After an hour long flight from Kilinochchi last Tuesday afternoon, Squadron Leader Bandu Edirisinghe guided the Sri Lanka Air Force Bell 212 helicopter to a smooth touch down. That was on the tarmac at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) almost opposite the fenced off Public Viewing Gallery (PVG).
Such chopper landings in this high security zone are rare. That is an exclusive privilege only for the President and the Prime Minister. Cabinet Ministers are permitted under exceptional circumstances. So are visiting foreign dignitaries.
Co-pilot Flight Lieutenant Ravi Dharmasena signalled to the occupants in the chopper to remain seated. Rotor blades were still whirling kicking up clouds of dust. It settled only after Sqn. Ldr. Edirisinghe shut down the engines. The VVIP on board and those who escorted him began to disembark.
Clad in a T-shirt and black trouser, this VVIP, a tall, well built man found difficulty in rising from his seat. A bodyguard thrust his hand and helped him out. That was how Thillayampalan Sivanesan, better known as Soosai, set foot on the very soil from where his Black Tiger colleagues launched a devastating attack on the Air Force Base and the International Airport. That was more than three years ago, on July 24, 2001.
As leader of the sea going arm of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), Soosai was very much associated with this attack. On July 22, 2001, two days before the incident, as revealed in The Sunday Times (Situation Report - November 18, 2001), a lorry fully loaded with dried fish arrived in Puttalam from Mannar. After unloading the cargo, this blue Isuzu Elf lorry went to a secret location near the sea coast off Puttalam.
The weaponry for use in the attack and six Black Tiger cadres (who joined others already waiting) arrived there by sea from a Sea Tiger base in the western coast of the Wanni. The men boarded the lorry with the weapons and reached Kattuwa in Negombo to launch the attack two days later.
Last Tuesday, Soosai, known to his colleagues as Sera Oscar, after his radio call sign, was arriving at the same BIA as a VVIP. He earned the privileges good enough for a President or Prime Minister. Also alighting from the helicopter was Gnanasekeram Camillus Dharmendra, described as a doctor serving with the LTTE. Two bodyguards - Sakhayaratnarajah Quintus and Gopalapillai Sathyamuhundan - were also on hand. Also accompanying them were Edgar Klovfjell of the Norwegian Embassy in Sri Lanka and Raja Wickremasinghe of the Secretariat Co-ordinating the Peace Process (SCOPP).
Group Captain Vijitha Gunaratne of the SLAF tasked with ensuring the security and related arrangements for the LTTE team was there. Also on the tarmac to meet them were a host of others including deputy Airport Manager S.N. Salgado and Duty Manager W.A.J.N. Wickremaratchchi. Whilst they kept talking, airport workers loaded the LTTE team's baggage from the helicopter into a waiting Double Cab. Later the team boarded a mini passenger coach parked on the tarmac.
The coach drove out first followed by the Double Cab from the airport gate and along the Canada Friendship Road. Within minutes they were at the Airport Garden Hotel located on the main Negombo - Colombo highway. Tight security measures were in place along the route.
Seated in a room at the hotel Soosai made overseas calls. One was to LTTE Chief Negotiator, Anton Balasingham in London. Later the foursome chatted to each other while Air Force troops stood guard outside. Dinner was over and it was 11.30 p.m. when Air Force personnel escorted one of the bodyguards and the team's baggage to the airport. They were checked in after Security and Customs inspection.
Around midnight Soosai, his doctor and the remaining bodyguard arrived at the airport under Air Force escort. He was dressed in the same T-shirt and black trousers he wore for his trip from Kilinochchi. All four went through immigration formalities. Later, with the exception of Soosai, others were body checked by the airport security staff. They said he was left out because of his medical condition. He found it difficult to get up once he sat on a chair. An eye witness at the scene said "he looked in pain though he kept smiling as he walked. He was shy and looked uncomfortable."
