Protecting informants: The Government's bounden duty - By Champika Liyanaarachchi

This came at a time when there was growing disillusionment within the military ranks and the country at large over the government's stoic silence following the killings of military informants

The Police Chief of the LTTE P. Nadesen in an interview with a weekend English newspaper a few months ago said that one of the prime duties assigned to him by the LTTE leader was to identify the informants who helped the Sri Lanka Army's deep penetration unit or the Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol (LRRP).
LTTE Supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran no doubt must be quite satisfied with the performance of his police chief in this regard given the meticulous manner in which Tiger cadres are executing the job true to LTTE style.
While the LTTE was busy collecting information about military informants and systematically executing them at regular intervals, it took sixteen months for the UNF government to awaken from its slumber and demand a report from the Defence top brass on the subject.
So far nearly twenty odd informants have been executed by the LTTE in Colombo and the North and East. It all began after the Kandy Police made a blunder by revealing the closely guarded military secret - the presence of the LRRP, while hunting down the murderers of the Palletalawinna massacre.
Once the identities of Tamil and Muslim informants were known to the police and the LTTE, a chain of murders of persons collaborating with the Army was the result. The Attorney General recently directed the IGP to withdraw the case filed by ASP Kulasiri Udugampola against the Army Commander, Director Military Intelligence, another officer and four soldiers of the LRRP, saying there wasn't a "trickle of evidence" to show that the LRRP were engaged in criminal activities.
The UNF government in its zest and zeal to expose political rivals initially took the side of the police and later realized the mistake too late though.
The government finally decided to act after last Saturday's murder of Thirty-two year old Lingasami Devarasa, from Kokkadicholai who was gunned down in Dehiwala where he has been living for the past few months.
This came at a time when there was growing disillusionment within the military ranks and the country at large over the government's stoic silence following the killings of military informants.
One thing that is certain is that without 'inside' help and a steady flow of information, the LTTE would not have been so successful in its hunting down informants.
A former Army Commander who said the military was fully aware of the names of those passing on information to the LTTE added that he sincerely wished that the government would not further delay taking action against these people.
Given the hard work by army officers to establish the necessary military intelligence network for the successful Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol (LRRP) popularly known as the deep penetration commando unit of the Sri Lanka Army he said, the government's failure to crack down the LTTE pistol gang in Colombo comes as a major disappointment. The LRRP that claimed several victims was poised to get many LTTE top rungers by the time the ceasefire agreement was signed.
The government, he added, cannot afford to keep quiet about these killings as informants became really vulnerable following the leaking of information about the LRRP ammunition dump in Athurugiriya, a few days after the UNF came into office.
Just three months before this glaring blunder, September 26, 2001 thanks to the regular flow of information about the LTTE leaders, the LRRP killed Vaithilingam Sornalingam alias Col. Shakar, the head of Tiger military intelligence wing and founder commander of the LTTE Sea Tiger division, Air Craft and Air Wing division.
He was killed by triggering a claymore mine while travelling from Oddusudan to Puthukkudiyiruppu in a pick up vehicle.
Months before that, LRRP managed to kill Deputy Chief of Sea Tigers Gangai Amaran, Political Head of Batticaloa and Ampara, Nizam and Communication Chief of Eastern Tigers Mano by similar explosions.
The LTTE Political Wing Chief S.P.Thamilselvan, Deputy Military Wing Chief Balraj and Senior Commander Jeyam too came under attack by the deep penetration unit but escaped unscathed.
Thamilselvan had a narrow shave when a vehicle right in front of him was blown up by a claymore mine.
The man who led the LRRP team Captain Nilam, who would have otherwise been a war hero, it is learnt, is now in hiding as he is definitely number one in the hit list.
With the informants being regularly eliminated, there is also a growing fear among the retired servicemen whether they too would be targeted given the virulent and vindictive nature of the rebels.
At the rate the Tigers are gunning down informants, the former Army Commander said, that several retired flag ranking officers have expressed legitimate fears.
Nothing can be totally ruled out, he said, now that the LTTE is having a field day especially in Colombo and one should not be surprised if a retired military top brass suddenly dies "under mysterious circumstances".
The elimination of informants have also re-kindled the debate as to whether the government made a blunder by agreeing to de-commission weapons of other military groups like the EPDP, PLOTE and EPRLF operating in the North and the East.
