LTTE's exploitation of truce to boost military strength bared

Wanni civilians disillusioned with LTTE, uprising imminent:

TIGERS' HIDDEN AGENDA: The Ceasefire Agreement signed by then Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran was a ploy by the LTTE leader Prabhakaran to mislead the Sri Lankan Government.

Despite the Southern polity taking the LTTE's flexibility as a positive sign towards driving the decades-long North East conflict to a new dimension, the LTTE did not see any diversion from its objective of 'Eelam'.

Thousands of witnesses are there to prove that the Tiger leader Prabhakaran was not genuinely involved in the Norwegian brokered Peace process, initiated by former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga and continued by UNF leader and former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.

The Security Forces were, well aware of the fact that LTTE was in a desperate position when Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran unilaterally declared a Ceasefire on Christmas eve in 2001 nearly one month after the UNF government led by Ranil Wickremesinghe swept into power defeating the People's Alliance Government.

The LTTE leadership grabbed the opportunity offered to them by the UNF Government.

The LTTE was not in a position to withstand the fire power of the Security Forces in the North preventing all their offensive operations to capture cleared areas, and were shocked by the operations conducted by deep penetrating units of the Sri Lanka Army.

Adding to this situation, the LTTE was also facing a severe shortage of food in the Southern part of the Jaffna peninsula in Thunankilappu and Ariyalai. The intelligence agencies of the Security Forces reported that an internal rift was also developing among the LTTE leaders by the end of 2001.

The internal conflict between Karuna Amman and Military leader in Thunankilappu area Swarnam resulted with the demotion of Swarnam as a training leader from his higher position of military leader.

Since the situation was not in favour of the LTTE, the Tiger leader declared a unilateral ceasefire, ceasing all their offensive operations in the North and East. By that time the LTTE also had received signs from the UNF leader Ranil Wickremesinghe that they were willing to address the grievances of the LTTE once they come into power at the General Election.

On the other hand, the image of the LTTE was also facing severe blows in the international arena especially in the aftermath of September 11 attack in the United States.

The launch of global fight against terrorism also affected, the existence of the LTTE as many countries had already branded them as a terror organisation.

This international factor also led the LTTE leader to take the decision, even against his wish to declare a unilateral ceasefire and later enter into a Ceasefire Agreement with the Sri Lankan Government.

Now, it is clear that politicians involved in signing the MoU with the LTTE had not taken the intelligence reports in a proper sense, as their sole intention was to grab that chance to blow up their political image, disregarding national security.

There had been enough reports to indicate that the LTTE was signing this MoU to take time to re-organise themselves specially to face the fire power of the Security Forces, to intensify their recruitment process and to strengthen themselves for the next step of the war, to achieve the goal 'Eelam'.

The LTTE leadership, seized the opportunity offered to them by the UNF Government. Such an offer from the side of Sri Lankan Government enabled them to rise from their weak position. That was the prime reason behind the LTTE's decision to enter the Ceasefire Agreement, though politicians turned a blind eye on this situation.

Years after the signing of the Ceasefire Agreement, the intelligence arms of the Security Forces are now in possession of credible evidence to prove, what they said at that time was fully correct.

They have now recovered video footage of a meeting convened by the LTTE leader in a clandestine destination in Wanni, soon after the signing of the Ceasefire Agreement.

In his address to all Senior LTTE leaders, Prabhakaran says, that the Ceasefire was useless and they have no intention to adhere to it fully. They have been given five years to prepare themselves for the next step of the war decisively to achieve their goal - 'Eelam'.

Though, many analysts, showed that the country reached a remarkable economic growth during this period, there were many negative factors to hamper the economic growth.

If someone says the peace process helped to boost the economy, the LTTE too intensified their moves to cripple the economy, at a decisive time they think is not favourable to them.

Even at the peace talks they did not show their sincerity, as they continued to insist on favourable terms to continue negotiations.

The destruction of two ships by the Sri Lanka Navy in the Eastern seas was clear evidence to prove that they were strengthening their firepower amidst the ceasefire. Only two ships were detected by the Navy, but there had been many arms smuggling vessels reaching the coasts of Sri Lanka under the cover of Ceasefire and the peace process.

Not only to improve their unitary capabilities - the Sea Tiger operations and the improvement of their air capabilities, they took swift action to bring in medical equipment and other essential items to Wanni obtaining Government clearance to transport shiploads of medical, communication equipment to Wanni.

The Sri Lanka Air Force had clear evidence that the LTTE was improving its air capabilities in the Wanni. It was constructing air strips and also having aircraft on those airstrips.

There had been many instances, the LTTE made use of this Ceasefire to train their cadres, having sent their teams to obtain training from foreign countries.

The arrest of the former LTTE Police Chief in Sampur, by the Trincomalee harbour Police last week, revealed how foreign states extended their support to train their cadres abroad.

Vinodkumar Kalimuthu, the former LTTE Police Chief in Trincomalee has had, training in Ireland in the first quarter of 2004.

Vinodkumar Kalimuthu, initially a resident of Trincomalee, shifted to Kaithadi, Jaffna, following troubles in Trincomalee.

Kalimuthu had been recruited to the LTTE in 1991, when he was 14 years old and underwent basic training in 'Abdulla' Base Kodikamam. As a young cadre he joined the Elephant Pass attack He later joined Padathurai Palli a school created by the LTTE to educate their cadres.

As a young cadre he had been provided specialised training called Siratha Puli or Leopard Force, a commando type training in Kodikamam in Jaffna for two years. This cadre had contributed to the leap forward operation in 1995 and to the attack on the Mullaitivu camp.

