Sunday, March 05, 2006

"Stop wailing, put your house in order" - TVMP spokesman to LTTE

TamilEela Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal led by V.Muralitharam nom de guerre Colonel Karuna, denied any involvement in the so called attack and killing of the two Liberation Tiger cadres at the Vavunathievu sentry point in the East, on the small hours of Saturday.

Thooyavan the spokesman for the TMVP, while dismissing the allegation, said that it is understandable that Vanni Tigers coming up with all sorts of cock and bull stories against us only with the view to provoke us.

If we have attacked them, we would have courageously claimed it no sooner after any such attacks.

We always wanted to attack and chase them out of the East and this is a public secret, but at present we have declared a unilateral ceasefire against the Praba- Group in the East, therefore we exercise maximum restraint at the height of a sustained provocation by them.

We are waiting for the right opportunity to chase out the Praba- Group from the East and we are confident that Praba Group will sooner or later provide us with the right opportunity to embark on a final belligerent campaign against them.

Furthermore, we wish to bring to the notice of the international community of the sickening internal matters that are being going on within the Praba - Groups bases in the East.

To cite one example, there are about a total 120 persons, including underage trainees and cadres based in the ‘Dora Bora camp,’ - or else the ‘Panchu Maraththadi base located 5 Km from Tharavi, in the Topigala jungle area.

Cadres in this camp are paid a monthly allowance of Rs.7000 by the Praba group. We have observed the Praba-Group cadres daily fight amongst them, after consuming alcohol – local brew. According to the report of our intelligence group, in the middle of the nights they have often heard reportages of gunfire within the base followed by shouting and wailing of the cadres.

Similarly at the Vavunathievu base, after the influence of liquor the Praba - Group cadres must have fought amongst them and killed their colleagues and reported a different story to their bosses and there is every opportunity for their bosses who cannot leave their bases for fear of being attacked to release unconfirmed reports alleging us as attackers.

We wish to reiterate that we have not attacked them and if in case if we attack them, we would boldly claim such attack. Therefore, Praba - Group should stop its lamentation and take appropriate action to put its house in order in the East, before we chase them log stock and barrel from our land.

(http://www.asiantribune.com/show_news.php?id=17240)

Iniyabarathy -- the man reported dead by the LTTE -- is alive

Interview with Inyabarathy of the Karuna's Group

Iniyabarathy, the dare - devil commander of the Karuna’s group, who was reported dead in the LTTE websites and Tamil newspapers published in Colombo and Jaffna, spoke to the Asian Tribune yesterday. Twenty-four-year-old Iniyabarathy said jokingly: " Aiyah ( Sir ) contrary to reports I am still alive and healthy . Not dead yet and will never be afraid of death too. "

Recently Two cadres of Karuna’s group , Thuraisingham Chandrakumar alias Puhalventhan ( 21 ) and Sinnathamby Arunkumar alias Gnanatheepan ( 26 ), were captuted on 05 December and were paraded on 12 December, before pro-LTTE media personnel at the Thenakam guest house in the LTTE controlled Karadiyanaru, in the Batticalao district.

These two captured cadres told the media that the LTTE shot and killed Iniyabarathy and three other operatives last Monday.” (05 December) In his interview with the “Asian Tribune” Iniyabarathy dismissed the statements published in the LTTE media as propaganda. He said : "This is a propaganda exercise by the LTTE. We know about their games because we too were in the same outfit until March 2004. This not something new to us or to them."

He added: It is the common practice to put pressure on captured prisoners with threats and coach them to say whatever you want to say. They cannot speak their mind or tell the truth because of threats to their lives. They tend to behave like parrots in a cage" .

Iniyabarathy said, "Let me explain the whole incident for the benefit of your readers.

" We came to know that Vanni Tiger group has established a new army base in Kanchikudichchan Aru, near the Pannai Mali close to a small pond located in the area.

" We came to know that they were training underage children all under 15 years of age and nearly 40 of them were held forcibly and given training there.

" Then I decided to attack the base and save those abducted underage children from the grip of the Vanni group.

" On 04th December, I dispatched a 7 -- member group to locate the place which was situated in the midst of the thick jungles of Amaparai and collect all the information available.

" To go to the spot from Manthoddam, our people has to cross the Nediyakanaththai Aru and the crossing from one end to other is about 100 meters and it was a very deep at this point.

" Our group after reaching the other end located the training camp and came back crossing the river. In the river banks they had their meals and left evidence of their presence on the spot by littering paper wrappings and banana leaves unintentionally.

" On the 5th December I led a tem of about 40 cadres to attack the camp and rescue the underage children who were forcibly given military training in the middle of the mosquito infested thick jungles of Amparai.

" In the meantime the scouting team of the Vanni group which crossed the river and came over to the Manthoddam side found out the traces of the very recent movements of our cadres in that area.

