an irritation.<\/p>\n

There are also a few ambiguities and errors that had crept in. Example:”When asked about\u00a0 his beliefs, he had stated he did not believe in a God” ( Page 10). To whom did Prabhakaran answer?\u00a0 In another page the author says: “His (Prabhakaran\u2019s) bleeding body was brought and dropped at my feet” (Page 2). Bleeding happens when someone is alive and within a few minutes blood clots.<\/p>\n

Hopefully the book will be printed again, which will also give the opportunity for some revisions.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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