Who attacked the Tiger post? by Iqbal Athas

Chaos over latest clash cast cloud over Solheim visit

Farmers in the sleepy village of Bogamuyaya, in the Ampara district, were busy as usual tilling their paddy fields last Monday. If some of the country's best paddy producing areas is hit by severe drought, this village had water throughout the year from an irrigation tank.

Located 12 kilometres north of the Maha Oya Police Station, the Bogamuyaya village came into prominence after Tiger guerrillas launched an attack in 1991. The incident led to the deaths of 26 civilians and three Home Guards and forced villagers to stop cultivation temporarily in some 350 acres.

According to Maha Oya Police, an armed group of youth, were camped in the nearby Ulpath Thalawa jungles which extends to the Maduru Oya National Park. They walked past the tank bund to arrive at the village. They made friends with the villagers and paid them money to obtain their day to day requirements. It included cigarettes, glucose, razors and biscuits. Once a Home Guard reported he politely declined a request by the youth to bring those provisions but the villagers had readily obliged. They were given cash rewards.

During the same period another group had been in the nearby village of Tampitiya, also in the Maha Oya Police area. They were located in an area called Kolonsia. This group had also befriended Sinhala paddy farmers. They had paid for and obtained their food items through them. Like the group at Bogamuyaya, these youth had no qualms about introducing themselves as members of renegade eastern guerrilla leader Karuna's faction.

In their eagerness not to cause any harm or fear to the villagers, one of them said "We are Karuna Amman's people. There are more inside (reference is to those at Bogamuyaya). It does not matter if you tell the LTTE or the Police. We will not harm you. Don't run when you see us." A striking feature of these groups was their ability to speak in fluent Sinhala.

It is this group that carried out last Tuesday's (September 7) pre-midnight attack on the Tiger guerrilla strong point at Periya Pullumalai, according to H.A. Lewangama, Senior Superintendent of Police for Ampara. In a report to DIG (Eastern Province), Neville Wijesinghe, he has said the attackers spoke in fluent Sinhala. More importantly, he has said, they used obscene Sinhala words whilst the attack was being carried out.

Mr. Lewangama has also said that at the time of the attack there had been a group of volunteers involved in mine clearing activity. They were located in a building. Six of them had been abducted by the attackers. Two of them had later been returned to the area with two medical stretchers they had taken away. The men had been assaulted.

The first entry/exit point to LTTE dominated areas south west of the Ampara district is located along the Maha Oya - Chenkaladi road. Some kilometres past this area, however, are frequented by cadres loyal to Karuna.

According to Army sources a group of Karuna’s men launched an attack on the LTTE strong point at Periya Pullumalai (also referred to as Pullumalai) around 10.30 p.m. last Tuesday night. At the time of the attack, the post had been manned by 12 guerrilla cadres. Eight of them were killed and two wounded when gunfire erupted. Two others had fled the area only to return around 5.30 a.m. The two wounded were admitted to the Batticaloa hospital.

First reports of the incident placed the death toll only at four. However, intercepts of a radio conversation between Sivaram and Ramesh from two different LTTE bases later confirmed eight had died in the incident. The wounded remained at two. These sources said there were no injuries to members of the Karuna faction. However, The Sunday Times learnt some of them were badly wounded in gun battles. The attackers also seized a Rocket Propelled Grenade, 20 RPG shells and a load of ammunition.

But the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) steadfastly denied any of its cadres were killed and accused the Sri Lanka Army commandos of carrying out the attack. Some senior Army officers say the LTTE is reluctant to admit their cadres were being attacked by the Karuna faction since it was damaging to their image. For the same reason, they say, the LTTE also was reluctant to disclose casualties when their cadres are attacked by the renegade group. The LTTE's first response came in a story posted in the Tamilnet website. The report on September 8 said:

"An attack by a group of heavily armed men suspected to be Sri Lanka army commandos on the Liberation Tigers' border post in Pullumalai, 65 kilometres from Batticaloa, Tuesday night around 10.15 pm. was repulsed, a senior LTTE official in Batticaloa said. "Two men in the group were killed in our counter fire according to mine clearing workers in the area who were forced by the attackers to carry their wounded across the border last night," he said after visiting the scene of attack Wednesday morning.

