Black Tigers by Amantha Perera

On July 5, 1987, while the Sri Lankan armed forces were engaged in 'Operation Liberation' to wrest control of Jaffna, the LTTE decided to turn the tables. Confronted with the firepower of a conventional army replete with its numbers and hardware - by rough estimates 8000 soldiers and officers took part in the operation - the Tigers had to dig deep into the reserves and bet on their advantage.

The ace was a cadre willing to sacrifice his life for the cause, Captain Miller alias Wasanthan was the cadre. He drove an explosive laden truck into the Nelliady Army Camp in Jaffna around 8.15 P.M. on July 5, 1987. He blew himself and the truck up after crashing through the entrance, killing two dozen soldiers.

Tomorrow, all over the north east, the LTTE will commemorate the Black Tiger (Karumpuliga) day. The commemorations had already commenced last week with ceremonies honouring cadres who died during the ceasefire being held even in areas under government control. Cadres who died during a sea confrontation in July last year came in for special emphasis. The LTTE laid foundations at the Kopai Heroes Cemetery in Jaffna to erect tombstones for these cadres.

The 'heroes' cemeteries would be decorated with the red and yellow flags as would most public places in LTTE controlled areas, while family members and other cadres would pay homage at the cemeteries and other shrines. The Tigers said before the commemorations that they had organised poetry competitions and other public events as well.

First Black Tiger

Last year LTTE Leader Velupillai Pirapaharan took part in the commemoration at an undisclosed location where he lit a lamp honoring the suicide cadres. The celebrations would include ceremonies at the Nelliady Central College, where Miller made history by becoming the first officially acknowledged suicide cadre. In 1985 an LTTE cadre perished during an attack at the Kilinochchi police station and army camp while at the wheel of a bowzer. However, it has never been proved whether the cadre was meant to die in the attack and the LTTE has not acknowledged the attack as a suicide mission.

Since Miller's mission, according to official estimates by the LTTE, 265 others including 53 women have followed him. However the LTTE does not acknowledge cadres who perished in attacks that are politically sensitive like the murders of Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and former President Ranasinghe Premadasa.

According to the armyan estimated total of 66 major suicide missions have been carried out by the LTTE up to September 2001, of which 10 were directed at prime economic targets.

On September 16, just five days after the 9/11 attacks in the US, the LTTE suicide cadres in speed boats attacked 'MV Pride of South', a ship carrying 1200 soldiers returning on leave, killing 11 navy personnel and injuring another 58 service personnel on board.

An article released by the army on the eve of the September 11 attacks in 2001 said, "out of the total of 66 suicidal missions in Sri Lanka, 10 economic targets including the Hotel Lanka Oberoi (Jan 21, 1984), Central; Telegraph Exchange Office in Colombo (May 7, 1986), Kolonnawa and Orugodawatte Oil Storage complex (Oct 24, 1995), Central Bank of Sri Lanka (Jan 31, 1996), Colombo Galadari Hotel (Oct. 15, 1997), Colombo's Kelanitissa Power Plant (Nov 14, 1997) and International Air Port (July 24, 2001) were among those badly affected or destroyed in these attacks.

"Prominent personalities, the likes of Minister of Defence Ranjan Wijeratne (March 2, 1991), Commander of Sri Lanka Navy, Vice Admiral W.W.E.C. Fernando (Nov 16, 1992), President R. Premadasa (May 1, 1993), Gamini Dissanayake, a presidential candidate (Oct 24, 1994) and C.V.Gooneratne, Minister of Industries and Industrial Development (June 7, 2000), Neelan Thiruchelvam, a Tamil intellectual and TULF parliamentarian, Brigadier Lucky Algama and Brigadier Larry Wijeratne also fell victim to these suicide cadres, along with hundreds of monks, security personnel and other innocent civilians."

The same article revealed - "Following these suicidal attacks, reports confirm that over 750 innocent civilians have been killed, another 2458 injured, some of who are maimed or disabled for the rest of their lives.

"Security personnel, including police killed in these attacks stand at 269. Casualty figures among them (armed forces and police) are 511 while those missing in action were 177."

The number of suicide cadres is a well-kept secret within the LTTE. They have only been put on display in public once, during the Heroes Day celebrations in November 2002, when 27 suicide cadres paraded in hoods. However, during last year's celebrations in Jaffna, an LTTE commander acknowledged that there were more than 500 Black Tigers in the Wanni. Given the size of the LTTE (roughly around 16,000 fighting cadres), and the determination of even the ordinary cadres (who still carry the cyanide capsule) the number can be very much higher.

Present in strength

At last year's celebrations, Miller's mother was given pride of place and she is expected to attend this year as well. The LTTE also erects special podiums and shrines to honour the cadres. The Tigers make it a point that the whole organisation turns up in force for the commemorations. In Mullaitivu, the commemorations commenced on July 2. The main commemorations are due to take place in Mullaitivu. However due to prevailing security fears, the LTTE has not allowed outsiders including journalists to attend the ceremonies this year, which are restricted only to high ranking LTTE members.

Last week, the Tigers held a special commemoration of four Sea Tigers: Lt. Colonel Nagaratnam Niranjini alias Yarlini of Karainagar, Jaffna, Lt. Colonel Balasubraminiyam Suganthini alias Eelapriya of Thellipalai, Jaffna, Major Chelvan Gnaneswaran alias Kathir Oviyan of Punnalaikattuvan south, Jaffna and Captain Kugendran Ramanan alias Ekaivannan of Kokkuvil, Jaffna. They died during a confrontation off the coast of Mullaithivu on June 27, 2003. The LTTE maintains that the confrontation took place in international waters.