He has been asked to join the LTTE auxiliary force in 2001, and LTTE 'police chief' Nadesan had selected him for foreign training in 2004 due to his loyalty to the organisation. Nine cadres from the LTTE 'police' were elected for this training by Pottu Amman along with Kalimuthu.

In February 2004 the team arrived in Colombo to prepare their passports. He had obtained Sri Lankan passport 1215070 from Colombo. He had obtained the visa for his tour from Colombo, but it is not yet clear from where he had got a visa to visit Ireland.

Now it has been divulged that the LTTE team had obtained visas pretending as a team from an organisation called Theebam, which was established in Wanni to monitor human rights violations against Tamils. An employee from the Uthayan newspaper in Colombo had helped to obtain the passports and visas for this team.

Along with Kalimuttu, alias Kavanna 33, Iyalarasan an administration leader in Kilinochchi LTTE 'police', Avaikumaran (left the LTTE and resettled in Point Pedro), Ranjith Kumar, an Instructor of the LTTE 'police', Sivakumari a Sub Inspector, Bhavani, Legal instructor, Imakulevi an instructor and Jeewaraj in the LTTE 'police' training wing had joined the visit.

The team had left Colombo on UL 547 flight on February 29, 2004, to Switzerland around 3 a.m. as normal passengers. They had stayed in Switzerland for three days prior to their arrival in Ireland.

They had a 15 day session at a hotel called Dafalin. They were then sent to the police training school a 3-hour journey from the hotel. A person called Sona Boy had been their chief instructor and a person called Waradamkumar who arrived in Ireland from UK had acted as their interpreter, during the training session.

They have been given training for fingerprinting, crowd dispersal, riot control, hostage negotiation and the prevention of suicide attacks.

According to Kalimuthu, the Irish Government had facilitated this type of training, to implement a system that prevailed in Ireland as a solution to the North East conflict in Sri Lanka.

The team had also got the opportunity to visit many defence installations and other important places in Ireland.

However, they have been given instructions to be vigilant about spies.

Their visit has been coordinated by Varadankumar from UK. According to Kalimuthu, a police sergeant named David and the Chief Instructor, Sona Boy had visited Wanni for a study tour prior to their return to Sri Lanka completing their training session.

The team had arrived in Sri Lanka on April 11, 2004 from the same route via Switzerland from flight No, UL 548.

After their arrival, in May 2004, Kalimuthu has been asked to take over the 'police' in his area and asked to recruit more youth to the organisation. He had recruited more than 300 youth to the organisation when he was in charge of Trincomalee LTTE 'police'.

But, later Nadesan had sacked him from his post once two men who went fishing with him got electrocuted.

He has also been charged with misappropriation of funds and he escaped form the LTTE and went abroad again on November 17, 2005 by QR 301 flight in search of a foreign job and returned to Sri Lanka six months later on June 29, 2006. Again he had been approached by the LTTE and assigned to associate with Karuna cadres to kill them.

It has been divulged that the LTTE has obtained assistance from foreign Governments to train aircraft technicians, media training, naval training, medical training, sending their cadres in the name of various other organisations.

However, it is obvious that, those governments have funded these programmes with the hope that the LTTE will genuinely engage in the peace process and continue their dialogue with Sri Lankan Government to evolve a political solution to the North East conflict.

Instead the LTTE made use of the Ceasefire Agreement to capture disputed lands in the East and to strengthen their presence at the strategic locations such as Sampur to enhance their bargaining power at the negotiations table.

If the Security Forces and the police were not kept on alert about the Tiger plans, they would have taken full advantage of the situation to strengthen themselves to capture the territories once they feel they are strong enough to face the Security Forces.

But the Security Forces, foiled all their long-term plans by launching operations to counter their plans to capture strategic locations in the East and succeeded in all the attempts. Unlike in the past the LTTE is facing a difficult situation as the Forces do not leave the places after the areas are liberated from the clutches of the LTTE.

Amidst the revelation by the former LTTE 'Police' chief in Trincomalee a situation hostile to the LTTE is also developing in the Wanni. The main reason is that the LTTE is using the Wanni population to reach their ulterior motives.

As explained by this column on several occasions, the LTTE Wanni leadership is desperately going behind the civilian population to strengthen their depleting ranks by recruiting many children and youth to the organisation.

The most recent revelation is that the civilian population has raised their voice against the LTTE leadership with a large number of rape cases reported in the guise of recruiting cadres to their depleting ranks.

This situation has put the LTTE hierarchy in an inconvenient situation with the LTTE leadership ordering LTTE Intelligence Wing leader and the second in command to probe into the complains lodged by the civilians against a large number of LTTE cadres responsible for rape cases.

It has been divulged that many political cadres engaged in recruitment of youth to the LTTE had misused this opportunity to rape young girls.

During Pottu Amman's inquiry the Deputy Head of the Media Section Kaviyalan has also been arrested, according to intelligence reports from the Wanni.

Many cadres have been shot dead in public after they were found guilty.

This is a clear indication that the discipline of the LTTE cadres is fast going down. They are now defying the orders of the LTTE and rising against the LTTE leadership.

Under these circumstances many of the civilians living in the Wanni are awaiting to flee the Wanni once they get a chance.

Therefore, the far sighted plans of the LTTE leader Velupillai Prbhakaran would not be realised as the Tamil community is distancing itself from the LTTE at a time people has been asked to do things against their wish to achieve the objective of the LTTE. The desired objective is a peaceful environment to live in.

Under these circumstances a public uprising in the Wanni will be imminent even before the LTTE leader comes out from his clandestine hideout in the Wanni to give his annual public address to the public at the end of November.