The Situation Report

5th September 1999

Military thrust shifts to Batticaloa district temporarily

By Iqbal Athas

Three battalions of troops mounted a four day long operation in north Batticaloa, early this week, to extend their areas of control and stem Tiger guerrilla infiltration into the east.

The operation began at dawn Monday when troops from the first, second battalions of the Special Forces and the third Battalion of the Ceylon Light Infantry (CLI) broke out from their defences at Vakarai – the northern most point in the Batticaloa district under security forces control. They advanced stealthily, for over 15 kilometres, to Kathiraveli.

Not a shot was fired and not a drop of blood was shed except during an unexpected incident. When the four day operation ended with the troops setting up a new base in Kathiraveli, some of the soldiers who had to be deployed elsewhere were boarding a bus. A soldier found that the shoulder strap of his Chinese made T-56 assault rifle had entangled itself in one of the aluminium poles located on either side of the entrance. This was when he was climbing steps to enter the bus.

When he tried to retrieve the belt, his motions had triggered off the weapon. The resultant fire caused injuries to his head. The soldier is now in hospital. Hence the accidental fire and injuries to the head of a soldier was the only casualty during the four day operation. There was hardly any Tiger guerrilla presence leave alone resistance.

The flag of the Gajaba Regiment is now flying in Kathiraveli where men of the seventh battalion have set up base. With little or no media attention and no references in the sketchy news releases put out by the Operational Headquarters of the Ministry of Defence, the four day long operation was prompted by a string of incidents in the Batticaloa district.

To the security establishment, they were prompted by an increase in LTTE activity. They believe Tiger cadres infiltrated through the southern part of the Trincomalee district via the Kathiraveli route to enter Batticaloa district. That is not all. They believed this was the route used by cadres to infiltrate the hill country after travelling southwards from Batticaloa and westwards towards the Badulla district.

Concerns about a fresh wave of Tiger guerrilla activity in Batticaloa district were heightened by a string of incidents last month. Main among them was the August 9 infiltration of a male suicide cadre into the Army camp at Vakarai – the northern most point under security forces control in the Batticaloa district. This was when troops were busy distributing weekly food rations to civilians in the area.

The suicide bomber threw himself before Major B. Karunanayake, killing him on the spot. This was the fourth suicide attack by Tiger guerrillas in the Batticaloa district during the ongoing so called “Eelam War Three.” Major B.H. Karunadasa and two soldiers were also injured in this incident.

Just a day earlier, Tiger guerrillas attacked three civilian lorries carrying soldiers at Valachchenai (south of Vakarai). Three civilians were killed and six more, including two soldiers, were wounded. On August 11, the explosion by the LTTE of an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) in the Batticaloa town killed ten policemen and wounded 19 more.

In the backdrop of these and other incidents, another major factor that prompted the operation was the reported steady build up of an estimated 500 Tiger guerrilla cadres in the outlying areas of Batticaloa. Intelligence sources say they were armed with mortars, anti-aircraft weapons and small arms and planned to launch attacks on security forces and Police installations in the area. There were also reports on Friday that a tractor carrying four explosive laden motor cycles had emerged from a jungle area south of Batticaloa. The report had been further confirmed by radio intercepts with one base asking another for two of those motor cycles, each said to be packed with three kilos of explosives.

With the access route via Kathiraveli now cut off, senior security officials say, it would be easier to flush out Tiger cadres from the controlled areas in Batticaloa.

As reported in these columns earlier, these security officials say, fresh wave of attacks are being continued by the LTTE in the Batticaloa district to compel the security forces to re-deploy and thus ease the pressure on their cadres in controlled areas, particularly in the Wanni, which has, since the re-capture of Jaffna peninsula, remained the main area.

Whether the re-capture of more territory north of Batticaloa and the further thinning out of troops to Kathiraveli will stem Tiger guerrilla infiltration to Batticaloa district, and through it to the hill country, remains to be seen. This is not only in view of the access points available to the LTTE along the eastern coast, but also in view of the free run LTTE cadres are said to enjoy in the Thoppigala jungles (south west of Batticaloa) and the Batticaloa bowl area encompassing Pudur, Kallady, Arasadi, Kottamunai and Puliyanthivu. The recent months, no major operation against Tiger guerrillas have been carried out in this area.

If the military thrust shifted, at least temporarily, to the Batticaloa district this week, an incident in Vavuniya also brought LTTE activity in the Wanni to focus. This time it was the killing of Nagalingam Manikkadasan alias Rajan, head of the Military Wing of the People’s Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOT).

Like in the case of the late Dr. Neelan Tiruchelvam, who was killed on July 29 when a suicide bomber threw himself at his car in Colombo’s Rosmead Place, Mankkadasan had been repeatedly warned, both by the Directorate of Internal Intelligence (DII) and Military Intelligence about the death threats against him. This was after he returned to Colombo on August 1 after a trip to Singapore and India. He was specifically advised to remain in Colombo and not to visit Vavuniya after intelligence services learnt the LTTE was out to kill him.

“Not a fellow can get me,” was the confident response of Manikkadasan, a DII source said yesterday. He had remained in Vavuniya for over ten days. Last Thursday morning, he had finished a meeting with members of the public who regularly called at the Lucky House office of the PLOT, located barely 300 metres from the Vavuniya Police Station and behind Vavuniya Convent along St Anthony’s Road. The two storied house had belonged to a Tamil family who had emigrated to Canada. Later he had sat for a meeting with some PLOT cadres. This meeting ended and he was about to walk out of the second floor building when a Claymore mine, fixed in the ceiling, exploded.