" Now I understand they too must have decided to lay ambush and wait for us in the Manthoddam and on the opposite side. There must be more than 50 Vanni cadres in the ambush waiting for us.

" I led 40 of our cadres to the Vanni camp and when half of our cadres had crossed the river and was on the other side, they started spraying bullets on us.

"The exchange of small arms fire lasted for more than two hours and two of our cadres Suman and Thevan were killed and I received a gunshot injury near my hip. The bullet did not pierce through by the flesh but it just grazed me leaving a minor injury on the hip . It was nothing to worry - just a minor injury.

"On the LTTE side 5 of their cadres were killed.

" Meantime , those cadres who crossed the other side of the river, managed to cross back and joined us when we made a tactical withdrawal but, at that point of time I clearly heard Puhalventhan and Gnanatheepan failed to cross the river and were calling at the top of their voice for the direction and after sometime their shouts died down.

"Their shouting helped the Vanni group to locate and arrest them alive. Puhalventhan joined the LTTE in 1997 and Gnanatheepan in 1995.

" In 2005 April these two cadres along with thousands of others were returned to their families by Karuna Amman when he withdrew from attacking the Vanni Tigers attack of 10 April 2004.

"But later these two along with dozens of others joined us as they were continuously harassed by the Vanni group.

"After joining us, the two cadres were involved in more than half a dozens of successful campaign against the Vanni group and each of them would have taken their revenge on the Vanni group by killing more than ten of their cadres. "

Iniyabarathy said : "I feel sorry that we couldn't rescue such good cadres . I feel sad that they were caught by the Vanni group and harassed and tortured to speak against me and Karuna. "

Denying LTTE reports, Iniyabarathy said that he has never met in his life Maithripala Srisena, Aththaula and Douglas Devananda. He said: "Though I like to meet them out of curiosity, what benefit will I get by meeting them?" he asked

He said that he was arrested by the police on a tip off given by the LTTE in May and was remanded. According to the law of the land, at the end of 3 months and 10 days, as pointed out by his lawyer to the High court judge of Amparai, he was released on bail, when his case came up for hearing . He said he was released as there was no provision in the law to keep him under remand after the expiration of three months and 10 days and no body helped to get him released from the custody.

Iniyabarathy pointed out the news report in the media, including the ‘Asian Tribune,’ regarding the killings of Mrs. Yogarasa Yogeswary, 26, and Thurairasa Vathany, 17 were not accurate.

He said that Ganeshpullai Yogarasa alias Santhiran, the husband of the slain Yogarasa Yogeswary, was reported to be a womanizer and had two or three women as his keeps. On 08 December Mrs. Yogarasa Yogeswary was in her sister Vathany’s house. Santhiran went there and assaulted both the girls and shot and killed them before surrendering to the Vanni group.

That time Puhalventhan, the brother of the slain ladies was in the custody of Vanni Tigers . When Santhiran surrendered to the Vanni Tigers to avoid being arrested by the Sri lanka police, they hit upon the idea of exploiting these deaths to cover up and promote the LTTE as good boys. Their publicity gimmick was to make the two slain ladies Nattupattalar (patriots) and conduct a public funeral to honor them.

The people of the area who knew the truth refused to participate in the funeral ceremony conducted by the Vanni Tigers.

”Finally," he said, "I wish to categorically deny any role in the bombing of the Akkaraipattu mosque and also I will not comment on the whereabouts of Karuna Amman. This is another ploy by the Vanni group to accuse Karuna of hiding in India. We will not divulge any details about his whereabouts but I wish to confirm that we are being led by him and we will work under his guidance and direction only. "

Second anniversary of Karuna's revolt – Iniyabarathi recalls.

Iniyabarathi, one of the dare devil commanders of Colonel Karuna, Leader of the TamilEela Makal Viduthalai Pulikal recalls the revolt of his leader Karuna on 03 March 2004, against Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and its reclusive leader Velupllai Prabakaran. He declares that today after sacrificing nearly 365 of their cadres, 'thanks to our martyrs', - to the ruthless killing machine of Prabakaran, Sri Lankan political agenda is dominated by none other than his leader Karuna.

Iniyabarathy reminded Karuna's words of 03 March 2004, "There is no question of reconciliation with the Vanni Tigers, everything is beyond reconciliation. In future we will have a full self-administration (in the east).We'll receive no more command from the Vanni administration or from Prabhakaran."

These were the words of our leader - a clarion call and we all the Tamils and the Tamil speaking people without hesitation, whole-heartedly rallied round Karuna Amman, to safeguard our people from the Vanni Tigers, he said.

He said that two years have already elapsed and since then, though our losses were immense due to the brutal attacks of the Vanni Tigers, anyhow their sacrifices have not gone in vain. The martyrdom of our beloved ones has today made the world to know the atrocities of the Vanni Tigers and henceforth in any national or international forums or conferences on Sri Lanka's political issues, it would be the Karuna factor that would determine the issues and nothing else.

