COLOMBO, NOV 20: As the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) continues its roll across northern Sri Lanka, the government has blamed the military debacle on a conspiracy between the opposition United National Party (UNP), the LTTE and some sections of the army to discredit President Chandrika Kumaratunga ahead of the December 21 elections.The conspiracy theory has emanated from the highest levels of government and is an alarming admission that President Kumaratunga, the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, no longer trusts her army and suspects it of being divided along political lines.President Kumaratunga herself recently told the executive committee of her People's Alliance (PA) that the debacle was an act of "sabotage" caused by a few senior officers, who were working at the behest of the UNP, which in turn was hand-in-glove with the LTTE.Other government sources are also putting out that troops had been primed by the UNP to offer no resistance to the advancing LTTE. It is a fact thattroops deserted forward positions in large numbers without putting up any fight at all, enabling the LTTE to take back large chunks of hard-won territory with surprising ease.The story repeated itself on Thursday in north-western Sri Lanka. It is being alleged that the two senior officers who were suspended last week for ordering troops to withdraw from forward positions are close to the UNP. After the first set of losses, a government television channel said a retired general aligned to the UNP had been sighted at army camps in the Vanni in October, insinuating that he had instructed troops not to fight the LTTE.The UNP is also being accused of orchestrating the LTTE attacks which have come two weeks before the presidential election. Media minister Mangala Samaraweera alleged in Parliament that the attacks on army camps in the north had begun soon after a secret visit by the editor of a pro-UNP newspaper editor to LTTE strongholds in the north.However, the UNP has hit back, accusing thegovernment for trying to cover up its part in the debacle. UNP leader and Kumaratunga's main opponent in the forthcoming election Ranil Wickremesinghe said it was the inevitable result of over-stretching forces for political gain which led to battle fatigue and demoralisation of troops.A pro-UNP editor described the government accusation as "a diabolical lie". "The government has to face that the defeat at the hands of the battlefield was a result of bad military planning. The soldiers deserted because they realised they were not fighting a war to save the country but to further the interests of a particular political party," said Lasantha Wickremetunge, editor of the Sunday Leader newspaper.
