Chronology of LTTE terror: - Part 28

From the Daily News Archives

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.

LTTE committee passes death sentence on TULF leader

Sixty Tamil civilians and 11 terrorists killed in explosion:

Wijitha NAKKAWITA

The month of February 1987 was ending with a sombre note for the people of Jaffna for whom the terrorist bands EPRLF, TELO, EROS or the LTTE claimed they were fighting. The sudden shock of surprise for these people came as they did not come under sudden of the terrorist groups as suffered by the Sinhalese or Muslims.

The day was February 14 or ten days after the LTTE slit the throats of infants, children, women and the poverty stricken chena cultivators of Arantalawa in the Ampara District and a group of about dozen LTTE terrorists that had seized a water tanker vehicle and fixed an explosive device with an estimated 150 kilograms of gelignite and were transporting the lethal cargo to rush into the Palaly Army camp to destroy the camp.

Yet destiny seemed to have ordained otherwise. The explosive devise exploded on the way near Kaithady killing 59 civilians and 11 terrorists who were on their deadly mission. Even the concrete pillars and slabs in the houses and buildings within a distance of 100 metres from the explosion had cracked in the vibration of the explosion and a hole 15 feet wide and 8 feet deep was found at the place where the device had exploded. Among the dead LTTE cadres was K.Yogaratnam at that time a close confidante of the LTTE boss Prabhakaran. The bodies of the people caught in the explosion were torn to shreds.

One of the biggest surprises ever also took place a few days later. The LTTE boss Prabhakaran made a public apology to the people of Jaffna that was published in the Tamil newspapers published in the north for the costly mistake made by the LTTE.

Though Prabhakaran had apologized to the people he had also got a death sentence passed on the Tamil United Front leader Appapillai Amirthalingam at the central committee meeting of the terrorist outfit. It was also reported that a year or so back the LTTE central committee had discussed the possible death sentence on Amirthalingam but the committee was divided on whether of jot to kill Amirthalingam. But in February 1987 the committee had passed the ‘death sentence’ on their former Guru.

Next the security forces arrested a middle aged Sinhalese man who was obliged to be on the payroll of the terrorists on a beach at Jaffna and he was to be made use of to transport explosives to Colombo for a series of bomb attacks on civilians targets in Colombo in the final week of February.The man’s name was withheld by the authorities as he was compelled to work for the EROS as his wife had been abducted by the terrorists earlier in the year and he was hoping the terrorists would release her if he worked for them!

Thursday January 29, 1987:

Landmine kills 13 commandos

Srimal ABEYEWARDENE

Twelve police commandos were killed near Batticaloa yesterday in one of the worst landmine attack in recent months when their armoured personnel carrier was blown-up with a huge charge of explosives.

The Special Task Force (STF) commandos were reinforcements rushed to Kokkadicholai ten miles from the eastern provincial capital after terrorists had launched a fierce attack on a STF search and destroy mission air-dropped close to the terrorist base.

Sub-Inspector Priyantha Alwis, a 19-year old former Thurstan College cricketer, leading the group was killed in this attack and reinforcements arriving there were ambushed by the landmine costing the STF 13 fatalities in all.

Joint Operations Commander, Lt. Gen. Cyril Ranatunge, was in Batticaloa yesterday. The security forces struck back hard killing at least 20 terrorists. The authorities were yesterday trying to establish whether the LTTE’s Batticaloa leader, Kumarappan was among the dead.

SLBC said last night that the main LTTE base was destroyed.

One of the landmine casualties yesterday was 27-year-old Inspector K. U. Fernando who was leading the commandos in the personnel carrier caught-up in the ambush. The young officer was engaged to be married to the daughter of a leading filmstar of yesteryear his collages said.

Despite the landmine reverse, two other armour personnel carriers from Velaveli and Kalavanchikudi reached the scene and captured the LTTE’s Kokkadicholai base and a kangaroo court they’d been running there.

Although no firearms were recovered, over 1,500 rounds of ammunition were seized along with a cache of detonators and a stack of survey maps of Northern and Eastern areas.

In addition to the two officers, the other dead commandos were named as 1407 Vijith, 6600 Mahindaweera, 15197 Jayasinghe, 14565 Chandana Sisira Kumara, 17184 Bandara, 16360 Ekanayake, 18884 Ajith, 14146 Wijepala, 16768 Somadasa and 18442 Tilakaratne.