This was proved clearly even at the latest round of talks held in Geneva, where Balasingham spewed fear mixed with venom they have on us and their vulnerable position in the east. Balasingham is the aging so called spokesman who makes a living with his Australian born wife by promoting and glorifying Fascism and terrorism in Sri Lanka.

Iniyabarathy said today hundreds of devoted cadres are behind our leader and we are ready to sacrifice our lives to provide safety and security to our people as pledged to them by our leader.

He said that he joined the Tamil Tigers when he was an underage boy of 14 years, like one of his colleague Pillaiyan, the deputy commander of the politico military organization. Even earlier the martyred Lt. Colonel Kuhanesan who was killed while asleep in Kottawa too joined the LTTE when he was only 14 years of age.

While talking with "Asian Tribune" in a location in Batticaloa at his sprawling base, Iniyabarathy said that he joined the LTTE in 1994 and underwent arms training at Kudawatte. After the training he was sent to Vanni. According to him he served in Jaffna for a very short time and in Vanni until the end of the year 2000.

He said that he served for a total of six years in Vanni and during the Jeyasukru days he was the Company Commander, posted to be in charge of the Ceylon Theater LTTE camp in the Manal Aru.

He revealed that he is from Kaluwankerni in the Batticaloa district and there were two younger brothers and a sister in his family. Sister was the eldest and he was next followed by his two brothers.

His two brothers Konesakumar alias Lieutenant Bhanuthasan who was also with the LTTE and martyred while taking the forward defense position to wrest back Kilinochchi in the LTTE's hostile campaign "Unceasing Waves II."

Similarly his youngest brother Punithakumar alias Second Lieutenant Suthakaran too martyred at an encounter with the Sri Lankan amed forces at Vantharumulai in the Batticaloa region.

"All the three male members of our family, at one point of time gave our live and soul to safeguard the life of Prabakaran and the Vanni Tigers in the North. Today the same ungrateful Praba-Group has threatened my aged father, mother, my sister and her children. They have to flee and live as displaced persons far away from our home."

He said the people in the East today believe in Colonel Karuna. From Vantharmulai up to Puthukudiyiripu in the Batticalao district, a big swathe of land mass today remains under the control of the TamilEela Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal. "Even the so called areas which were earlier said to be under LTTE control such as Karutthapalam (Black Bridge,) Muthiraiadi, Panthura Veli too are presently under our control," he said. Even Tharavai has fallen and is under dual control. It is no more under the control of the Vanni Tigers alone and is almost something you may term us a 'no man's land', Iniyabarathy explained

When describing about his organization, Iniyabarathy clarified that as Karuna Amman has recently announced our TamilEela Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal is a politico – military organization. We are not crazy people or maniac to fight and shoot everyone we come across. Whenever we are provoked or attacked we will use weapons only on self defence.

Furthermore, he explained that there is no need for anyone to worry about disarming us. We have so far never challenged the sovereignty of the Sri Lanka Government. Our only desire is to have a Tamil homeland with self-rule, something similar to a federal unit encompassing all the geographically contiguous areas of the North and East that have been the traditional homeland of Tamil and Tamil-speaking people in the country. We want our Tamil people live with honor and dignity and as citizens enjoying equal rights, benefits and opportunities as enjoyed by others. We are against discrimination, but we are not against Muslims and Sinhalese people who live in our midst in the east as our own kith and kin without any problems for the last so many generations.

Recently, in the second week of December 2005, there were reports that Iniyabarathy was killed, but the next day he spoke "Asian Tribune" to prove his opponents wrong. "It must be clearly remembered that TamilEela Makal Viduthalai Pulikal is not a terrorist's organization like Vanni Tigers. Vanni Tigers today are banned in almost all the countries in the world. It is important that the international community has to pressurize the disarming of the Vanni Tigers who are always on a killing spree," he said. The fact is that Vanni Tigers who brandish lethal weapons and keep on killing each and everyone who opposes them are a killer-group which has to be disarmed, tamed and brought into the democratic mainstream, he explained.

Iniyabarathi vowed that as long as a single member of the TamilEela Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal is alive they will never allow the Praba-Group to remain in the East. This is the number one priority of our action plan and would be followed by other plans to bring an end to the atrocities unleashed by them in the other parts of the county.

In his concluding statement in the interview with the "Asian Tribune," Iniyabarathi, the young man, 26 years old, a commander dreaded by his opponents said that in their third year of the revolt against Vanni Tigers, he wants to have East of Sri Lanka devoid of Vanni Tigers and people in the area to live peacefully without the fear of death, destruction and war.

(http://www.asiantribune.com/show_news.php?id=17246)