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Tigers
at loggerheads
The
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) were restricted by
the military to an area of 121 sq. kms by February 10, and
by February 12, it was further restricted to an area of 96
sq. kms. To be precise, the Tigers have lost some 64 sq. km.
within six days. When the Tigers lose ground and manpower,
obviously they lose their unity as well.
LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran had instructed his cadres
not to allow any civilians to leave areas under their control
and if they still attempted to flee, to shoot them.
Reliable sources say that Thillaiyampalam Sivanesan alias
‘Soosai’, the Sea Tiger leader had strongly objected
to this order by Prabhakaran. But Prabhakaran had reportedly
disagreed with Soosai and told him to mind his own business,
as he (Prabhakaran) was the leader of the organisation and
was the decision maker.
“No one is above me,” he had reportedly told Soosai.
This incident had taken place, according to sources, after
the LTTE counterattacked on February 1. This has strained
the relationship between Soosai and Prabhakaran. Some of the
LTTE leaders such as P. Nadesan and Bhanu had reportedly tried
to iron out the differences, but unsuccessfully. Some leaders
are supportive of Soosai, and sources say that Black Sea Tigers
are providing round the clock security to Soosai. This is
said to be after Prabhakaran had given instructions to his
close aides to keep a close watch on Soosai. Prabhakaran suspects
that Soosai may beat him in taking a plane to flee the country.
So, if he gets caught doing this, the Tiger chief’s gunmen
will surely kill him.
Soosai very much alive but losing favour
Now it has come to light that, though the Sri Lanka
Air Force (SLAF) bombed Soosai’s hideout, and reports
suggested that he had been killed or severely injured, in
fact, he had narrowly escaped. When Theepan, one of the top
rung leaders had requested Sea Tiger support for the counterattack
of February 1, Soosai is said to have rejected the request.
This had prompted Prabhakaran himself to order Soosai to release
the necessary cadres for the attack and for him to command
it. This counterattack on the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) on February
1 was a total failure, as far as the Tigers were concerned.
The LTTE lost a large number of seasoned cadres. But Soosai
and Bhanu had blamed the LTTE’s intelligence wing and
its head Rathnam Master for failing to provide accurate intelligence.
In the melee, it is learnt that Soosai and LTTE Intelligence
head Pottu Amman are not seeing eye-to-eye. This is as a result
of Pottu Amman sending one of his intelligence cadres to Sea
Tiger Soosai’s inner circle to spy on his activities.
This spy had been detected by a Soosai loyalist and while
being interrogated had disclosed Pottu Amman’s plan.
Soosai had ordered his men to eliminate the spy.
At the moment, the LTTE leaders have strong misunderstandings
among themselves, as well as a lack of trust. But the LTTE
may counter this situation with P. Nadesan responding through
TamilNet and publishing some old photographs of Prabhakaran
and Soosai together, to tell the Diaspora that everything
is well within the organisation.
It is more a rule than an exception that, whenever an
organisation, however much disciplined, is beset with defeat
after defeat, misunderstandings are apt to crop up among the
leaders. For a terrorist organisation, the options are for
its leaders to go underground or surrender to the military.
But will they? The other option will be for them to arrive
into government controlled areas, posing as civilians, which,
technically, they are, and then live as moles or ‘sleeping
cadres’ to become active as and when necessary, since
they know the exact locations of concealed weapons. They may
resort to hit-and-run tactics.
Fight for survival or surrender
There are two options remaining for the LTTE in the battlefront.
One is to mount counterattacks or to fight for survival. What
if they mount counterattacks and still the Army repulses them,
resulting in greater loss of cadres? To surmount this problem,
they would keep civilians by force as a human shield and shoot
them if they attempt to escape. This is evident from the tales
related by those who had arrived in Trincomalee, after fleeing
LTTE held areas. They say the Tigers had shot at them while
they were trying to escape, killing some and injuring others.
Some others said that, even some LTTE cadres who had
been allocated guard duties, had discarded their weapons and
arrived in government controlled areas along with the civilians.
This means that Prabhakaran commits genocide of his own people,
something not done by ‘rebels’, but by terrorists.
Unfortunately, all or most foreign media based in Sri Lanka,
identify the Tigers as ‘rebels’, which in itself
is a misnomer. Well, at the moment, the LTTE lacks manpower
for battle or to use its weaponry. The only ace up its sleeve
is the brainwashed Black Tiger cadres with their explosives.
The final battle and arms hauls
On the 17th, 58 Division under Brig. Shavindra Silva
and his two Brigades 581 Brigade under Lt Col
Desapriya Gunawardane and 582 Brigade under Lt Col Sanjaya
Wanigasinghe, are now in the process of dominating the entire
Puthukkuduyiruppu western area. According to reports, infantrymen
of 6 Gamunu Watch (GW) under Lt Col Kamal Pinnawala , 8GW
under Vajira Welgadara, 12GW under Maj. Sampath Ekanayake,
11 Sri Lanka Light Infantry (SLLI) under Kithsiri Ekanayake,
10 SLLI under Lt Col Shamantha Wickramasinghe and 7 Sinha
Regiment (SR) under Lt Col Kitisiri Liyanage have been engaged
in pitched battles with the terrorists since February 16 morning.
The soldiers have maneuvered from north of A-35 road (Paranthan-Mullaittivu),
crossing several waterways and eliminated terrorist strongholds
on their way, before they reached their current positions.
According to available information, troops have collected
14 bodies of LTTE cadres after yesterday’s clashes.
