Chronology Of Ltte Terror - Part 46

From the Daily News Archives

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When the euphoria of victory dies down, and together with it the media hype ceases, when the guns do not rattle and boom anymore and the sky, the land and the sea become calm and serene, when tranquillity reigns through it is natural to live in the present moment and forget the past. But one cannot live in the present without a past. Nor can one envision the future discarding the experience of the preceding events. Hence the Daily News is serialising the Chronicle of LTTE Terror taken from our own archives which would remind our readers how it all began.

An awareness of the chronology of terror would help us prevent the recurrence of such terror and frustrate any attempts by misguided elements to repeat history to suit their evil designs. It was not simple terror. Nor was terror sporadic. It was all pre-planned, pre-determined, well-calculated terror. The victims were innocent people. Though it is too many innumerate we would like to recall the major episodes in the Chronology of Terror.

Ranjan Wijeratne briefs press on Govt’s dual approach... as Hameed flies to Jaffna to talk peace:

Stiff resistance by forces, but peace offer open...

Friday, June 15, 1990

By T. Sabaratnam

The government had decided to send chief negotiator, Justice Minister Shahul Hameed, to Jaffna today, to talk to the LTTE leadership, while the security forces defend army camps and police stations under attack, State Minister of Defence Ranjan Wijeratne, said yesterday.

Saying ‘fierce fighting’ was going on in the Eastern Province, he added Mr. Hameed would ask the LTTE to hand back the police stations,the arms and money they have grabbed, release the abducted 650 policemen and resolve the political problems through negotiations.

Mr. Hameed, who was to fly to Batticaloa yesterday to meet the LTTE leadership, had to cancel the trip when the LTTE leaders indicated their inability to proceed to the Eastern Province from Jaffna, where they are now.

“The LTTE indicated that its leaders would be able to meet Mr. Hameed in Jaffna on Friday,” said Mr. Wijeratne, cabinet spokesman at the weekly press briefing.

He said the Forces in the east were being strengthened and if the LTTE refused to hand back the police stations an offensive would be launched to wrest them back.

Question: Have you recaptured any of the police stations?

Answer: No.

Question: Have you taken steps to recapture the police stations?

Answer: Yes.

Mr. Wijeratne declined to divulge what steps were being taken to recapture the police stations, but he said the army was no longer confined to the camps.”

“Our President is bent on preventing bloodshed. He is always open to discuss these problems. You know that most ward end up at the conference table. Our President always has an open mind and is interested in solving the problem through discussion. At the same time, we have to protect the general public and establish the authority of the government.”

“Therefore the government is in the process of reinforcing its fighting arm with adequate military and defence personnel,” he said.

Mr. Wijeratne said the LTTE leadership could not defend the action of their cadres in taking over the police stations. The incident which sparked things off was very trivial, a dispute between a Muslim tailor and a Sinhala man.

“It does not warrant the takeover of police stations,” the minister said.

He said over 20 police stations had been taken. There was an attack on the Killinochchi police station which was repulsed. An attack on the Kinniya police station was also repulsed. No army camps was overrun.

Trincomalee was intact, he said. LTTE cadres were going about in their pick-ups and the army had not intervened.

He admitted the police had been taken unawares. That was the cause for the surrender.

“We trusted them. As they had answered the President’s call for negotiations we placed our trust in them. That’s why we were unprepared and taken unawares,” he said.

Minister Wijeratne said the LTTE’s current actions had damaged that trust - partly. But they were prepared to go on trusting the LTTE until the negotiations failed completely and they proved unworthy of such trust.

Question: What were your intelligence agencies doing? Didn’t they tell you of the preparations the LTTE was making?

Defence Secretary Gen. Cyril Ranatunge answered that. He said the intelligence services had reported the building of bunkers, the installation of sentry points and even the stitching of uniforms.

“They were not done secretly. Even many of you would have seen them. But we wanted to win them over by trusting them,” he said.

He said they had asked the LTTE leaders about such actions and they had said it was to defend themselves against RAW, TNA and the EPRLF.

Question: Did you believe them?

Minister Wijeratne replied that they were keen winning them over and dispelling their suspicion and mistrust which had grown over many years.

Question: Have you been trapped?

Answer: I hope Prabhakaran does not fall into the trap his cadres have laid.

Question: Are you capable of taking on the LTTE?

Answer: We are more than confident that we can take on twice the number of LTTE cadres.