The LTTE team was not taken to the departure lounge where the other passengers waited. Instead they were escorted to another lounge (Gate No: 5 and 6) which was not in use by then. When the departure time for the Sri Lankan Airlines flight UL 316 to Singapore came near, they were taken through an apron gate and allowed to board the flight. The foursome settled down to Business Class seats in the Airbus A330 Aircraft. Captain Ramesh Jayasinghe took off on schedule at 12.30 am Wednesday.
Even before the Air Force helicopter touched down at the Central College Grounds in Kilinochchi that Tuesday to pick up Soosai and party, news was out in Tamil media circles. They knew Soosai was being flown out for emergency medical treatment. Only a very small section in a specialised arm of the Police and a much smaller section in the military establishment in the east debated otherwise.
They pondered over wild speculation of a widening rift between Tiger leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran on the one hand and his close confidante Soosai and Sornam on the other. That would no doubt have been a serious development, particularly after the exit of renegade Eastern leader, Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan alias Karuna. If true, that would have amounted to signs of a major break up in the LTTE. That was not to be.
Sornam is now overall LTTE military "commander" for Trincomalee, a position he would not have been able to hold if he was under suspicion. But loose talk about him was laid to rest after Sornam addressed 17 Tamil National Alliance MPs at a meeting in Sampur in Trincomalee also last Tuesday. The subject was tackling poverty and development issues. Even more significant was discussions on moves to win over the Muslim community in the district. More importantly none of the State intelligence agencies had disseminated any information to confirm speculation about a rift. To the contrary, two major agencies in separate accounts declared that reports of rifts was only rumour. Soosai, like Karuna, belongs to the first batch of cadres trained in Tamil Nadu.
Long before Soosai boarded the Air Force helicopter in Kilinochchi, Editors of some of the Tamil media, both in Colombo and in the North, received calls from Norway. It was LTTE Political Wing leader, S.P. Tamilselvan, making a personal appeal on Monday night to them not to run the story until Soosai had departed Colombo. Almost all of them obliged except one Tamil newspaper in Jaffna. That was their front page lead story on Tuesday. It is not clear whether staff at this newspaper was spoken to but their report went on to say Soosai was heading to a European country. There were also widespread rumours that he had left for Norway.
In Colombo, the Government's official silence was broken only by Tuesday afternoon. A news release from the SCOPP said:"The Secretariat for Coordinating the Peace Process (SCOPP) was informed by the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Colombo that a Senior Commander of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) - Thillayampalam Sivanesan alias Soosai - was in need of emergency medical treatment abroad because of his rapidly worsening condition caused by an old injury sustained in conflict.
"The assistance of the Government of Sri Lanka was sought to facilitate his departure from Sri Lanka on Tuesday 19th October accompanied by his medical team. "In response to this, and on humanitarian grounds, the LTTE group was transported by the Government from Kilinochchi to Colombo. Thereafter, the group travelled abroad on Sri Lanka passports at their own expense."
If Soosai had notched up a VVIP privilege by arriving at the tarmac of the BIA from Kilinochchi in a SLAF helicopter, that was not the only one. There was another first for him. He joined that select band of fortunate Sri Lankans who could obtain a passport within hours instead of days. Tillekeratne Ranaviraja, Secretary to the Ministry of Public Security, Law and Order (who was also acting as Defence Secretary then) had directed the Controller of Immigration and Emigration E. Jinadasa to issue him a passport on a priority basis.
Sri Lankans requiring an "all countries" passport within a day are required to make a payment of Rs 5,000. However, procedural delays have led to such issues being made in two to three days. Mr Ranaviraja has been a strong advocate to abolish this system on the grounds that it was not altogether fool proof. But here was a case he could not turn down even if he wanted to.
Soosai received a fool proof "N" series passport. It was N 13565685 dated October 18, 2004. His address was given as Polykandy, Valvettiturai though Soosai no longer lived there. His date of birth in the passport is given as October 16, 1963. Though the duration of the passport is for five years, an endorsement has validated it only for one journey. Upon return, he will be required to apply to the Department of Immigration and Emigration to revoke such invalidation for travel again.
