Tigers' torture cage for dissidents uncovered

Search and clear operations by troops of 59 Division on captured Tigers' Jeevan Base in Welioya several days ago, uncovered an LTTE torture cage, made of barbed wire for detention of Tiger deserters and dissidents.

The cage with about four to five feet wooden poles in the open terrain has been tightly fixed to the ground, making room only for one person to be inside without being able to raise his or her head upright.

The triangular- pyramid type cage, as all the hallmarks suggest, would have been used as a showcase for others with a view to giving dissidents a strong signal against LTTE desertion or criticism.

The barbed wire with pointed pricks has been used to keep the victim in one posture with clasped hands once put into the pyramid type 'chamber'.

It is believed Tiger terrorists, in the face of advancing troops would have resorted to the practice of forcefully detaining civilians or dissenting combatants who had voiced against terror tactics.

The Jeevan Base that fell into Army hands was a huge training complex where Tigers used to train abducted and conscripted youngsters.

A few more identical structures, built lesser than the standard size of an ordinary-built man, had also served as prison cells for those who defy LTTE orders on a temporary basis, according to surrendered Tiger cadres. Some of those chambers had been erected were found from some other newly captured areas as well.

Evidence revealed those attempted to flee uncleared areas defying LTTE diktats had to be confined to the same barbed wire treatment where the victim was compelled to answer the call of nature while being inside the cage with the downward bent head sometimes for hours and days.

The LTTE's inhumanity of the worst form with no regard to the lives of innocent civilians and other victims is once again displayed with the detection of those torture cells.

Several partly damaged such cages have been sighted by troops in Wanni areas in the past few weeks.