Chronology Of Ltte Terror - Part 19

From the Daily News Archives:

Sporadic terror continues

Wijitha Nakkawita

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When the euphoria of victory dies down, and together with it the media hype ceases, when the guns do not rattle and boom anymore, and the sky, the land and the sea become

calm and serene, when tranquillity reigns through it is natural to live in the present moment and forget the past.

But one cannot live in the present without a past.

Nor can one envision the future discarding the experience of the preceding events.

Hence the Daily News is serialising the Chronicle of LTTE Terror taken from our own archives which would remind our readers how it all began.

An awareness of the chronology of terror would help us prevent the recurrence of such terror and frustrate any attempts by misguided elements to repeat history to suit their evil designs. It was not simple terror. Nor was terror sporadic. It was all pre-planned, pre-determined, well-calculated terror.

The victims were innocent people. Though it is too many innumerate we would like to recall the major episodes in the Chronology of Terror.

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A government mired in its own machinations was frantically taking all available opportunity to find a solution to the growing monster of separatist terrorism as the month of July 1996, thirteen years after the shameful

Black July of 1983 ticking off the days and hours of bloodshed.

The PPC or the political party conference convened by President J.R.Jayewardene was discussing with the Tamil United Liberation Front led by the godfather of the terrorist bands while other political parties, mainly the leftists were also trying to contribute to a devolution of power package to end the violence in the country.

In the background of this scenario was India also now getting tired of their former political allies the EPRLF, TELO, EROS or the LTTE. There were plaudits from various social and religious leaders who were lauding the effort to find a solution to the crisis.

The terrorists of course stuck to their usual agenda of killing, unarmed helpless civilians, mainly the poor villagers or other civilians who never had a hand in the Black July or other incidents of violence.

The publicity for the PPC and its progress whether to devolve power to a merged north and east or to the two provinces separately was very prominent and the naïve and uninitiated, the majority of the public perhaps – hope springs eternal in the human heart – were hopeful that a political formula would be evolved and the terrorist groups could be convinced to accept a fair solution to end the bloodletting.

Newspapers reported on July 15 “Weekend toll 38 killed.” In the North and East 11 villagers, 5 women among them were mowed down by the terrorists – in Pavatkulam two people were killed while in a counter offensive the army killed 18 terrorists who were among those who had raided and killed villagers while at Mannar terrorists killed 6 soldiers.

On the same day three terrorists scaled the walls of the Elephant House – Ceylon Cold Stores Ltd., plant Trincomalee gagged and tied up an old watcher in the plant, surprisingly told the man the he was like their father and they would not kill him took him out of the building and bombed the plant causing millions of rupees damages.

The next day at Batticaloa the terrorists parked a motor cycle laden with explosives at the town with a timing device and two civilians were killed when it exploded. The carnage was not yet over but the talks to find a political solution was in full swing in Colombo.

This newspaper during the same week reported that the LTTE was to open their office in New Delhi and a former career diplomat of the Sri Lanka diplomatic service was to head the New Delhi LTTE Office.

The terrorist groups that were killing helpless and unarmed villagers here were still enjoying the hospitality of India and were moving about freely often allowed to carry arms in South India.

On July 19 on Ella-Kantale Road terrorists attacked come farmers who were living near the Kantale Sugar factory and killed 10 of them. Among the dead were seven Sinhalese, two Muslims and one Tamil.

The terrorists were indiscriminately attacking civilians and there was very little indication that they had any inclination to accept any political formula as terrorists from the beginning of civilization never had a propensity towards respecting traditions or norms of civilized society.

In fact the word civilization though it had a plethora of definitions should be one where arms and force were not the determinants of how people should live.

As Lakshman Kadirgamar answering a question from a BBC journalist said once “A label was put on me when I was born” meaning he was called a Tamil but for him that label did not mean that he could condone all the crimes against society and violence committed by terrorists.

Despite the efforts of the Jayewardene government that was of course directly responsible for precipitating the conflict the other powers had other plans that were to unfold later. Yet most decent people of the Sri Lankan society were hopeful that talks among the political parties would bring in a solution that could end the killing spree of the terrorist groups.

On Sunday July 13 talks between the Jayewardene government and the TULF began for the first time after 1984 and the government was represented at the talks by Ministers Lalith Athulathmudali, Gamini Dissanayake, Anandatissa de Alwis and Ranil Wickremesinghe.