According to LTTE sources in Kilinochchi, plans for Soosai's departure abroad for urgent medical treatment came only after a visit to his residence, somewhere in the eastern part of Wanni, by his leader, V. Prabhakaran, a week ago. An old injury has been causing pain forcing him to remain in bed. That was how, despite prior announcements, he could not attend ceremonies in Kilinochchi to commemorate the 17th death anniversary of "Second Lieutenant" Malathi - the first female guerrilla cadre to die during confrontations with the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF).
In fact Soosai sustained injuries on the back of his shoulder, near the neck, during an IPKF ambush in 1989 in Nithiyakulam in the Wanni. He was rescued but Nadesan, the "chief" of the so called Tamil Eelam Police,was bleeding in his stomach after an injury and was given up for dead by other guerrilla cadres. However, he had been evacuated by IPKF troops to the Jaffna Hospital where he received medical attention. Upon recovery he had been transferred to jail. It was only after his release that the LTTE leadership knew Nadesan had survived. He is a member of the LTTE delegation led by Mr. Tamilselvan that toured European and Scandinavian countries. They are due in Colombo today en route to Kilinochchi. Another who was injured in the incident was Tamilendi now head of the LTTE Finance Division.
Medical reports made available by the LTTE to the Norwegian authorities, and its contents later bared to Government officials, The Sunday Times learns, speaks of Soosai’s medical condition being caused by shrapnel moving closer to the neck. According to LTTE sources, though Soosai intended to undergo surgery in a Singapore hospital, he had been medically advised not to. He is now completing physiotherapy to move the shrapnel from a delicate area.
This is being done whilst he is in a hotel where Singapore authorities had provided him with security. Since he has been advised by doctors that he is out of danger, Soosai and party are expected in Colombo today. Thereafter, he will receive an Air Force helicopter for his flight to Kilinochchi. There is a strong likelihood the Tamilselvan delegation may stay overnight in Negombo. This will mean the two sides could leave for Kilinochchi together thus saving transport costs for the Air Force.
Soosai is ranked as an important military leader in the LTTE because of the vast strides the Sea Tigers had made under his command. He had personally supervised the smuggling in of sophisticated military cargo during the ceasefire period. The Sea Tigers was set up by the LTTE in 1984. Its original tasks were to transport supplies from the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu, evacuate casualties there, help guerrilla cadres escape and ferry leaders.
However, it has since been modelled on the lines of a Navy with battle units, under water demolition teams, strike groups, engineering / boat building units, radar / telecommunications units, marine weapons / armour / dump group and a reconnaissance and intelligence unit among others.
Both the previous United National Front Government as well as the ruling UPFA have responded to Tiger guerrilla requests on humanitarian grounds. During the UNF's tenure, the LTTE made a request to airlift Kandiah Balasekeran alias Balraj. He was brought down to Colombo from Kilinochchi in an Air Force helicopter and helped to board a Singapore flight. There Balraj underwent treatment for a heart ailment. He returned to Colombo and was again ferried in an Air Force helicopter to Kilinochchi. And for the UPFA Government the request was to send Soosai to Singapore.
One cannot fault any Government for acting on humanitarian grounds particularly during a ceasefire where they strive to engage in confidence building measures. During confrontation, however, things have remained different. An example was a request by the LTTE, through Norway, to allow Anton Balasingham to leave Wanni, on humanitarian grounds, to receive treatment for an acute Diabetic condition did not materialise. The Government in turn placed some conditions to accede to this request. Later, Mr. Balasingham was helped by the LTTE to travel surreptitiously by sea to Singapore from where he flew to London.