"Two attackers were wounded in our counter attack. There were 34 well armed men in the group. The SLA commandos were assisted by some armed paramilitary cadres. Local mine clearing workers from MAG who were forced by the attackers to carry their wounded told us that an injured paramilitary cadre identified as "Nagulan" died while being carried back to the Sri Lanka armed forces camp in Tempitiya," the LTTE official said.

"MAG is a British mine clearing organisation."The attackers had severely assaulted the MAG mine clearing workers to make them carry the wounded, according to a local village official who was in Pullumalai Wednesday morning.

"MAG workers told us that the attackers allowed them to leave when they got close to the Sri Lankan armed forces camp in Tempitiya," the LTTE official said. He dismissed reports reaching Colombo as "silly fabrications planted by Sri Lankan intelligence."

"Meanwhile Mr. E. Kousalyan, head of the LTTE's political division for Batticaloa-Ampara, speaking to Tamilnet from Kilinochchi Wednesday said: "This is a very serious development. We are studying the matter."

Only a thorough investigation into the incident will bring out all the facts. Whether such a probe is possible at all is the biggest question. The Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), which monitors the ceasefire, is empowered to conduct a probe but would have to rely on evidence placed by the two sides, the LTTE and the Army. Hence the scope of such an investigation will not bring forth all the facts and the whole sequence of events.

The charge against the Sri Lanka Army commandos, in this instance, is wholly unsubstantiated. Like in the past, the commandos have not been involved in a single incident in the East. Nor have they been accused in the past of any collusion with activities of the Karuna faction. Moreover, there is no Army camp in the vicinity of Periya Pullumalai. One is located 32 kilometres away in Chenkaladi. However, a Police Special Task Force camp is sited in Periya Pullumalai. It is located at Tampitiya, sometimes referred to in Tamil as Tampaddi. This STF camp is two kilometers away from the scene of the incident. This is by no means to suggest involvement of Police commandos in the incident.

According to Army sources, contrary to LTTE claims, no member of the MAG, the British based Mine Action Group, had testified to the presence of security forces personnel during the attack. Nor has MAG made any representations to the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission. But MAG personnel at the scene have confirmed the fact that the attackers spoke in fluent Sinhala, and even used obscene Sinhala words, throughout the attack. Did this give rise to suspicions that the attackers were security forces personnel? In the absence of a fuller probe, the answers may never be known. There were reports yesterday the guerrillas were trying to move some of the mine clearing volunteers to Wanni for a detailed interrogation.

Unlike similar incidents in the past, the Periya Pullumalai incident has assumed greater significance. The Sunday Times learns the LTTE has conveyed to President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, through its own channels, its apprehensions over the involvement of the Army with paramilitary groups (the reference is to the Karuna faction) in attacking its cadres. They had offered to produce video evidence. Both the Ministry of Defence and the Army have categorically denied the accusations. They say they will refute all such "false claims."

The latest LTTE accusation comes just when Norway's Special Advisor, Erik Solheim arrives in Colombo on Monday. Together with Ambassador Hans Brattskar, they will meet President Kumaratunga as well as Tiger guerrilla leaders in a bid to bring pressure on them to ensure the ceasefire remains intact and urge them to return to the negotiating table. On the eve of Mr Solheim's very last visit to Colombo, it was the Tiger guerrillas who triggered off an incident.

That was the killing of eight members of the Karuna faction at a house in Kottawa on June 25, this year. But the LTTE, however, officially denied any involvement in the incident and charged that the act was carried out by dissidents within the Karuna group.

