‘No Fire’ zone
under siege
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There is only 6 sq. km. to clear in Puthukudyiruppu, when the Army gains complete control of Puthukudyiruppu. Then, the ‘No Fire’ zone (NFZ) will eventually come under siege, because 58 Division will link with 55 Division and Task Force (TF) VIII will link with 58 Division.
Foreign spy satellites over Sri Lanka had picked up Prabhakaran’s images in the NFZ. Sources confirmed that Prabhakaran is alive in an underground bunker within the NFZ. What will be Prabhakaran’s fate? Is there any attempt to rescue Prabhakaran?
A senior Army officer from the battlefront said that there is only one more road to be cut off from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), to effectively besiege it in the NFZ, on the thin sliver of sandy land on the Northeastern coast. Once this road leading to the NFZ from Puthukudyiruppu too, is cut off, the LTTE will be trapped within the Zone.
Special Forces – The unsung heroes
The Special Forces and the Commandoes of the Sri Lanka Army have given their entire backing to the infantry to thwart any attempt at infiltrating the captured areas. These forces are the exceptional Units in the Sri Lanka Army (SLA). They have played a crucial role in the battles but remained obscure for obvious reasons. When the time is right, this column will give details of their heroic exploits.
Clearing & Search operations continue in liberated areas
57 Division, TF II, TF III, TF IV, 53 Division and 583 Brigades are conducting search operations in the liberated areas. These operations are extremely crucial for the security forces. The reason being, the LTTE cadres can always enter Government controlled areas as civilians. These cadres, at a later stage, once resettlement is complete, retrieve the buried weapons (Claymores, RPGs, grenades, arms and other ammunition) and begin the fight afresh or, at least, engage in guerilla type hit-and-run tactics. So, flushing out these weapons through search operations is vital.
Battle in progress
55 Division under Brig. Prasanna Silva is moving towards the NFZ and is only 1.5 kms away from their target, as this column is being written. LTTE fire artillery and mortars from NFZ incessantly. At any given time now, there could be a major breakthrough in the fight against the LTTE. In turn, the LTTE too, has adopted many ruses, both on the battlefield and in its international propaganda.
58 Division under Brig. Shavendra Silva has effectively advanced to the Puthukudyiruppu township and his 581 Brigade led by Col. Deshapriya Gunawardene have cut off the link roads from Puthukudyiruppu to Puthumathalan.
TF VIII led by Col. G.V. Ravipriya, along with his 682 Brigade under Lt. Col. Subash Welikala, 15 Sri Lanka Light Infantry (SLLI) under Lt. Col. Sujeewa Hettiarachchi, 1 Gemunu Watch (GW) under Lt. Col. Ajantha Weerasuriya, are involved in these operations.
A group of soldiers from 1 GW, in a well planned ambush, waited immersed in the waters of the lagoon for nearly eight hours, no mean feat by itself. Their patience finally paid off, when a group of LTTE infiltrators approached them, unaware of an ambush. When within range, the soldiers raised themselves from the water and opened fire, killing at least nine terrorists.
Tigers lose cadres, civilians forcibly mobilised into
battlefront, from NFZ
The LTTE is critically ill, lying on a hospital bed right now. The organisation is now fighting a deadly virus called the SLA. The virus has already infiltrated the LTTE’s most sensitive areas, with many of its top and middle rung leaders dying in action or being left critically injured in a hospital in the NFZ. According to latest reports, they include the LTTE’s senior most leader Sornam, who is said to be critically injured in his leg and lying in a hospital at the NFZ. Another leader, Lawrence too, is said to be suffering the same fate. Tigers killed in the battlefront are left behind with their weapons. Government soldiers bury those bodies, because there is nobody to hand over to. Tigers are not declaring their dead leaders names.
LTTE forcibly recruits civilians from ‘Safe Zone’, arm them and send them to battle along with LTTE cadres. If the civilians try to escape, they are gunned down.
LTTE desperately in need of ‘oxygen’
The ‘oxygen’ here is a cease-fire. In the 30-year history of the ‘Eelam War’, whenever the LTTE gets ‘oxygen’, it gets a respite to re-group and re-arm. But, in ‘Eelam War IV’, it has been strategically and tactically beaten by Government forces. Both the LTTE’s former and current political heads, S.P. Thamilselvan and B. Nadesan, have appealed for countless cease-fires. But the political and military leadership of Sri Lanka, by now, knows that, if they provide the much needed ‘oxygen’, it would spell another disaster. And the Tigers too, know very well that, the Government would not grant a cease-fire right now, and the LTTE has embarked on a propaganda war to pressurise the international community. The result was the USA’s permanent representative in the UN Security Council attempting to move a Resolution on Sri Lanka, so as to directly interfere in the conflict. The Resolution had included that civilians were being killed in the ongoing conflict between the military and the LTTE. The multimillion dollar questions is, how about those civilians being shot and killed by the LTTE itself, when they attempt to flee to Government held areas? Nothing regarding this or the killing by the LTTE of other Tamils has been included in the said Resolution.