The TULF delegation was headed by the leader A.Amirathalingam and comprised M.Sivasithamparam, Y.Yogeswaran and R.Sampathan. At the end of the talks Amirthalingam said the TULF was considering the government’s proposals for devolution of power but declined further comment.

But of course Amirthalingam was probably not aware that the evil creatures he created would not respect any decisions made at the talks held by any political party including the TULF.

Terrorists kill 10 colonists in swoop at Kantale

Ten civilians were killed, including seven Sinhalese, one Tamil and two Muslims, and another Sinhalese was wounded, when terrorists stormed a farmer settlement in Kantale, near the sugar corporation factory, the National Security Ministry said yesterday.

They said the attackers, dressed in military type outfits, drove into the zone 4 settlement on the Ella - Kantale road on Thursday night, saying they were soldiers, and machine-gunned the farmers as they came out of their homes.

The injured farmer was admitted to the Dambulla Hospital.

Meanwhile, the National Security Ministry, in a release said LTTE had forced 200 lorries to drive round Jaffna to protest the permit system introduced by the government as a precaution against bombs in trucks bringing produce from the north.

The Ministry said that since the system was started from the beginning of the month, 168 lorries were issued with permits and brought produce to Colombo.

“The lorry owners liked this system as they did not have to pay extortion money to the LTTE. Now the LTTE is preventing owners from obtaining permits and forcing them to join their hartal,” the release said.

The LTTE was also blocking the free movement of people and cargo, extorting Rs. 100 from each passenger coming to Jaffna, the release added.

Passengers travelling to and from Jaffna do not have to obtain any permits from government authorities, although terrorists continue to extort money from both passengers and lorries.

Weekend toll 38 killed in North and East

At least 38 terrorists and civilians were killed in separate incidents in the Northern and Eastern Provinces over the weekend, the National Security Ministry said.

It said 11 villagers, including five women, were mowed down by LTTE gunmen who drove into Pavatkulam village, in the Vavuniya district on Sunday night. Two of the massacre victims were Sinhalese while the others were Tamils, the Ministry said. Pavatkulam is two miles north to Ulukkulam, where terrorists blew up a bus recently seriously wounding passengers and some schoolchildren.

The Ministry also reported that 18 terrorists were killed in a forces’ counter-offensive, after troops came under heavy terrorist fire while patrolling the railway track to Mannar, on Sunday.

Security sources said a home-made explosives device went off, killing six soldiers and injuring five, while they were trying to defuse it. They were on their way to assist troops near the Mannar station.

In this battle, forces recovered five rifles, including three AK 7s, 30 grenades, three exploders, a large quantity of explosives and landmines.

Two jeeps, one truck and an ELF van were also recovered.

In Jaffna, a routine Security Forces’ patrol, five miles west of Kilinochchi was fired at one Sunday, forcing them to retaliate. They killed two terrorists and injured eight. In Trincomalee, troops captured an LTTE hideout near Sampathivu, on Saturday, after killing several terrorists. In this operation, a large number of grenades and AK 47 rifles were recovered.

A Tamil woman, K. Villuammah, widow of a Sinhalese, was shot dead by the terrorists on Saturday. Her husband had been killed in a landmine explosion earlier.

In Batticaloa, a foot patrol arrested four terrorist suspects at a place called Kitulanamely, on Saturday morning.

The four suspects, believed to be members of PLOTE, were identified as: Kasapathy Udyakumar, aged 24, Sivanayagam Pararajasingam, aged 17, Naga Alayadorai, aged 16 and Kanapathipillai Arasaratnam, aged 20.

In another incident in Kattaparichan, troops returned fire at a group of attackers, forcing them to retreat. A 60 kilo mine and electric detonators were discovered in their wake.

Curfew after slaughter of 15 passengers in Trinco road ambush

Terrorists gunned down 15 men, women and children in cold blood while attacking a convoy of three fish lorries, six miles from Trincomalee on the Kantalai Road, on Tuesday night.

A curfew was imposed yesterday in the Trincomalee district which will be valid till 8 a.m. today. It will be reimposed at 11 a.m. today and will be operative till 8 a.m. on July 11, the National Security Ministry said.

The lorries in which the people were travelling were carrying a load of fish for the Colombo market.

Two men in military uniform flagged them down and the drivers were ordered at gun-point to move the vehicles to a side road.

There all the passengers were told to dismount.