57 Division commander Maj. Gen. Jagath Dias has instructed
his 571 Brigade Commanders Lt. Col. Harendra Ranasinghe, Col.
Senrath Bandara and Lt. Col. Senake Wijesooriya to clear the
liberated area as well to consolidate, to prevent any enemy
infiltration. During such search operations troops recovered
buried arms and ammunition.
On 16th, troops of 5 Vijayabahu Infantry Regiment (VIR)
led by Lt. Col. Jayantha Jayaweera, serving under 533 Brigade
commanded by Lt. Col. Jayanath Jayaweera found two 130mm artillery
barrels from general area west of Puthukkudyiruppu. The two
artillery barrels had been applied with grease and covered
with polyethylene before being buried by the fleeing LTTE.
Further search operations are now in progress, as the military
believes that the remaining accessories of the 130mm artillery
guns are also hidden in the surrounding area.
Take Force 3 under Brig. Sathiyapriya Liyanage is holding
the south of Mullaithivu and a part of Task Force 2 is conducting
search operations while holding captured ground.
58 Division under Brig. Shavendra Silva, with 582 Brigade
under Lt. Col. Sanajaya Wanigasinghe, along with one of his
battalion the 11 CLI under Lt. Col. Kithsiri Ekanayake, entered
west of Puthukkudyiruppu build up area. When the 11
CLI troops advanced on Maradapiliara canal crossing, an LTTE
suicide bomber blew himself up injuring eight soldiers. Battlefield
sources said that this particular suicide bomber had only
one leg. Soldiers had found an artificial leg along with his
remains. Troops also recovered Jonnie mines. Troops fired
RPG and one container exploded. The LTTE had mounted an attack
from higher ground, but troops launched an operation early
in the morning with a Special Infantry Operations team sneaking
into LTTE held areas and relaying the locations for accurate
artillery and T-55 Main Battle Tank (MBT).
12 GR under Lt. Col. Saliya Amunugama advanced north
of the A-35 road amidst heavy resistance. On the 17th, 58
Division under Brig. Shavendra Silva with 581 Brigade under
Lt. Col. Deshapriya Gunawardane and 6 GW under Lt. Col. Kamal
Pinnawala advanced their troops towards a village called Ampalavanpokkanai,
north of Puthukkudyiruppu. Troops detected six earth bundswhich
they demolished on 18th morning.
LTTE chemical weapons attempt
On the 14th, 58 Division troops advanced from Puthukkudyiruppu
north to south. Troops under Col Gunwardane and his 9 GW under
Lt. Col. Lal Chandrasiri, recovered buried weapons. Troops
advanced amidst heavy resistance along the A-35 road to four
kilometres west of Puthukkudyiruppu. Snipers from 9 GW effectively
targeted LTTE cadres and gunned them down. Troops didn’t
fire any kind of heavy artillery, as there was an elders’
home situated in the area. Advancing troops encountered booby
traps and some were injured by Johnnie mines, but troops tactically
moved on and evacuated 23 male and 32 female elderly persons
from the elders’ home. Further search operations in the
area of the coconut grove revealed buried white phosphorus,
a chemical, which, if not kept immersed in water, will burn
by itself. The white phosphorus in 25 litre cans was buried
only 10 metres away from the elders’ home. If any artillery
or mortar rounds had fallen where the phosphorus was buried,
it would have been a disaster.
White phosphorus has a significant, incidental, incendiary
effect that can severely burn people and set structures, fields,
and other civilian objects in the vicinity on fire.
RAW
gets new head
As
the LTTE was getting the battering of its life, by the SLA,
and the Tiger controlled areas were shrinking by the day,
another kind of battle came to a conclusion in India. It was
the appointment of the head of its intelligence apparatus,
the Research & Analysis Wing, famously known as RAW, headed
by Ashok Chaturvedi. The RAW chief had to relinquish his post,
after most government officials were taken aback by the intelligence
failures that led to the Mumbai terror attacks. At that time,
India’s intelligence units claimed that, though sufficient
warnings were given, the government had failed to follow up.
Verma on top at RAW
K.C. Verma has taken up the reigns as the new head of
RAW, as reported by certain media last week. This comes after
one of the most protracted and controversial contests to succeed
Ashok Chaturvedi, who, during his two-year tenure as head
of RAW, has blighted the agency with personality cults, corruption,
scandals, intelligence failures and allegations of sexual
harassment of female colleagues.
The new chief of RAW will have the daunting challenge of rebuilding
morale within the agency and prepare for more complex challenges
following the Mumbai attacks.
It had been widely expected that P.V. Kumar of Kerala was
the likely candidate to replace Chaturvedi. Kumar, the No.
2 in the organisation, is the senior China expert within RAW,
and is fluent in Mandarin and had stints in Hong Kong and
Beijing. The Cabinet Committee on appointments vetting the
prospective candidates, had sent a written recommendation
to the Prime Minister’s office (PMO) endorsing Kumar.
It appeared that his appointment as head of RAW was going
to be announced before Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was to
have a heart bypass surgery on January 24.
However, just prior to Singh being admitted to hospital, Chaturvedi
had sent a very critical confidential report to the PMO. The
PMO then returned the file to the vetting panel for a reappraisal.
The appointments committee instead endorsed the Home Minister,
P. Chidambaram’s recommendation of K.C. Verma as head
of RAW, who, unlike the other three candidates, was not already
in the spy agency. There had been surprise in some quarters
that the government would choose an outsider. Verma was always
regarded as a possible contender for the top job.
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