Expose LTTE agent in USA
Enter Rudrakumar, the ‘negotiator’
Visvanathan Rudrakumaran
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The man behind this move is reported to be Visvanathan Rudrakumar, a lawyer based in the USA. He has been the LTTE link in the USA and is an American citizen as well.
Brief profile of Visvanathan Rudrakumaran:
Full Name: Visvanathan Rudrakumaran
Alias: Rudra
Known Addresses: Vannarponnai, Jaffna
Marital Status: Married
School Attended: Central College, Jaffna
Highest Education Qualification: Graduate of Colombo Law College
Background: Hails from Vannarapannai, Jaffna. Son of former Jaffna TULF Mayor Mark Vishvanandan. He is a USA based lawyer. He is the legal cum constitutional advisor to the LTTE. His primary task in the USA was to help Sri Lanka refugees enter the US. He was a member of the official delegation of the LTTE in several rounds of peace talks with the government. During the last peace talks in Geneva, Rudrakumar was assigned to play the role of ideologue in the absence of Anton Balasingham. It is learnt that Rudrakumar has close links with top officials of several governments including the United States and Canada. Using these links, he has managed to gain some recognition for the LTTE in these countries, where the LTTE has been banned.
Political Activities: Participated in the Thimpu Talks in 1985.
Participated in The 4th round of Peace Talks Phase I, with the Government, in Thailand, at Sattahip Naval Base from 16/09/2002 - 18/09/2002.
Participated in the 4th round of Peace Talks Phase II, with the Government, in Thailand, at the Rose Garden Hotel in Nakorn Pathorn from 31/10/2002 - 03/11/2002.
Participated in the 4th round of Peace Talks Phase III, with Government, in Norway, at the Raddison Plaza Hotel, Oslo, from 02/12/2002 - 05/12/2002.
Participated in the 4th round of Peace Talks Phase IV, with Government, at the Thailand Rose Garden Hotel in Nakorn Pathorn, from 06/01/2003 - 09/01/2003.
Participated in the 4th round of Peace Talks Phase V, with the Government, in Germany, at the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Berlin, from 07/02/2003 - 08/02/2003.
Participated in the Oslo Talks (failed) with Government in Norway, at the Thorbjornrud Hotel in Jevnaker near Oslo from 08/06/2006 - 09/06/2006.
Participated in the Geneva Talks II, held from October 28 & 29 2006, as a negotiator. Arrived in Geneva from the USA.
Other Activities: He participated in the Canberra Conference in 1996, in which, supporters of the separatist movement in Sri Lanka had gathered.
He wrote an article in the pro-LTTE magazine in the US in November 1998, that Serbian President Milosevic had sent 40,000 troops to Kosovo, which used excessive and indiscriminate force to put down the political aspirations of the Kosovans, while the then President Chandrika Kumaranatunge had deployed over 100,000 troops to put down the political aspirations of the Tamils in Sri Lanka.
He had organised Heroes Day in New Jersey in November 1998.
He participated in an international conference organised by the Academic Society of Tamil Students (ACTS) of Carleton University and the University of Ottawa on the theme “Tamil Nationhood & the Search for Peace in Sri Lanka” held on May 21 & 22, 1999, in Ottawa, Canada.
Delivered a special address on the LTTE’s Heroes’ Day celebration at New Jersey, USA, organised by a Tamil Front Organisation.
He had made arrangements for an agreement to be signed between the LTTE and South Sudan People’s Liberation movement in July 2002.
The LTTE’s constitutional committee meeting was held in Paris in August 2003; and as an advisor for constitutional affairs he convened the meeting.
Several hundred Tamil Americans braved the weather to pay tribute to the late Anton Balasingham, theoretician and political advisor of the LTTE, at a memorial event held in Manmouth Middle School in New Jersey, on 03.02.2007. Balasingham was diagnosed with Bile Duct cancer in the middle of November, and passed away on December 14, 2006.
Some observers pointed out that, since the LTTE was a banned terrorist organisation in the USA, Rudra Kumaran, as an international legal advisor of the LTTE and citizen of USA, cannot act on behalf of the LTTE in the USA.