Most of these paramilitary cadres functioned as informants of the government troops and the disarmament of them under clause 1.8 of the ceasefire agreement, saw the LTTE stepping up its onslaught on these unarmed militant cadres.
One may argue that that disarmament of these cadres has helped streamline things and clear the ground as the government then have to deal with only one group- the LTTE that has the backing of an overwhelming majority of Tamil civilians.
However, others maintain irrespective of the political clout of these groups, they should be allowed to carry weapons as the LTTE has been given a chance to do so.
This is more so because a majority of them lately carried arms for self-defence rather than for combat purposes. The move to disarm them before decommissioning the LTTE was questionable.
Of all the militant groups, the EPDP is the most vulnerable being the strongest rival of the LTTE. Even the so-called champions of human rights based in Colombo are quiet about the regular killing of EPDP members including local level politicians.
Soliciting the services of paramilitary forces as military informants has been on since the beginning of the conflict and it was formerly recognized following the occupation of the Indian Peace Keeping Forces (IPKF).
The EPRLF, which later held power in the North-East Provincial Council, was the first military group to co-operate extensively with the IPKF and it is no secret that those employed were amply rewarded by the Indian government for their services.
One of the first moves by the LTTE which regained control after the withdrawal of the IPKF obviously was to launch a major offensive on the other militant groups.
Since then these groups had to go through immense hardships for their survival and the Southern government more often than not used them to break the LTTE hegemony especially in the North.
However, it must be said that Tamil militant groups or individuals were not the only ones to be tagged by the LTTE as military informants.
Muslims, though majority of them remained impartial during the war, had to bear the brunt of LTTE harassment being designated by the latter as government informants.
One should not forget that the eviction of over 70,000 Muslims from Jaffna in 1990 by an LTTE decree giving them just 24 hours to vacate their abodes, came with the accusation that they sided with the Army and passed information to them about Tiger movements. Also the same year Tigers killed 64 Muslims in Nintavur the same year, hurling similar allegations at them.
Muslims all over the North and the East were generally treated as government "spies" by the LTTE and this attitude is partly attributed to the violence unleashed against them at regular intervals.
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on Monday appointed a three-member committee comprising Defence Secretary Austin Fernando, Army Commander Lionel Balagalle and Defence adviser Meril Gunaratne to submit a report proposing measures to be taken to prevent the LTTE killing those attached to the military intelligence.The move is likened to closing the stable door after the horse has bolted and one only wishes that in a few weeks time that there will not be cops and soldiers guarding the houses of personnel attached to the military intelligence, exposing them further.
It is proposed that the best way of ensuring the security of those who are in the hit list, is to provide a safe passage out of the country for them, at least for the time being.
Given Prabhakaran's decree on the LRRP, which deprived him of several of his trusted and talented leaders, there is no doubt that priority should be given to the members of the LRRP who should be sent to safe havens.
However, equally or even more important is the tracking down of "inside men" who provide information to the Tigers.
It appears that the military top brass has a fair idea as to who is doing it and it's a matter of eliciting such vital information professionally while guarding their identities.
One also wonders what the government intends doing with the information it gets through other sources, under different circumstances.
For instance it was reported in the newspapers that a 22-year old EPDP member Selliah Paraman who escaped from the LTTE custody a couple of weeks ago, had said, that a large number of government troops and members of other Tamil political parties are kept in LTTE custody, in underground cells in the jungles.
Has the government done anything in this connection?
What about the security of this EPDP member who is sure to have earned the wrath of the Tigers?
There are also reports of a masked pistol gangs operating in the East, which many feel belongs to an extremist group or groups, other than the LTTE.
Some masked men had recently flung a grenade at a group of Muslims in Jamaliyah, Trincomalee on Saturday.
Besides this, the killings in Mutur and the manner in which they were carried out all demand a thorough investigation and if one goes by what the people in Mutur have told the media it is clear that they know more about these pernicious elements.All these lead to the root cause of the failure of the government to track down undesirable elements- the need for a more vibrant integrated intelligence system through which information is received and shared by all forces and the police.
What we have today is a situation where one force jealously guards its information while a highly politicized National Intelligence Bureau (NIB) is preoccupied with collecting information about opposition politicians.
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's government needs to treat and address all these shortcomings if it is genuinely keen on improving the intelligence services while keeping a tab on all insidious elements that threaten the national security, be they the LTTE, the Eastern gangs or the underworld.