According to available information, twenty terrorists participated in the attack. The Information Department said the terrorists had set fire to the three lorries and withdrawn into jungle cover when the security forces approached.

Twelve men, one woman and two children below the age of 5 were killed, the department said.

Other incidents reported by the department yesterday were:

* A Muslim of Nilaweli complained to police on Wednesday that terrorists had robbed him of a gold chain valued at Rs. 4,500.

* A vehicle belonging to the Amparai kachcheri was seized by three armed terrorists at Karathiveu, on Thursday.

*The bodies of Kanapathipillai Eliyathamby of Kathiraveli and Eliyathamby Nagarajah of Vakari were found on the Batticaloa-Trincomalee Road, at the 72nd mile post, with an LTTE note beside them claiming responsibility for the killing.

Survivors feigned death or fled

K. D. D. Jayasekera in Trincomalee

Survivors of the two massacres in the Trincomalee district on Tuesday and Wednesday, which left 27 men, women and children dead, gave eyewitness versions before acting Magistrate M. K. Selvarajah, at the inquests held here yesterday.

Mr. Selvarajah also returned verdicts of homicide on the deaths of five members of a family whose charred remains were found in a house in Trincomalee town, soon after the first massacre of 16 people near Kantalai had been reported.

Altogether, 32 people were killed during those two days and a 24-hour curfew was clamped on the district. Yesterday the area was reported to be slowly returning to normal and last night the curfew was relaxed to 12 hours - 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. from today.

P. R. Gunadasa (35) lone survivor of the Wednesday night massacre, told the magistrate that he feigned death after a terrorist assaulted him minutes before they opened fire on the sixteen other people he had been with in the ill-fated convoy of three lorries.

His fellow passengers were being tied and assaulted, so he pretended to be dead and the attackers left him, Gunadasa said. He made use of the dark to creep into the jungle and run to the army camp at Monkey Bridge, on the Trincomalee-Kantalai road. He heard the shots being fired as he ran, Gunadasa said.

The killers were dressed in military-style uniform. They stopped the convoy of three lorries and spoke first in Sinhalese. Later they began speaking in Tamil, he said.

“They told us not to be afraid, that we were not going to be shot...” Gunadasa said. “But a short while later the terrorists began assaulting the passengers.” Gunadasa made his statement at the Trincomalee hospital.

The other witness, V. Sinnathurai of Mollipotana Colony, near Trincomalee, told the magistrate that he believed the men who had attacked the settlement were home guards.

The National Security Ministry in a statement issued in Colombo yesterday, said the attackers had been identified as separatist terrorists. They were dressed in dark clothes and wove terrorist emblems on their shoulder flaps, the ministry said. Sinnathurai said he was working a short distance away when he heard gunshots. The attackers were dressed in dark trousers and sarongs, and carried shotguns.

K. Gunasekeram, another witness to the Mollipotana massacre, said there were abut 15 men in the group which attacked the village. He had run away when the shooting began.

The dead in the first massacre were identified yesterday as: R. D. Sonny Ratnawira (30), S. P. Sonna Kamalal (21), S. P. G. Dhanapala (39), the driver of one of the lorries, S. Gunasekera (43), J. B. Podimahattaya (35), M. Wahab (28), B. J. P. Sirisena (33), Liyanage Wijeratne (25), Punchihewa Sarath (24), R. A. Wasantha Lakshmi (24), her husband G. A. Abeypala (26) and their children Asantha Priyadarshana (7) and Neelantha (3), A. H. Nandasiri (30), Thegis Appuhamy (35) a lorry driver and R. H. Gunapala (38), a lorry driver.

The eleven killed at Mollipotana were: S. Mangalipulle (80), S. Pakiam (35), K. Ratnamma (35), R. Sivakolundu (40), A. Shanthi (12) K. Yogeswary (22), N. Arulampalam (40), V. Nesamma (65), S. Sashimala (7 months), K. Saravanai (80) and Techchimuttu (75).

The five killed in Trincomalee town, soon after the Kantalai road massacre, were identified as K. Pandiappa (60), his wife Thangaretnam (50) and their three children Mohan (20), Shantini (18) and Rajini (13). OIC Pallewela, Trincomalee who led evidence, was instructed to continue investigations.

Yesterday - More civilians in Eastern Province killed by LTTE

Tomorrow - Over 100 civilians killed in mid-June