Killing Time In Batticaloa

The eastern coastal town of Batticaloa has become the main battlefield between forces loyal to LiberationTigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) leader Velupillai Prabhakaran and those who still continue to support renegade'commander' Vinayagamoorthi Muralitharan alias 'Colonel' Karuna.

Karuna, who declared independence from the LTTE central command, fled his stronghold and defected to government-controlledareas on April 9,2004, when Prabhakaran ordered an all out attack to quash the rebellion. Ever since thedefection, intermittent skirmishes and killings have occurred in Batticaloa, the northern Jaffna Peninsula andthe capital Colombo.

Most recently, on October 5, 2004, two Muslims were killed in Welikanda, east of Batticaloa. The Sri LankanArmy said that the murders were carried out by members of the LTTE pistol gang. The following day a Tamil,Dharmalingam Sathyalingam, was gunned down in the same area. Some reports indicated that he was a supporter ofthe LTTE and was killed by Karuna loyalists.

Karuna supporters scored their biggest military success on September 7, when they attacked a LTTE guard postat Pulmalai, east of Batticaloa. Following the attack, the entire security setup in the east was changed bythe Tigers. The eastern military command was put under Banu, who also heads the Tiger artillery units. Hereplaced Ramesh.

Banu inducted elite cadres from the northern command, drawn from the Jeyanthan and the Charles AnthonyBrigades, into the east. On September 22, Vinayagamoorthi Sivasudari alias Reggie, Karuna's brother, waskilled by LTTE cadres during an ambush near Karadiyanaru, east of Batticaloa. Reggie's death was a major blowto the rebel faction. He was the man designated by Karuna to lead troops on the ground and was thesecond-in-command of the outfit.

Karuna later admitted that his brother had been killed by the LTTE using intelligence provided by a mole.Reggie had infiltrated into Tiger held areas along with about 25 others, according to Sri Lankan Army sourcesin Batticaloa. The group had then split into smaller units and Reggie's group was to coordinate the movements.His whereabouts had been indicated to the LTTE by a cadre identified by the sources as Pushpan.

The Reggie killing, nevertheless, intensified attacks by the Karuna group. On October 2, LTTE camps inPanchchankerni, north of Batticaloa, came under mortar fire. The LTTE camps lie just within areas under theorganisation's control. Later in the week, the Tigers said that five cadres - Mayuran, Annandaraj, Sri Kumar,Kandavel and Selva had died during these clashes. A civilian, Karthigesu Kanathipullai also died due toinjuries received during the attacks.

Suspected Karuna supporters had also unsuccessfully tried to carry out an attack on a bus carrying LTTE cadresusing a claymore mine on September 21.

On the other hand, Karuna lost at least four senior cadres, including Castro and Ruban, during the first weekof October. Despite military intelligence confirming that there have been attacks, very little independentverification was available, since these were taking place in LTTE held areas. The Tigers have also adopted astrategy of not revealing too much detail on such attacks and, in fact, Tiger sources in the east denied thatany attacks were taking place. "Nothing is happening here, they are all bluffs," a top Tiger sourcetold this writer last week, referring to reports of the confrontations.

Despite the denial, troops loyal to Karuna are believed to be using hideouts in Thoppigala, north-east ofBatticaloa, and in the Aralaganwilla-Maha Oya area, east of Batticaloa, and infiltrating into Tiger held areasusing jungle paths. When he broke away from the LTTE, at least 400 to 500 cadres still remained loyal toKaruna. During the rebellion another 1,500 child soldiers and 500 adults left the organisation. Karuna wascommander of a force of around 7,000 in the east. Of these, at least 2,000 immediately signalled allegiance toPrabhakaran when the revolt commenced.

Cadres from elite brigades of the LTTE have been stationed in the areas used by Karuna supporters, to preventsuch infiltrations and act as a bulwark.

