POLITICS-SRI LANKA: Internecine Wars Rob Glory From Tiger Suicide Squads

By Amantha Perera Reprint | | Print |

Amantha Perera

COLOMBO, Jul 7 2005 (IPS) - When Vasanthan Vallipuram rammed a truck laden with explosives into a building full of soldiers in northern Jaffna Peninsula, 18 years ago, internecine killings within the Tamil Tiger militant group would have been the last thing on the mind of this member of its elite ‘Black Tiger’ suicide squad.

Since that fateful attack on Jul 5, 1987 Vallipuram alias Captain Miller has been synonymous with the almost legendary loyalty the suicide cadres have shown Velupillai Prabhakaran, leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), and the day itself celebrated annually.

Things changed, last year, when Ramalingama Padmaseelan alias Senathiraja, the Tiger political head in the eastern town of Batticaloa was shot inside the government held town on July 5 morning while reviewing commemoration for the ‘Black Tigers’ in the rebellious East of the island.

At least 264 Black Tigers have died carrying out suicide missions, the best know one being the assination of former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi carried out in May 1991, in revenge for setting the Indian army on the LTTE under an accord between New Delhi and Colombo.

Padmaseelan died eight days after he was shot setting off the worst fraternal fighting in Tiger history and continuing into Black Tiger commemoration ceremonies that fell this year on Tuesday.

The Tigers blamed Padmaseela’s murder on the faction supporting renegade commander Vinayagamoorthi Muralitharan alias Karuna who broke ranks in April 2004 and defected to government held areas in the east.

Reprisals came within days when a Karuna loyalist was gunned down inside the Batticaloa Prison while several others were killed inside a ‘safe’ house in the capital, Colombo.

Among victims of the infighting have been Elliathamby Lingarasa alias Kaushalyan, the former eastern political commissar, the highest ranking Tiger to have been killed during the three year cease fire with the government and Vinayagamoorthi Sivasudari alias Reggie, Karuna’s brother.

Within the last six months of 2004 at least 76 persons were killed in the East and the total figure from the internecine fighting exceeds 200, with an attack being reported almost daily.

While the ceasefire has more or less held in other parts of the island, the East has been wracked by the violence and growing distrust between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), as the Tigers are formally known, and Sri Lankan security forces.

“I think the situation deteriorated because the LTTE didn’t trust the Sri Lanka Army – they accused the army of knowing about Karuna hide-outs and in the very least turning a blind eye,” said a source from the Scandinavian staffed Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission that has extensive experience in the East.

The Army has steadfastly denied the accusations, arguing that the Karuna faction was operating on its own, along the border areas that separate LTTE and government areas.

“It is an internal problem; both the Karuna faction and the main Prabhakaran faction are from the LTTE. The fighting spills over to government areas because the Prabhakaran faction cannot control the other side,” military spokesperson Brig Daya Rathnayake told IPS.

The already strained relationship between the Army and the Tigers came under further pressure when a bus carrying 40 LTTE cadres hit a claymore mine at Welikanda about 70 km from Batticaloa on July 26. There were no major injuries in the attack, but the Tiger hierarchy was livid.

“The Army should have provided full security and safety to our members, but what has happened at Welikanda gives us serious concern over the genuineness of the Sri Lankan Government’s commitment to the ceasefire,” Tiger political head S P Tamilselvan told the head of SLMM Haugrup Haukland four days after the attack.

The Tigers repeated the charges that members were under threat in government controlled areas and that movement of senior cadres had been hampered by intelligence reports of possibly sabotage. The Tigers also issued a two week ultimatum to government forces to guarantee safety of cadres and asked that members of the security forces members travel in the same vehicles as Tigers as guarantee.

The SLMM has held several rounds of meetings with government and security forces’ representatives to reach an agreement but so far there has been no breakthrough. Spokesperson Helen Olatsdoftir indicated that the SLMM was hopeful of reaching a comprise but did not divulge details.

The Army however was not keen to consent to the Tiger request. “The request goes beyond their (Tiger) mandate. Providing security within government controlled areas is our duty but no one can make a demand,” Rathnayake said.

Heavy security greeted Tiger processions traveling through government held areas in the East during the commemorations. Armed soldiers manned the main route and members of the SLMM too were present at important locations.

Even inside Tiger-held areas where the main ceremony was conducted, cadres armed with machineguns kept a watchful eye. Banu, the Tiger Eastern military head, arrived at the main ceremony escorted by motorcycle outriders armed with sub-machine guns.

Eyewitnesses said that there was tension especially when the convoy passed through government areas.

Tension has been mounting since the murders of three members from the Army on Jun 30 just outside of Batticaloa town. The Army blamed the Tigers for the killings and the Tgers, last week, informed the Army that they did not require any escorts for their processions.

“These processions are very provocative, but we are used to this, the LTTE has been trying to provoke the armed forces right through the ceasefire this way,” Rathnayake said.

It was a far cry from northern Jaffna where the commemorations attended by Vallipuram’s mother went ahead with relatively light security.

‘’We will not forget all our cadres who sacrificed their lives and the Black July (anti Tamil riots) of July 1983, no matter what the government says,’’ said Banu (one name) LTTE military wing leader at a commemoration ceremony.

If violence increases in the East one of the fallouts would be disruption of reconstruction efforts that followed the Dec 26, 2004 Asian Tsunami. More than 40 percent of the damage was recorded on Sri Lanka’s east coast which also has a sizeable Muslim population.

President Chandrika Kumaratunga recently entered into a mechanism with the Tigers to handle aid but Muslim opposition soon erupted into public protests. She also lost parliamentary majority after a coalition partner quit protesting against the mechanism.

However, international donors who have pledged US 3.5 billion dollars for the reconstruction effort have welcomed the aid-sharing mechanism. Already the Tigers are disconcerted by the political uncertainty in Colombo. “In this situation will Chandrika government like to implement the signed P-TOMS (the mechanism) or can it implement the signed P-TOMS,” the official Tiger newspaper ‘Viduthalaipillikal’ has questioned.

Given such an environment Kumaratunga can ill afford to let the East deteriorate further into a free for all killing field, analysts said.