Strong indications the LTTE will now raise issue over the latest incident emerged on Friday. Posted on the official LTTE Peace Secretariat website was a letter Political Wing leader, S.P. Tamilselvan wrote to the SLMM. This is what it says:

"It is reported that a group of about 30 persons, some of them Tamil youths and others from the Sri Lanka Military have gone on rampage trying to attack the LTTE FDL at Pullumalai around 22.00 hours on 7 September. The LTTE cadres in the complex have repulsed the attack and the confrontation that ensued; two attackers are reported to be killed.

"The attackers have approached the LTTE point from the direction of the SLA military complex. Based on a report from the Mine Advisory Group (MAG) who are based in the close proximity of the site, this group of attackers have, after the confrontation with LTTE, entered into the MAG de-mining unit and demanded under the threat of gun, the MAG personnel to go with them to the attack site and help to remove two dead bodies.

"They also removed the stretchers from MAG and insisted on MAG personnel to carry the bodies which the latter refused. On being attacked with gun butts, the four MAG personnel suffered injuries. However they complied with the order and carried the bodies under gun threat in the MAG vehicles.

"The attackers directed the MAG vehicles to a point closer to the Thampaddi SLA camp, alighted from the vehicle with the dead bodies and entered into the SLA camp and the MAG personnel have been warned not to divulge this information to anybody. These four injured MAG members returned to their base at 08.30 on 8 September and three of them have been admitted to hospital. Along with the stretchers, the attackers have also taken with them cell phones and walkie talkie belonging to the MAG."

"The evidence of MAG personnel, proximity of the Tampaddi SLA camp vis-à-vis the LTTE point and the fact that the attackers alighted from the MAG vehicle and carried the dead into the SLA camp are clear indicators of SLA complicity in the attack.

"You are aware that this is not the first such incident and the pattern of events does not augur well for the upholding of the CFA. You are also aware that the patience of the Tamil people and their leadership is also running out and there is a general fear and suspicion that the SLA is in fact engaged in ceasefire violations with a view to provocate the LTTE and thereby leading to disruption of the entire peace process. Deterrent measures need to be taken to prevent recurrence in the larger interest of peace."

As it is now the practice, the Operational Headquarters of the Ministry of Defence responded to the LTTE allegations. A news release signed by Spokesman Col. Sumedha Perera on Friday evening denied any involvement of security forces in the attack. He said "Troops of the Special Task Force and the Police personnel on duty in the closest proximity to the place of the incident (about 2 km west of Pullumalai) in cleared areas deny any involvement whatsoever in this attack and further confirm that no service personnel have had any involvement as alleged by media reports. This is totally an internal matter of the LTTE."

By Col. Perera's own admission, his news release was in response to "some pro LTTE media and website reports" that claimed "the Sri Lanka Army commandos were responsible for the attack." The LTTE pointedly accuses the Army commandos but the news release only speaks of the STF and Police "personnel on duty in the closest proximity to the place of the incident" denying any involvement.

Surely this would have been a case for the Commander of the Army, Lt. Gen. Shantha Kottegoda, to firmly deny any accusations against one of his elitist and highly decorated units, the commandos. He owes it to them as their head. As pointed out in these columns, this is where the self appointed media pundits at the OP HQ do more harm to their own organisation due to sheer ignorance and lack of professionalism. Their expertise is solely restricted to issuing blunt denials.

Another lapse has been the inability of Army Headquarters or any other state agency (since the Ministry of Defence is not pro active) to have promptly sought clarification from the Mine Action Group itself. If such official clarification had been sought, the LTTE allegations could have been gone into in full. Since no commandos were involved, it would have been more credible thereafter to have denied the allegations. If in fact such a step has been taken, no public statement has been made so far. Naturally, such lapses place the UPFA Government in bad light and tend to give credence to LTTE allegations of its complicity in attacks on their cadres.

These developments no doubt further distance the UPFA Government and the Tiger guerrillas from the negotiating table. Therefore, the Norwegian facilitators continue to have a bigger task on their hands - ensure the ceasefire remains whilst they pave the way for talks. Needless to say it would be a long drawn out process.