Tigers have also limited movement of their senior cadres and leadership in public, and ordinary cadres havealso been instructed to appear as inconspicuous as possible when crossing over to government-held areas, wherethey are likely to be targeted by assassins loyal to Karuna.

Military sources in Batticaloa also say that intelligence wing operatives and pistol gang members of the LTTEhave taken over from political wing cadres. The Tiger political office in government-controlled Batticaloa hasremained inactive since Ramalingam Padmaseelan alias 'Lt. Col.' Senathiraja, the last political head, died dueto gun shot injuries on July 13. The office had been opened after the February 2002 ceasefire agreementbetween the Tigers and the Colombo government.

The Tiger pistol gangs have been responsible for murders outside Batticaloa as well, according to securityforces and rival parties.

"The killing of EPDP (Eelam People's Democratic Party) members is being undertaken by the LTTE in a coldand calculated manner. One therefore begins to wonder whether the Royal Norwegian government and the Sri LankaMonitoring Mission (SLMM) are turning a blind eye to the terrorism of the LTTE in order to win kudos as'Peacemakers'," the leader of the EPDP, Douglas Devananda, wrote to Norwegian Ambassador in Colombo, HansBrattskar, while requesting the Norwegians to take action.

A few days before the letter was sent out, Somasundaram Varnakulasingham, an EPDP member and a former chairmanof the Manipay Local government in northern Jaffna, was shot and killed in Colombo on September 23. The EPDPaccused the LTTE of carrying out the attack. According to the party, more than 150 party members andsupporters have been gunned down since the ceasefire went into effect.

EPDP members have been specifically and intensely targeted following Devananda's announcement that he was intouch with Karuna and assisting him to form a political party. Devananda himself survived an assassinationattempt by a Tiger suicide cadre on July 7, 2004. Since the Karuna split, at least eight senior EPDP membershave been killed.

On September 27, 2004, Valli Sundaram (61), a senior member of the Eelam People's Revolutionary LiberationFront (EPRLF) was shot and killed in Jaffna. The EPRLF blamed the killing on the Tigers.

The Tigers have also been blamed for carrying out attacks on Karuna supporters and military intelligenceoperatives. On July 18, suspected LTTE cadres raided a safe-house used by Karuna supporters in Kottawa, asuburb just south of Colombo, and killed seven persons who had come to Colombo to help form a political party.The designated secretary of the party, Kanapathipillai Mahendran alias Satchi Master, had been shot and killedinside the Batticaloa jail by Mahendran Pulidaran, a Tiger inmate, 48 hours before the Kottawa attack.

The LTTE, for its part, has denied any association with the murders and other attacks. It has insisted that itwas up to the government to ensure security in areas outside Tiger control.

"There is no need for the Liberation Tigers to eliminate anybody. It is true that politicalassassinations are taking place. But we are also aware of the background of those killings. Fall guys areselected by some elements who are very much interested in promoting war and disrupting the peace process. Thekillings have all the hallmarks of the LTTE and the guys selected for it definitely happen to be vocalopponents of the LTTE, but these are machinations of serious political hierarchies to attain a position ofmaking the Liberation Tigers defensive on their political stand, whether nationally or internationally,"LTTE political wing head S.P. Tamilselvan told this writer during an interview last month.

The spate of killings during the first week of October has, however, prompted both Sri Lankan PresidentChandrika Kumaratunga and the Norwegian government to appeal to the Tigers to stop the killings."(Foreign Minister Vidar) Helgessen stated that Norway condemns the political killings taking place inSri Lanka - and appealed to the delegation that the LTTE does everything possible to stop such killings,"the Norwegian mission in Colombo said in a statement on October 5. Helgessen conveyed the message when he meta high-powered LTTE delegation touring Europe. The day before, Kumaratunga had issued a statement saying thatthe government could no longer ignore the killings.

Norwegian Special Peace envoy Erik Solheim is expected in Colombo later in the month in yet another effort torevive the peace talks, which have been stalled since April 2003.