Toppigala: Four Tiger camps fall like nine pins
With the East almost secured and a showdown expected at Toppigala- the last bastion of the Tigers holed up there- the military began its forays into the North via Vavuniya and Mannar during the past several months. The security forces had advanced more than five kilometers into the LTTE-controlled areas.
Small teams of seek-and-destroy Special Forces penetrated the deep jungles and were threatening to eventually push through the LTTE’s forward defence lines (FDL) in the Wanni.
Omanthai, entry/exit point to the Wanni, has been in the news for several weeks. There were skirmishes between the two sides in the area, forcing the entry/exit point to be shut and re-opened, only to close again, with the International Committee of the Red Cross pulling out after one of its huts were fired at by the Tigers. After assurances of security and to enable passage of the sick, the Omanthai checkpoint was re-opened yet again.
That the crouching Tiger was ready to pounce to stall the forward thrust of the security forces, was expected. They were expected to obstruct the security forces advance into Periyamadu, Palampidi and several areas west of Omanthai, which is heavily populated. The LTTE used civilians in Periyamadu, Kidachuri, Vilaththikulam and Madhu areas as human shields.
While the security forces kept making headway, they had to keep guessing as to the timing and the next move of the Tigers.
It was in this backdrop that Army Commander Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka visited Vavuniya on Saturday, June 2, where he met senior officers who pointed out a major Tiger buildup in the area. General Fonseka was told that the Tigers were preparing for a massive attack, possibly that very night.
After issuing instructions, the army chief returned to Colombo.
Around 7:30 p.m., hours after General Fonseka left Vavuniya, the 57 Brigade at Kalmadu army camp, came under LTTE artillery fire for more than half-an-hour. Two soldiers were killed instantly and 10 others injured in the attack. The 57 Division was created several months back by General Fonseka, who handpicked Brigadier Sumith Manawadu to head it. It was created with the Mannar operations in mind. Colonel Ravipriya was the other senior officer strategically placed there.
An hour after the first attack on the Kalmadu camp, the military base of the 16th Battalion of the Artillery Regiment at Pompaimadu west of Vavuniya came under attack.
Artillery shells fired from 130 mm artillery guns damaged one of the barracks of the soldiers, while an ammunition dump in the vicinity also exploded.
Commanding Officer Major W.A. Rohan immediately took precautionary measures to prevent the explosion of the other two nearby ammunition dumps. Artillery fire was halted for a while until it was ensured that these dumps were safeguarded.
The Tigers, simultaneously, targeted the FDLs of the security forces at Pokkarvanni, west of Omanthai.
A group of Tigers, numbering more than a couple of hundreds, broke out of their FDLs in the Wanni and captured a mortar base at Pokkarawanni, after soldiers from the 9th Gemunu and 4th Sinha regiments retreated to safer locations. There was a communication breakdown in the process. In the meantime, the Tigers seized two mortar launchers belonging to the security forces.
Reminiscent of the October 11 Muhamalai debacle, the Tigers sprang a surprise on the security forces. In the Vakarai operation too, the forces moved into an abandoned Tiger camp, only to be booby trapped. In Muhamalai, armoured personnel carriers crashed into pits that were dug up and camouflaged with grass.
This time around at Pokkarawanni, a group of Tigers, dressed in army uniform and speaking fluent Sinhala, beckoned an army officer and his soldiers of the Gajaba Regiment, to come forward.
As the unsuspecting officer obliged- believing the call came from scattered soldiers, the Tigers opened fire killing the Lieutenant. The soldiers realizing they had walked into a trap, immediately returned fire and fled the area. In another incident, Tigers spoke in Sinhala, as they flagged a military vehicle carrying injured soldiers and plundered the vehicle.
Involved in the latest operation was self styled Col. Bhanu, a former military commander in the East, and Swarnam, under whose command Sampur was lost and so was Vakarai. Vannakkili Master was put in charge of Tiger heavy weaponry.
Fighting went on till late Saturday night but, the services of the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) were obtained only the following morning. While identified LTTE targets came under attack by the SLAF, the army chief ordered the Special Forces to launch an attack on the LTTE, to recover the lost mortars. Dozens of Tigers died and several more injured in the many air raids this week.
According to the army, the Tigers fled from the area, in the face of the surprise operation, leaving the seized mortar launchers behind. The Security Forces consolidated their positions.
In the battle at Pokkarawanni, at least three dozen security forces personnel, including two Lieutenants, went missing and the ensuing search operation was not much of a success. The Media Centre for National Security maintained that only15 soldiers were killed and another13 missing, while there were 62 Tiger casualties. The Tigers, who conceded a dozen-and-a-half casualties, however, claimed that at least 30 soldiers were killed. In one of the fiercest battles after Muhamalai, nearly a 100 soldiers were wounded.
