Analysts say the current military operation is intended to force the insurgents to the conference. Deputy Minister of Defense Ranjan Wijeratne told the Parliament. The Government operation now underway works something like a cluster bomb. If the security forces arrest 50 suspects, they presume at least 10 are JVP members. Thus, according to this logic, if they kill 10 people, they re sure to have killed at least one JVP member.
Opinions here differ about the campaign s effectiveness so far.
One member of the Parliament said he thinks the forces have taken out 60 percent of the hard-core JVP members in his district. A student in close contact with the JVP said that only the lower-level members, runners and messengers are being hit and the rest are innocent bystanders. If the news reports are accurate, the number of small arms captured by the forces is increasing. One innocent person killed last week was human right lawyer Kanchana Abhayapala, the forth lawyer gunned down this year for filing habeas corpus applications. Death threats have also been issued to Prins Gunasekara, who is now hiding, as well as to a member of Parliament heading a special commission to investigate human rights and several others.