He was asked what time-frame was given to Mr. Hameed to talk to the LTTE. He said: “Well, tomorrow, the day after and the day after...”

Mr. Wijeratne said India was being kept informed of developments through the Lankan High Commissioner in New Delhi.

He said about 500 Tamil boys in Colombo were taken in for questioning. “They are being released after screening.”

Question: The LTTE would have anticipated a Sinhala backlash?

Mr. Wijeratne: Thirty years ago, that would have happened. The Sinhala people are more mature now.

He appealed to the Sinhala people to protect the person and property of the Tamils living amidst them, they were not responsible for the criminal acts of the LTTE.

He said the government would continue its efforts to solve the problems of the Tamil people. The bill to dissolve the North-East Provincial Council would be taken up in parliament.

Describing the situation as “highly sensitive” Mr. Wijeratne summed up the position yesterday morning thus: “While defending the positions, to negotiate to take back the police stations the LTTE has captured”.

Tuesday, June 12, 1990

Ten soldiers killed in Kalmunai

Ten soldiers were killed yesterday by the LTTE in the Eastern town of Kalmunai and several police stations in the province, including Batticaloa had been overrun, reports reaching Colombo said.

A later report said that eight policemen from the Kalmunai police had died in a mortar explosion and that a number of policemen from the Samanturai, Potuvil, Akkaraipattu and the Kalmunai police had evacuated their stations. This report was not confirmed in Colombo.

The Army Commander, Lt. General Hamilton Wanasinghe and IGP Ernest Perera flew to Batticaloa last afternoon after disturbing reports of developments there had reached Colombo.

They had not returned till late evening yesterday.

Military sources in Colombo which first reported that the ten soldiers who had left their camp to buy supplies were missing and out of radio contact, later confirmed that the soldiers had been killed.

There were reports of more fatalities, among the police and the LTTE, when the Tigers had surrounded some police stations in the eastern province but these were unconfirmed.

Yesterday’s incidents had been sparked off by a scuffle in a refugee camp in Batticaloa.

A complaint had been made to the Tigers and this had been followed by the abduction of some policemen from the Batticaloa police station.

Police sources said the LTTE has been manning the Batticaloa police station from Sunday morning, following an incident that occurred near a refugee camp close to the police station on Saturday.

Reports reaching Colombo said the LTTE had abducted six policemen following the incident.

When the ‘Daily News’ phoned the Batticaloa police station yesterday afternoon, a LTTE member who took the call said: “Yes, LTTE here what do you want to know?”

He said the six policemen were released and the OIC and the other policemen had left for the Kallady army camp.

When the Daily News wanted the call to be given to their leader at the police station, he replied “our leader is not here”.

When the Daily News wanted the call to be given to their leader at the police station, he replied “our leader is not here”.

When the newspaper asked him about the incident, he said there had been some misfiring, but the situation was normal and they were looking after the area.

The Superintendent of Police, Batticaloa could not be reached on the phone yesterday afternoon.

While talking peace with Premadasa:

LTTE kills 400 policemen

Wijitha Nakkawita

The year 1989 saw the victory of the most controversial if not untraditional President R.Premadasa whose name goes down the history as a person who had acted in a manner to strengthen the notorious killer terrorist group the LTTE.

One of the first things he did was to ask the Indian Peace Keeping Force to leave when the LTTE was decimated by the IPKF to a few hundred cadres from its former strength of over 5000 at that time.

The next things Premadasa was noted for was to give arms, ammunitions, vehicles, cement and funds to the LTTE to add further strength to the terrorists.

Since he had also invited the LTTE for talks in Colombo and hosted them in a five star hotel and engaged them in talks and sent his peace emissary minister A.C.Shahul Hameed shuttling between Palaly and Colombo either he believed the LTTE could be persuaded to behave as other decent or ordinary organizations or he wanted the public to believe that the LTTE would now agree to give up its thirst for blood.

While Hameed was talking to top LTTE leaders like Mahendraraja (Mahattaya) Anton Balasingham, Adel Balasingham, for district level agreements with the Premadasa Government on May 28 the LTTE now with the IPKF off their backs were doing their own bloody calculations and planning to do otherwise than go for a peaceful way of doing things

On June 10 and 11 the LTTE overran more than eight police stations in the Eastern Province and chased the policemen out of the stations allowing only Tamil policemen to remain.