Rudrakumar always talks and writes of a Kosovo-type resolution to the Tamil problems in Sri Lanka. The most significant fact is that, he compares ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, with the Tamils in Sri Lanka.
Rudrakumar was responsible for coordinating the Defence at the Rajiv Gandhi assassination trial in India, Suresh Manikkavasagam trial in Canada, and challenging the US designation of the LTTE as a terrorist organisation.
The US State Department seems to have conveniently ignored an American citizen, Visuvanathan Rudrakumar, based in the US, providing expert advice or assistance to the Sri Lanka Tamil Tiger organisation, which is designated by it as a foreign terrorist organization, explicitly prohibited by Federal law (US Code Title 18 part 1 chapter 113 B (2339A) providing material support to terrorism.
What is the reason that the US government is not taking any legal action against Visuvanathan Rudrakumar with regard to the above law?
Rudrakumar had delivered a speech in Switzerland on April 2006, about the policy statement of the LTTE, which coincided with the 62nd General Assembly of the UN. In his speech, he states that, this is not just another statement of the LTTE, but a policy statement that spells out its future strategic direction. The final section of the paper that refers to the expectations of the LTTE is as follows:
a. To recognize the concept of the sovereignty of the Tamil people and support the peace process in accordance with this principle.
b. Provide appropriate opportunities to the Tamil people to express these aspirations, as have been given to the people of East Timor and Kosovo.
PRESENT APPOINTMENT: International Legal Adviser and International & Diplomatic Affairs of the LTTE. Following death of Anton Balasingham, he is acting as a Political Advisor to the LTTE.
Rudrakumaran enjoys excellent relationship with US State Department officials and some members of the US Senate and Congress. Thus, he influences them to pass a Resolution on Sri Lanka at the UN Security Council. But China and Russia have used their veto powers and said clearly that the Security Council should not meddle in Sri Lanka’s internal affairs.
TRO Active in Geneva
Arjunan Edriweerasingham, the TRO man
While the Security Council was attempting to adopt the Resolution, Arjunan Ethiriweerasingham, head of the LTTE front, the Tamils Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO), and son of Professor Ethiriweerasingham, who lives in Los Angeles, USA, had participated in the Ottawa Conference in 1999, and had been in the Colombo TRO office as a Project Director until 2006, was busy otherwise.
Arjunan Ethiriweerasingham has tremendously influenced the UN Human Rights Commission (UNHRC). He had stayed in a Swiss hotel one month prior to the UN SC Resolution being introduced. The LTTE’s procurement head KP is said to be financing the TRO and through it, Arjunan’s hotel and entertainment bills as well.
This is a ridiculous situation, as the United Nations is supposed to be an impartial world body and it has to first think of the civilians being held as human shields by the LTTE in the north. The LTTE, at this juncture of the last stages of battle, needs ‘oxygen’ desperately. According to information, the Tiger outfit still is in possession of satellite communication facilities and is busy propagating its propaganda. Civilians who had managed to flee the LTTE held areas and reach Government controlled areas, have stated that the propaganda office area was a highly restricted zone and that no one was allowed entry.
LTTE imposes curfew
The LTTE imposed curfews in the NFZ for two main reasons, according to intelligence sources. One is to prevent the civilians from attempting to flee towards Government controlled areas.
The other is to facilitate the movements of Tiger Chief Velupillai Prabhakaran and his son Charles Anthony, within the NFZ. A foreign spy satellite had captured images of Prabhakaran and his son Charles Anthony moving around in the NFZ last week. Well informed sources indicate that Prabhakaran is living in underground bunkers and frequently changes his place. He lives among the Maveerar families.
Prabhakaran’s fate
Velupillai Prabhakaran will never ever come over to the Government controlled areas. The reason being that, the intelligence services are now very familiar with his appearance and pictures of him have already been published.
In the early 1970s and 1980s, the Army and Police hunted Prabhakaran, but were unsuccessful, as they did not possess pictures of the Tiger leader. He is said to have destroyed all or most of his photographs at that time. If he wants to escape now, the only other means will be by sea. Or the ultimate alternative will be to commit suicide.
The LTTE has heavily booby trapped the NFZ, similar to what they did at Puthukudyiruppu, to prevent the civilians from fleeing. Sources say that the amount of explosives used to booby trap the 15 sq. km. NFZ, could blow up the entire area, including the civilians still trapped in the area. The Tigers would then put the blame on the military and international propaganda will blame the military for killing innocent civilians.
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