Both Manikkadasan and his deputy in the Military Wing, Ilanko, who were hit by the explosion, fell on the ground. Ilanko died instantly. At first, his body was wrongly identified as a suicide killer and that was how reports of a suicide attack circulated initially. Manikkadasan was dead when he was rushed to hospital. So was another colleague, Vinod.

An Army bomb disposal team which arrived at the scene of the incident later established that a Claymore mine, with some five kilogrammes of explosives, had been concealed in the ceiling and detonated with a radio controlled device.

How the Claymore mine was smuggled into Lucky House and placed there has now become the subject of a probe. Police have found that a PLOT cadre who was at the scene at the time of the incident and helped despatch Manikkadasan and Vinod to hospital has later gone missing. He had been a member of the PLOT for nearly two years heightening Police suspicions that he may have been an LTTE plant.

Feuding between the PLOT and Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation (TELO), the two groups that operated in Vavuniya, forced the authorities to withdraw weapons issued to them on May 17. This was after a string of clashes between rival factions. However, weapons for personal security were not withdrawn. Hence, Manikkadasan had carried a special .38 revolver whilst Ilanko had possessed a Russian made 9 mm pistol.

The funeral of Manikkadasan takes place on Wednesday at the Uma Maheswaran Samadhi in Kovil Kulam. His killing will undoubtedly trigger off a chain reaction among all former Tamil militant groups which have now entered the political mainstream. This is particularly in view of the warning the LTTE has issued to members of all these groups to quit and join the Tiger guerrilla ranks. In the Jaffna peninsula alone, over a 100 from other groups are known to have joined the LTTE.

Senior security officials say they have incontrovertible evidence of LTTE infiltration into the hill country. They point out that the eastern province axis has been used to gain entry into the hill country areas. Details of their involvement began to emerge since 1996.

One significant instance was the arrest of Mariyanayagam Aloysius alias Major Dickson, who surrendered to the Security Forces in Jaffna on September 26, 1996, with communication equipment. He had been living in Hopton Estate in Lunugala Police area. He had left Lunugala with 19 other youth from the same estate, six years earlier, and joined the LTTE in Batticaloa. They had been given guerrilla training in a camp in Kanjikudichiaru jungles in the Ampara district.

More recently, in July, this year, soldiers outside the Pallekelle Army camp arrested Ponniah Partheepan alias Sinnavan alias Gaya, a 23 year old youth. Following his interrogation, it became clear that he was an LTTE intelligence cadre. He had lived in the Bangala Division of the same Hopton Estate in Lunugala area before joining the LTTE. Thereafter, he had resided in Eravur.

At the time of his arrest, Partheepan had been conducting surveillance on the Pallekelle Army Camp which lies barely two kilometres from the Army’s Central Command Headquarters, also in Pallekelle. Police found that he had arrived in Colombo in September, last year, and had already completed reconnaissance on targets in and around the City. Earlier, he had also been tasked to conduct surveillance on targets in the Wanni and the east.

Recent detections in the hill country have prompted intelligence authorities to resume detailed investigations into LTTE infiltration in the area. This is now being carried out with the help of local Police in the area.

Some of the senior Army officials assigned to operational areas are going abroad this week on official assignments. Army Commander, Lt. Gen. Srilal Weerasooriya, is due to leave for Singapore today to take part in the Pacific Area Heads of Armies conference organised by the US Pacific Command. He is also due to have a one-to-one meeting with the Joint Chiefs of Defence Staff of the United States, General Shelton.

Also leaving for Singapore for another US Pacific Command sponsored event, the Pacific Area Management Seminar (PAMS) is a two member Sri Lanka Army delegation. It comprises Security Forces Commander, Major General Lohan Gunawardena and Commandant of the Sri Lanka Volunteer Force, Major General Neil Dias.

Army Headquarters sources said yesterday that Major General Sarath Munasinghe, General Officer Commanding (GOC) 54 Brigade is expected to oversee the work of Security Forces Commander, Jaffna. Brigadier Parami Kulatunga, officiating Director General of General Staff (DGGS) at Army Headquarters, is also expected to be posted temporarily to SF Headquarters in Jaffna to oversee administrative responsibilities.

Army’s Chief of Staff and Security Forces Commander, Major General Lionel Balagalle, returned to Colombo yesterday after a week long trip to Hawaii. He is learnt to have made a presentation at a gathering of top Army officials and defence professionals on Security Concerns in South Asia vis-à-vis Sri Lanka.

Major General Balagalle will function as Acting Army Commander during the absence of Lt. Gen. Weerasooriya.

The killing of Manikkadasan and increasing the threat potential in Batticaloa runs true to the change in the operational strategy of the LTTE to apply widespread political and military pressure on the Government. That is in the continuing nature of the conflict. But what should concern the Government more is the potential of increased threat to the hill country via infiltration to the Ella-Passara-Badulla belt through the Eastern Province.

This will expose the large Indian Tamil population to pressure and simultaneously pose a considerable economic threat to the country, which will also have its downstream effect on defence expenditure.

The Government has not been oblivious to the possibility of that threat which has existed all the time. But with changing social, economic and political conditions, the assurance that the hill country will remain neutral in the overall conflict should not be taken for granted. The increasing youth populations in the Estate sector now better educated with access to modern technologies and greater social mobility has lifted the aspirations of these youth. Their hopes and aspirations are no longer confined to follow in the vocations of their forefathers as estate employees.

These changing circumstances require progressive political solutions to constantly changing social and economic problems. Otherwise, frustrations could find expression in avenues, which could develop into security threats.

The LTTE are primarily a political force. Their aims are political and their military struggle is for political ends. In this the LTTE are well organised and alive to the need to exploit political weakness. The Government should therefore be equally alive to deny the LTTE any opportunity to exploit political fissures that exist or may arise. To do so is to safeguard the future.

The Fifth Column

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