The next day it was reported that the Batticaloa police station was run by the LTTE and most other police stations like Kalmunai – 8 stations in all were under the LTTE and a few days before that the LTTE killed 10 soldiers at Kalmunai. It was now becoming abundantly clear that the peace mission of Hameed or the covert and traitorous assistance given by his President to a group of bloodthirsty terrorists who were fighting the national armed forces of which he was the commander in chief would not in anyway deter or change the objective of the terrorists.

The first reports that came in were sketchy as no one seemed know the fate of the policemen who had fled the police stations or whether they were in fact allowed to flee the stations.

As the news reports of the day were glossing over the efforts of the peacemaker President or the so-called peacemaker while he was also taking all available opportunities to impress on the public and the LTTE that he could bring the terrorists to work under the legal framework. One newspaper headline said “Hameed tells LTTE we should act with responsibility” (!).

However the stark truth was that nearly or over 400 policemen in the eight police stations were killed in cold blood by the LTTE and it was later known that Premadasa had asked the policemen to surrender to the LTTE either as a part of an agreement he had with the terrorists or he had believed that the LTTE would act with responsibility as his minister Hameed had said.

It took several days more to take back the police stations with the army deployed to capture the stations back and it took even longer to bring back the police to the east as the LTTE now cocky with the IPKF off their back and given arms and vehicles by Premadasa became a strong terrorist force that would take some doing to deafeat.

Saturday, June 16, 1990

Forces take over many police stations; 23 Tiger leaders killed

The report said in the ensuing battle, six LTTE leaders were killed.In Pottuvil, the STF moved in and took over all police stations in the area and also killed four LTTE leaders during the battle . They overran 18 LTTE bunkers and 20 small camps.

The STF then moved into Mannar and in the ensuing battle 12 LTTE leaders were killed. Many weapons had been seized in these operations.

Reports yesterday morning said the LTTE renewed attacks on the army camps at Kiran and Kalawanchikudy and several other security targets in the east.

The Tigers launched an attack on the Central Camp police post in Ampara on Thursday evening. The forces flung them back, inflicting heavy casualties on attackers, security sources said.

The LTTE’s regional leader in the Batticaloa, named Sangili, was killed when the army repulsed an attack on the Kiran detachment on Thursday, unofficial reports said.

German tourists safe

Thirteen German tourists reported missing at the eastern resort of Kalkuda, in the Batticaloa district, are safe a spokeswoman of the West German Embassy in Colombo said yesterday.

She said a press report that the German Ambassador had been marooned in the north was incorrect. The rumours possibly arose from the sion about the German tourists.

Meanwhile, the LTTE area leader, Reuban, was reported to have been seriously wounded when an army convoy, led by a major, routed some attackers in Trincomalee. Some LTTE cadres who fought under the dead Sangili’s command at Kiran, committed suicide after their leader was killed reports said.

Official sources confirmed a news agency report that the LTTE “lined up and slaughtered” 23 policemen out of the 60 men they had captured after taking over Kinniya police station on Thursday. This is what a policeman who escaped told the army. The fate of the other policemen is not known.

Muttur army camp has been under heavy fire since Thursday. Reinforcements sent there by sea were also attacked by the LTTE and had not been landed.

The LTTE surrounded Jaffna Fort, occupied by the army, and were seen cutting trenches, apparently in preparation for an assault. The army on Thursday occupied the KKS police station which the police had vacated. The LTTE has stepped up its presence at strategic points around it, official sources said.

Three bulldozers were being used for construction of a bund near the Palaly airfield. An LTTE fighter was killed and three others injured when the army fought off an attack on its camp at Elephant Pass on Thursday.

Mankulam police was overrun by the LTTE on Thursday night. Forces in control of Talaimannar pier withdrew from the area yesterday morning as a tactical move.

Three reserve constables of the Mullaitivu police post had deserted on Wednesday. They were believed to have joined LTTE ranks. An army lieutenant and a soldier were killed and a second lieutenant was wounded in an operation at Uppuveli on Thursday, reports said.

Unconfirmed reports said the LTTE had attacked several Sinhala villages on the Ampara-Batticaloa district border. Security sources in Colombo could not confirm this owing to a communication gap.

Security sources in Colombo were confident the LTTE would not succeed in capturing any of the army camps in the north and east despite the terrorists having intensified their onslaught since the initial attack.

Official estimates of deaths and casualties among the security forces were 24 dead and 37 injured up to noon yesterday. Security sources said LTTE losses were much higher.

Tomorrow - Govt rules out ceasefire in the North-East

Yesterday - Tigers slaughter 45 villagers

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