Prior to this battle, as a diversionary tactic, the Tigers claimed the military was on the verge of commencing a fresh offensive in Muhamalai.
The army yesterday overran four Tiger camps- Ibbanvila, Akkarathivu, Mawadi-ode, and Veppanveli- in Pankudaweli North, and Naarakmulla South.
Military spokesman Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe claimed that 30 LTTE cadres were killed during the battle yesterday and eight dead bodies were found and were likely to be handed over to the ICRC, as this edition went to press. It is a matter of weeks if not days before Toppigala falls, but the battles north will be crucial for the two sides in the weeks ahead.
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Govt ‘deports’ Tamils to their NE ‘homeland’
Even as the Government team on Tuesday was defending Human Rights (HR) in Sri Lanka, at the second Public Hearing by the European Parliament in Brussels, the establishment took an ill-timed security decision to evict Tamils from lodges in Colombo.
The very next day (Wednesday), after Sri Lanka got away at the Brussels hearing on HR and the LTTE got nailed there, UNP MP Laxman Seneviratne dropped a bombshell in Parliament,
claiming that Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, Colombo DIG Rohan Abeywardane and former Air Force squadron leader Nishantha Gajanayake were behind the current killings, abductions and disappearances within the country.
During the emergency debate, the chief opposition UNP and JVP MPs took the Government to task, urging it to bring the situation under control immediately, suggesting that democracy was at work. The Legislature- one arm of government- was keeping the Executive- another arm of government- at bay, at least in Parliament.
MP Seneviratne went into great detail, listing out abductions and how they were carried out with Government consent and security forces backing.
The disclosure in Parliament came hot on the heels of the Brussels HR success and days before President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s visit to Geneva, to attend sessions at the International Labour Organisation headquarters.
However, ahead of this meeting, Tamils were evicted from lodges in Colombo on Thursday, in a pre-dawn crackdown that was not only ill-timed but, poorly advised.
The Constitutional right to freedom of movement of individuals of one community, was violated by this executive action, by people obviously ignorant of the provisions of the supreme law of the land.
All the good work done by the team in Brussels was negated by this crass move to send Tamils back to their places of origin.
Successive governments, including that of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, have fought shy to even consider the North and East as the homeland of the Tamils. They have rightly maintained that the entire country is the homeland of all communities.
With one order, this government has recognized the North and East as the homeland of the Tamils.
Police Chief Victor Perera, barely a week ago, warned that “those loitering in Colombo will be sent home.” He was acting on the orders of a ‘higher authority’, and, as the whole exercise boomeranged on the Government, President Rajapaksa asked the police chief to submit an immediate report on the matter. A total of 376 Tamil persons, including 85 women, were asked to leave for their homes in Vavuniya, Batticaloa, Jaffna and Trincomalee, as they could not provide “valid reasons” for being in Colombo.
Some were indeed running away from the LTTE waiting to conscript them; some, perhaps, wanted to slip out of the theatre of war, owing to the split in the ‘Karuna’ group; yet, others wanted to avoid becoming victims of the security forces, and still others, did not want to become part of collateral damage or, simply get caught in the crossfire. For the benefit of all communities, any Tiger suspect must be singled out and charged in courts. However, hauling up all Tamils- whether from lodges or houses- is a crass act of inequality before the law, prejudice and racial profiling.
In the 18-month regime of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, this executive action was simply the worst discriminatory action towards a community by the Government. As some pointed out, the racial riots of 1983 and previously, were a reaction by mobs, while the government of the day dragged its feet to curb the violence.
While the decision and action was an indictment on one arm of Government- the Executive, the action by the Supreme Court, another arm of government, on Friday, to immediately stop this blatant violation of Fundamental Rights (FR) of a community, goes to show that Sri Lanka is not a failed State, as some would like to make out.
The court action, if anything, only underscored the importance of the doctrine of separation of powers.
The importance of civil society was also underscored, as the Supreme Court acted only after being petitioned. In this case the head of the Centre for Policy Alternatives, Dr. Pakiasothy Saravanamuttu, filed the FR petition. Not only was leave to proceed granted but also, an interim relief given to stop further eviction and allow Tamils forcibly moved to the North and East, to return.
“Nothing could be more inflammatory within Sri Lanka’s polarized climate than identifying people by ethnicity and kicking them out of the capital,” said Asia Director, Human Rights Watch (HRW) Brad Adams.
“The Tamil Tigers have carried out terrorist acts in Colombo and elsewhere,” said Adams, but cautioned that theG had no “right to engage in collective punishment.”