Their bodies were flown to the SLAF base at Katunayake yesterday for funerals with police honours.

PS 3950 Wijesinghe was reported missing.

late evening reports said that the terrorist group was surrounded by commandos and there was no clear indication of the number of fatalities inflicted.

Monday February 2, 1987:

We’re like a Mafia family: LTTE boss

Prabhakaran has no plans to return to India unless he is officially invited by the New Delhi government and is assured safe passage, the LTTE’s Madras spokesman, A. S. Balasingham, has told the Deccan Herald.

Asked about the reported Prabhakaran-Kittu rift, Balasingham has said: “Ours is like a Mafia family. Everyone is required to take an oath of allegiance to Prabhakaran.

The regional commanders are handpicked by Prabhakaran himself on the basis of trust, loyalty and experience. Moreover, Kittu is a close relative of Prabhakaran’s. There is, therefore, no need to change the commander.”

The newspaper also quoted Balasingham as saying that there was no possibility of a revolt because “Prabhakaran has a perfect spy network and anyone speaking against the leader is immediately removed.”

But the report, quoting Jaffna citizen’s committee sources, said the rift between Prabhakaran and Kittu had widened and that Kittu was now being held incommunicado.

Prabhakaran had sought to ‘dilute’ the role of his second-in-command by appointing separate commanders to Mannar and Vavuniya, confining Kittu to Jaffna. The Herald also said:

“Three months ago, four guerillas under the command of Vavuniya commander Mathiasrim, were ‘arrested’ and their interrogation revealed they had been sent to liquidate Kittu.

“Reports further said that Mathiasri and Mannar commander Victor moved closer to Prabhakaran, thus virtually isolating Kittu.

After Victor died in battle recently, Prabhakaran wanted Kittu to take over command of Mannar also, but the latter declined the offer,” the reports said.

Balasingham was quoted as saying that Prabhakaran had returned to Jaffna to consolidate his position and that the Indian mediation effort had not made much headway.

“The people of Jaffna feel alienated. Instead of shuttling between New Delhi, Madras and Colombo, Indian leaders should visit Jaffna also and meet the people, the citizen’s committee members and, of course, the LTTE leaders, to get a feel of the situation there.”

Thursday February 5, 1987:

Tigers shoot down women, children:

Massacre of innocents at colony

Srimal ABEYEWARDENE

Four women and three children were among nine victims of brutal terrorist massacre yesterday at colony 18, a small community of farmers near Mantottam, about 25 miles from Amparai, on the Dambana-Pannalagama Road, security sources said.

A spokesman said that an LTTE group, believed to be from Tirukovil, had arrived at the Mantottam junction on Tuesday night.

The terrorists had divided into two groups, one taking on the residents of Mantottam - a group of small houses and boutiques - while the rest went onto the nearby colony. “The Mantottam home guards fought hard and were able to repel the attackers. There were no civilian casualties. We’ve recovered some grenades from the scene of the fighting,” the spokesman said.

The group that went onto the colony had herded the residents, all chena cultivators and subsistence farmers, into a single house.

“It looks like they tried to blow them up with a couple of explosive devices they had brought. Fortunately, they couldn’t set off the blast. Meanwhile, the people in the house attempted to run.

That was when they mowed them down with gunfire. Two men, four women and three children were killed. Fourteen others were injured. Eight of the more seriously injured are at the Badulla hospital, while the rest are at Amparai,” the spokesman said.

He condemned this cowardly attack on defenceless people on Independence Day.

“They were all poor, harmless people already burdened by poverty. It was a brutal act,” he said. “It looks as though they went to terrorise poor villagers.”

Police sources said military units had arrived and assisted the home guards at Mantottam to repel the attackers.

The police and military were at the scene, reassuring villagers who had fled into the jungles that it was safe for them to return.

Senior government officials were on the spot and social services authorities were arranging to issue dry rations and food parcels to the affected villagers.

The three children killed in the attack were all under 10 years old.

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Yesterday: Terrorist Unit killed in surprise grab

Tomorrow: Terrorists oppose peace talks: start killing civilians

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