Human rights experts have pointed out that the LTTE has been able to feed off the dire situation in the Wanni to recruit cadres into the suicide units. Dahnu, the female cadre who blew herself and Gandhi up was reportedly raped by members of the Indian Peace Keeping Force. The suicide cadres are afforded almost mythical admiration. In the heroes cemeteries where graves of ordinary cadres are marked with wooden plaques, the Black Tigers are given granite tombstones despite the fact that there is no body.

The training given to the Black Tigers also differs from ordinary cadres. Once a cadre is selected to become a suicide cadre, he or she is isolated from the others and sent for special training. Communication with the outside world is kept to a bare minimum if not none. Along with the basic drills and other training, strict discipline is induced. They are also provided training in all weapons ranging from pistols to automatic weapons, plus driving at high speeds and shooting from moving vehicles.

Multi-task training

The Sea Tiger units are provided training on speed boat operations. Officers who have had opportunity to interrogate suspected Black Tigers say that the LTTE makes a distinction between cadres sent out for reconnaissance missions or as advance military units during operations and often get killed, and cadres who are trained to infiltrate, remain unnoticed and are then activated as and when the need arises. "They consider the second type, the real Black Tigers," one such officer said. Sometimes only the handler and the high command would be aware of the mission and it would be conveyed to the cadre at the very last moment.

The climax of the training is a meal with Pirapaharan. Considering that most ordinary rankers hardly get a chance to see the elusive leader, it is most certainly considered an honour among LTTE cadres.

The value of the suicide cadres is military, economical and political. Former military spokesman, Brigadier Sanath Karunaratne, once termed the suicide cadre as "a one way weapon". "You get someone into that mentality, there can be no limit," he said. "Once it's on the way to the target, there is no turning back." Irrelevant of whether the operation succeeds or not, there would be the least amount of evidence left behind. The best example is Babu, the cadre who was responsible for the Premadasa assassination. He infiltrated the inner most-security of the President and waited for two years before he finally launched the attack. The fallout of that attack was more political than military.

"The Black Tigers are the strongest force of a much weakened people,'' said Amithaab, an LTTE official at the Nelliady ceremony last year.

According to what transpired during the attack on the Katunayake Airport in July 2001, all the attackers were either killed or they committed suicide. There is some doubt as to whether one escaped leaving behind a communications set. The Katunayake attack crippled the economy while depleting the air force's fleet.

The LTTE had adopted a similar pattern of inducting suicide cadres in its attacks in the city like the Central Bank attack and the Orugodawatte oil refinery attack.

The suicide units have given the LTTE an unparalleled advantage, and so far no military expert has developed any method to stop one.

Determination

"With perseverance and sacrifice, Tamil Eelam can be achieved in 100 years, but if we conduct Black Tiger Operations, we can shorten the suffering of the people, and achieve Tamil Eelam in a shorter period of time," Pirapaharan has said of the Black Tigers in the early 1990s.

"No weapon and no technology on earth, can stop the determination of the LTTE's suicide bombers. The suicide squad came into being at a critical juncture in the history of the Tamil liberation movement and has taken it to the next stage," he was quoted as saying just before last year's Black Tiger celebrations.

The Tigers might make use of tomorrow's commemorations to drive home the tough stance they have adopted on the resumption of talks. Last week during Erik Solheim's meeting with S P Tamilselvan, the Tigers toughened their position even more.

"If the Sri Lankan President and government are serious about the ceasefire agreement and peace talks they should stop sheltering Karuna and backing the murder and mayhem some of his henchmen are indulging in in Batticaloa. This is what we told the Norwegian facilitators today," Tamilselvan told journalists soon after the meeting. "We made our stand known to the Norwegians very clearly and firmly," the LTTE political wing leader said adding that the resumption of talks would now depend of the actions of the UPFA government. The Tigers were reacting to comments made by Cabinet Spokesman Mangala Samaraweera that some elements within the army were involved in aiding Karuna without the official sanction of the government.

Ball in govt's court

The tone had been set during several ceremonies organised by the Tigers earlier. " President Chandrika Kumaratunga said at the recent discussion she had with the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians that the reason for the current stalemate in the peace process was due to her distrust of the LTTE. She should understand that we have exercised utmost restraint and have shown our determination to reach a negotiated solution through the peace process amid loss of several of our Sea Tigers and Black Sea Tiger cadres during the ceasefire period," LTTE Trincomlaee District Political Wing Head, S .Elilan said during a ceremony to mark the first death anniversary of Sea Tiger Major Puhalini who died on July 30, 2003. At the same ceremony, the Tigers revealed that they had lost 33 cadres during the ceasefire and that patience was running thin.

Tamil Chorus

The London-based Tamil Guardian joined the chorus of Tamil voices raising concerns. The editorial last week said that the peace process had reached its lowest ebb and whatever goodwill there was between the Kumaratunga government and the LTTE had been totally evaporated due to the Karuna incident. "Most importantly," the Guardian said, "these were not merely vindictive opportunist attacks (in the east), but part of a carefully orchestrated campaign to destabilise the region. The question thus raised is what does Colombo really want: peace with the Tamils or victory over them?"

It continued - "in short, the hawks in the Tamil community are having a field day. See, they argue, the Sinhalese simply cannot be trusted to deal honourably with the Tamils if the slightest opportunity to defeat them presents itself."

The lack of a cohesive policy within the UPFA on how to approach negotiations on top of the Karuna rebellion has now moved the Tigers to issue an ultimatum. Is it war by proxy, or otherwise, or peace?

The Guardian, echoing the Tigers, said that war or peace would now depend on Colombo's actions. It would depend even more on how the Tigers react to the next move by the PA/JVP alliance.

(Focus - Sunday Leader 4th July, 2004)