“The Government has every right to take action against individuals reasonably suspected of committing a crime, and to take security measures, when there are threats to the public. However, that doesn’t mean it can arbitrarily discriminate against a whole group of people,” said Adams.
The United States Government and the Norwegian Embassy issued statements strongly condemning this action.
Sri Lanka is a signatory to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which guarantees freedom of movement and choice of residence to all citizens within a State.
In the second public hearing on HR abuses in Sri Lanka, organized by the Development Committee of the European Parliament, Geoffrey Van Orden (EPP-ED) said the “the prime target of the LTTE is the Tamils themselves.” In the same breath, he, however, called on the Government to prosecute those who killed 17 aid workers in August 2006.
The diplomatic community is appalled by the failure of the Government to apportion blame on a single military officer allegedly involved in killings, since the beginning of the undeclared war. Such a failure may only suggest that the higher-ups within Government, want to keep the lid on such mystery killings.
François Danel for ACF, asked Parliament, at a plenary session, to urgently consider the issue of HR in Sri Lanka. Certain members of the European Parliament identified terrorism as the root cause of the prevailing situation and highlighted the complete denial of HR of civilians in LTTE -controlled areas. Max Van den Berg noted that “the logic of destroying your enemy, does not achieve anything” as illustrated by the situations in Northern Ireland and Spain.”
Robert Evans said, “I don’t believe a military solution is possible”.
Nirj Devadittiya another MEP asked “Why can’t the LTTE come to the negotiating table and discuss peace? The Government can’t talk to itself,” noted Devadittha.
Deputy Solicitor General Shavindra Fernando defended the Government, while Jeevan Thiagarajah, head of the consortium for humanitarian agencies, an umbrella organization for many NGOs operating in Sri Lanka, spoke of the humanitarian crisis in Sri Lanka, on account of the war.
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Kanthan connection: Deeper than cell phone links
The name Kuthupdeen- does it ring a bell? Of course it should, perhaps, alarm bells. He was the person implicated in the famous VAT scam amounting to a loss of billions of rupees to the country. However, not much progress has been made in the case after Kuthupdeen fled the country and is believed to be residing in Dubhai.
Another person to flee to Dubhai is Emil Kanthan, against whom there is an indictment on charges of attempted murder, pending in the Kalutara High Court. An open warrant is to be issued for his arrest and Interpol is being informed.
However, in the case of Kuthupdeen, no open warrant has been issued for his arrest. Kuthupdeen is learnt to have sold a vehicle to businessman Tiran Alles for Rs 52 million, and has reportedly given Rs. 100 million to purchase a property at Rosmead Place, for a group of companies, of which Alles was the Chairman. A person by the name of Muslin was the go-between in a deal where one of the companies- Communication and Business Equipment (Private) Limited- was to be a sub dealer for Dialog mobile phones in the North and East.
During the time Mangala Samaraweera held the Ports and Aviation portfolio, Alles was made the Chairman of Airport Aviation Services (Sri Lanka) Limited (AASL) while Kuthupdeen was pursuing the possibility of starting a dry port.
A consignment of LTTE propaganda material is still lying in the port uncleared despite a business partner of Alles, Dushantha Basnayake standing surety for the consignment.
Sleuths from the Terrorist Investigations Division (TID) stumbled upon a major fraud involving the transfer of monies out of the country from the airport when Alles was the Chairman AASL.
The modus operandi was that certain passengers in the transit lounge were allegedly given large sums of foreign currency in brief cases, to be taken abroad.
The authorities maintain that when this racket was brought to the notice of Alles, he had not done anything about it.
In one case involving an Indian Muslim by the name of Mohamed Ali and Sri Lankan Muslims including Mugi, Naina Mohamed and Zainulabdeen, a sum of Rs. 80 million in foreign currency was about to be slipped out of the country, when the detection was made at the transit lounge. The flight was Chennai-Colombo-Singapore, with transit at Katunayake.
Alles was asked to resign his position in February this year and accordingly vacated it on February 12, three days after Aviation Minister Mangala Samaraweera was removed from the Cabinet. Chandima Rasaputra succeeded Alles as Chairman and the Sri Lanka Air Force was put in charge of overall security of the airport.
Judging by the sequence of events played out in public, it suggests that Alles was targeted after Samaraweera was removed. However, the reality is otherwise, where even Basnayake had indirectly admitted so in an affidavit last year, stating their accounts were frozen last year.