But the question that begs answer is one of reciprocity. Has the UNF or the UPFA Government been in a position to obtain any significant concessions from the LTTE on humanitarian grounds? The recent arrest and detention of two Home Guards - Sarath Bandara and Chandana Piyasiri - after 68 days in custoday near Trincomalee is a case in point. Their relatives and loved ones had to launch a public agitation. Thereafter, freedom for them came only when the Government saw to the release of ten suspects from the Batticaloa jail facing charges under the laws of the land. Demands to release them on humanitarian grounds fell on the deaf ears of the LTTE.
These developments came in a week where the country's defence establishment was busy with several important matters. One was talks a visiting five member Indian delegation held with Defence Secretary Cyril Herath who headed the Government delegation.
The Sunday Times learns the Government side made clear during the talks their inability to offer an undertaking that only India and Sri Lanka would use the Palaly airport. This was a condition for Indian Government help to modernise the airport including the full rehabilitation of the runway. As exclusively revealed in The Sunday Times (Situation Report) last week, the Government will go ahead with its Rs 360 million project to rehabilitate the runway to bring it to its original condition. The outlines of a draft Defence Co-operative Agreement reached in Colombo now waits finality. Such a draft is learnt to exclude references to the Palaly airport..
Another is a series of new appointments made by Army Commander Lt. Gen. Shantha Kottegoda. Main among them is the appointment of Brigadier Daya Ratnayake as "Director Media at Army Headquarters and head of the Media Unit of the Op Hq of the Ministry of Defence." This is with effect from last Friday.
The former Director Media and Military Spokesman, Col. Sumedha Perera, was relieved of his responsibilities last Friday. He is now on leave with half pay. Yesterday, President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, sent a written directive to Lt. Gen. Kottegoda in her capacity as Minister of Defence to suspend him from the Sri Lanka Army. This followed a recommendation made by the Army Chief to the Defence Ministry last week. Col. Perera is indicted in the Colombo High Court for aiding and abetting forgery in a fraudulent land transaction - a charge which he denies.
The Sunday Times learns Lt. Gen. Kottegoda is to re vamp the Army's Directorate of Media to ensure higher professional standards are maintained with media, and through them, with the public. With this in mind several changes are expected.
Other changes ordered by the Army Chief include: Brigadier N.R. Vithanage to overlook duties of Military Secretary at Army Headquarters. This is after the retirement of the present incumbent, Maj. Gen. K.B. Egodawala on October 31.
Brigadier R.K.P. Ranaweera to be Director Budget and Finance from November 1. This post is now overlooked by Major General Basil Peiris, Adjutant General.
Brigadier Aruna Jayatilake to be appointed as Director Training with effect from October 25. He is succeeded as officiating Commander, Area Headquarters, Kandy by Col. Lalith Daulagala. The present Director of Training, Brig. Srinath Rajapakse has been posted as Brigadier (General Staff) at Security Forces Headquarters in Wanni.
Brigadier Mahesh Samaraweera has been appointed to overlook duties of Director, Staff Duties and Director, Psychological Operations with immediate effect. Brig. Madura Wijewick-rema who held the position is to function as Brigadier (General Staff- Sy) at the Headquarters Log Command.
Col. N.A.J.C Dias to function as Commandant, Infantry Training School with effect from October 25. His post as officiating commander of the 534 Brigade is to be taken over by Col. M.H.S.B. Perera.
Lt. Col. A.L.D.M. Gunasekera has been appointed as officiating commandant of the 521 Brigade with effect from October 25. His present position as Col. (GS), Directorate of Operations, Army Headquarters is being taken over by Lt. Col. M.A.M. Dias.
The UPFA Government is sure to have more requests from the LTTE on humanitarian grounds. It is imperative that an action programme is on hand, not to refuse them but to ensure there is reciprocity. That is to enable humanitarian demands of the Security Forces, the Police and even the Government are heeded by the LTTE. It is clearly one sided now.
(http://www.sundaytimes.lk/041024/columns/sitrep.html)