A 'Courageous' crisis

Navy Commander Vice Admiral Daya Sandagiri with Admiral Mike Mullen Vice Chief of naval operations of the US Navy at the Pentagon in Washington during a visit in June, this year.

Commander of the Sri Lanka Navy and now Chief of Defence Staff, Vice Admiral Daya Sandagiri, has shot down a United States Government offer to equip a 57 mm weapons system on board the "Courageous," the coast guard cutter the Navy will soon acquire.

Though this weapons system was to cost the Navy five million US dollars (over Rs 500 million), the US Government had pruned down fifty per cent of the cost by setting apart US dollar 2.5 million from a grant fund for military assistance.

Therefore the Navy would have had to pay only the balance US dollars 2.5 million (or over Rs. 250 million) Manufactured in 1970, the 57mm gun is said to have a range of 13 nautical miles. A refurbished version was on offer.

Yet, Vice Admiral Sandagiri has said that even the half price weapons system would be too costly. Therefore, he has opted for a cheaper solution, re-fitting a gun on board the SLNS Sayura, the Advanced Offshore Patrol Vessel (AOPV) acquired from India, to the former US coast guard vessel.

Thus ends a ding dong controversy of a weapons system for the Courageous, which the US Government gifted free to Sri Lanka. However, it is costing the Government 6.9 million US dollars (over Rs 676.2 million) to re-furbish the vessel and train crew.

This is before sailing it from Baltimore in the United States to Colombo. The journey will be through the Atlantic and Indian Ocean. Vice Admiral Sandagiri went on board this vessel when he visited United States in June, this year.

A weapons system for Courageous has been a long drawn controversy. The latest episode was played at a recent meeting of the National Security Council. Foreign Minister, Lakshman Kadirgamar, who hoped the Navy would settle for the US weapons system challenged Vice Admiral Sandagiri for his refusal to accept it on the grounds that it was too costly.

He said it was not for security authorities to determine problems caused by droughts or cost factors if the Government was in a position to obtain for them their requirements.

However, President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, who is Minister of Defence and Commander-in-Chief, has now held with Vice Admiral Sandagiri. She has explained she could not compel the Navy to go for the US weapons system if the Navy Commander did not want it. This was despite a Treasury willingness to re-imburse the Ministry of Defence whose financial allocations were to be used for the procurement of the US system.

As a result, the Navy has now dismantled from SLNS Sayura a 40/60 mm Bofors gun and wants to ship it to United States to be fitted on to Courageous. This gun (calibe 40mm and barrel 60mm) had been manufactured in 1936. However, this move has run into a snag with US authorities. Together with the Bofors weapon, the Navy also wants to ship machine guns and assault rifles for use by the crew on their journey to Colombo. These weapons have been manufactured by Norinco (North China Industries Corporation) in the People's Republic of China, one of Sri Lanka's biggest trading partners in military hardware.

The US Government, however, has imposed sanctions on Norinco. This is for allegedly violating an embargo on export of nuclear material to Iran. Defence Ministry officials say US help is being sought to clear this on the grounds that the small arms were being exported not for use there.

It was only last month Defence Secretary, Cyril Herath,signed a renewed agreement in Beijing with Norinco to continue to procure military hardware from a bonded warehouse China set up in Galle ten years ago. Procurements of Army, Navy, Air Force and even the Police are to be obtained from Norinco shortly.

In addition, the Government has also discussed closer military co-operation with a top level team from Chins’s People's Liberation Army that was in Colombo this week. The team met with Defence Secretary, Herath and the armed forces commanders. It was led by Major General Jia Xia Oning, Deputy Chairman of Foreign Office, Ministry of National Defence and comprised Col. Sun Zhaoxing, Lt. Col. Cao Dongyuan, Lt. Col. Zhou Zhili and Major Xiao Xuyue.

Besides procurements from China, the Government is also examining purchases from the Russian Federation. Last week, Deputy Chief of Staff, Major General Sarath Fonseka, led an Army delegation to Moscow in this regard.

(www.sundaytimes.lk/040912)