On March 14, 2007, a month after Samaraweera was removed from the Cabinet, four companies- Standard Newspapers (Private) Ltd, Standard Printers (Private) Ltd, Communication and Business Equipment (Private) Ltd and CBE Security (Private) Ltd- as separate petitioners, filed Fundamental Rights Applications S.C. F/R No. 89/2007, 90/2007, 91/ 2007 and 92/2007 in the Supreme Court. The four respondents in all these four cases were The Monetary Board of the Central Bank, Governor of the Central Bank, Ajith Nivard Cabral, Chief Executive Officer, Finance Intelligence Unit (FIU), George N. Fernando and the Attorney General. The first two petitioners withdrew their FR cases, as the freeze orders on their accounts were allowed to lapse.
The investigation into terrorist financing began way back in mid 2006, after the FIU was set up on June 2, 2006. Officers of the TID had gone to a particular bank to obtain certain information of suspicious transactions of companies. They had the wrong account numbers and as a result the banks refused to divulge details. However, that very day the CBE had been tipped off and tried to withdraw nearly Rs. 60 million, raising the suspicions of the bank. In terms of the new laws, banks are expected to report to the FIU any suspicious transactions or, any transaction over Rs 500,000 threshold. (The Money Laundering Act was passed in Parliament in 2006). The police moved the High Court to freeze more than 30 accounts of these four companies. A further extension of the freeze order for eight more weeks in respect of 12 of the 30 accounts was sought. The rest was allowed to lapse. Now another extension of the freeze order, in respect of only two more accounts, has been obtained, while the rest of the accounts could be operated and in fact, have been operated.
The Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation accounts were also frozen last year, in keeping with the new laws.
Meanwhile, CBE came under a cloud last year when arrested Tiger cadres had admitted that they were given mobile phones by the Tiger leaders. These mobile connections were granted by the sub contractor CBE operating in the North and East. The sub contractor was learnt to have been paid a substantial percentage of each bill by the parent company, in terms of the legal agreement.
It is also learnt that Emil Kanthan had run up bills of four mobile phones up to Rs. 3 million and CBE had requested the parent mobile company to increase the credit limit, undertaking responsibility.
Kanthan’s list of telephone calls are being probed by sleuths who have come up with valuable information.
The CBE has also paid up to nearly Rs. 20 million for both the purchase of land in Pita Kotte and later building upon it for Emil Kanthan’s mother. The transaction was done by the company’s Finance Director Dushantha Basnayake who was also arrested. Some 30 vehicles, including many luxury types, such as Benz and Volvo, were also bought on lease agreements by the TNJ Company, allegedly set up by Alles in Kanthan’s name. UNP MP Dr. Jayalath Jayawardena stood surety for these agreements. However, the bank was compelled to write off these as bad debts, after reports that most of these vehicles had found their way to the uncleared areas. (Kanthan’s driver was supposed to have owned or used one of these luxury vehicles).
Emil Kanthan, who was placed in the Kalutara prison, on suspected terrorism charges, had assaulted Douglas Devananda in 2001, when the latter visited the prison, and an indictment in the Kalutara High Court, for attempted murder, is pending. A previous indictment in the High Court of Vavuniya, for terrorist activities, was dismissed, as the confession did not hold. The confessions had to be made to an ASP or a police officer above that rank.
The authorities claim they have the option of charging suspects under the Terrorist Financing Laws for actions in the past year or, under the Prevention of Terrorism Act or, the normal criminal law.
In a separate case S.C. F/R application No. 93/2007, CBE as a petitioner cited the Telecommunication Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka, its director general Kanchana Ratwatte, Defence Secretary, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, Dialog Telecom Limited and the AG as respondents.
Leave to proceed in this and the cases not withdrawn was granted by the Supreme Court, which however failed to grant interim relief and allowed the Attorney General to file objections before July 13.
Romesh De Silva P.C. along with Sugath Caldera and Eraj de Silva appeared for the petitioner while Additional Solicitor General Satya Hettige, P.C., appeared for the Attorney General along with Deputy Solicitor General Dias Wickremesinghe and State Counsel Shaheed Barrie. In the other two cases Deputy Solicitors General Buweneka Aluwihare and D.P.J. Aluwihare appeared for the AG and other respondents.
In the case 93/2007, the bench queried as to how the Defence Secretary could issue orders to stop call off the service. The relevant Emergency provisions were also looked into but the court was not satisfied but allowed the AG to file objections on Wednesday.
The petitioner Alles, who has been arrested, has given an affidavit that is in safe keeping, to the effect that several key government personalities had dealings with Emil Kanthan and it would be interesting to see how these developments have an effect on the larger probe that began with the setting up of the FIU long before the former Minister Mangala Samaraweera and his confidants fell out with the government.
(http://www.nation.lk/2007/06/10/newsfe5.htm)
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