Category Archives: LTTE

April 6, 2016 · 1:19 am

The Indian Factor in Sri Lankan Politics and its Ambassador’s Bullishness

Major General (Retd.) Lalin Fernando, courtesy of the ASIAN TRIBUNE, 3 April 2016, where the title is “Lalin’s Column: Indian Gifts” … with highlighting being insertions by Thuppahi.

When a bearded Indian President was searched on suspicion at an US airport and later an Indian woman diplomat was stripped searched by US police, many in SL sympathized with them. That may not be the case hereafter with Indian High Commissioner in SL, YK Sinha’s most undiplomatic forays into SL’s politics. After observing the growing opposition to the ETCA with India, Mr. Sinha has gratuitously passed on his wisdom to the former Minister of Justice and the former President telling them what to do with themselves. He has asked Dr. GL Peiris to go back to law lecturing or something as cheeky as that. He has forgotten the adage that “manners maketh the man.”

AA-SINHA- YK Sinha-–Pic from in.news.yahoo.com

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April 5, 2016 · 9:26 am

Lest We Forget: A Letter to the President of Sri Lanka from an Infantry Officer, Gemunu Watch

Hiran Halangode, in a commemorative essay written in June 2015 in memory of the security personnel killed by the LTTE in the East in June 1990

It is 25 years since the series of unfortunate events took place [see Halangode: “Besieged; Confronting the LTTE Assaults in Batticaloa  Province…,”  https://thuppahis.com/2016/03/28/besieged-confronting-the-ltte-assaults-in-mid-1990-in-batticaloa-province-an-infantry-officers-tale/ . As I pen these few lines as a tribute to all those gallant warriors of our country, I pay my humble respects to all those fallen heroes in this terrible conflict. However if we are to benefit from the experience, it is important that the lessons learnt are not forgotten or swept under the carpet. I kindly request the President that action be initiated and a study made of our past, before embarking on the future national security policy which should be based on these and similar experiences.

Firstly. ensure we have a granite stone marker as a grim reminder recording the incident at the locations in Kiran, Wellawadi, Kallady, Kalwanchikudy and Kalmunai to remember those who sacrificed their lives for our motherland and for future generations to know their efforts were not in vain. We must make similar markers at all such locations that history will not be erased by the unpatriotic elements in society for their own convenience and hidden agendas. These pictures of the present locations of Kiran and Wellawadi detachments 25 years on provide ample proof.

DSC08381 Kiran camp in June 2015 pic 1Kiran camp well 2015                   wellawadi beach 2015Wellawadi Beach                      Continue reading →

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March 28, 2016 · 12:07 pm

Besieged: Confronting the LTTE Assaults in mid-1990 in Batticaloa Province … an Infantry Officer’s Tale

Hiran Halangode, ….. with highlighting within the text being impositions from the Editor, Thuppahi

In dedication to the First Gemunu Watch:[1]   I dedicate this article to all those valiant officers and men of the 1st Battalion the Gemunu Watch (1GW) who served with me during my tenure of command from 01 December 1988 to 31 January 19991. They served with me loyally, with dedication and commitment in Hambantota, Moneragala, Ampara and Batticaloa districts against all odds. They strove hard, made supreme sacrifices and suffered humiliation at times to safeguard Sri Lanka as a unitary state. This essay is written without fear or favour, with malice to none and magnanimity to all.

ipkf7 Pic from lefantasist.blogspot.com

With the departure of the IPKF in end March 1990 the LTTE gradually took control of the North-East of Sri Lanka. They positioned their cadres in vital areas that enabled them to exert pressure on the Police who maintained law and order and the Army who were very thinly deployed in the Northeast. In the Eastern province one Infantry Battalion was deployed in each of the districts of Ampara, Batticaloa and Trincomalee.

Late Gen DLK with self at Kallady BCO 1990 - pic 2General Denzil Kobbekaduwa & Hiran Halangode at Kallady  in 1990

In Batticaloa five Army detachments were established. They were at Wellawadi, Kiran, Kalawanchikudy, Kalmunai and Kallady. Out of these detachments, Kalmunai and Kalawanchikudy detachments belonged to 6th Bn Sri Lanka Light Infantry (6 SLLI) which were just raised in late May 1990. The Infantry Battalions were handicapped, as they had to shed one Rifle Coy and composite platoons to raise another Infantry Battalion in late May 1990. The troops had to re-orientate themselves from a low intensity environment in the South to a high intensity environment in the North and East. However 1 GW had already prepared themselves during their tenure of 10 months at Ampara where they saw the LTTE annihilate the TNA with the withdrawal of the IPKF. They had saved some of the TNA (viz., the Tamil National Army – ex-members of EPRLF/ENDLF) cadres who fled the LTTE attacks into Ampara. They were armed by the IPKF who wanted them to be their proxy, although not included in the infamous Indo Lanka peace agreement. This is for the attention of the numerous Indian military experts and the more radical TNA politicians who speak about genocide. Continue reading →

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March 19, 2016 · 3:38 pm

A Pol Pot Hell-Hole: Thamilini’s Disenchantment with Prabhakaran and the Tigers in 2009

T. N. Gopalan, courtesy of newsminute … 17 March 2016, where the title is “Woman LTTE leader’s memoir exposing their brutality has created a furor among Tamils” … with a few footnotes added by the Thuppahi editor nad highlights deployed to assist reading.

THAMILINI 22 “No question now, what had happened to the faces of the pigs. The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.” Thamizhini, aka Sivakami Subramaniam,** in-charge of the political wing of the women’s section in the LTTE, might not have been familiar with the devastating close of the celebrated Animal Farm by George Orwell. But she perhaps felt as much when she learnt of the instructions to shoot at the legs of those innocent Tamils crossing over to government-controlled areas in the closing stages of the war in 2009. Continue reading →

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March 19, 2016 · 3:31 pm

Reuters in Word and Image: Depicting the Penetration of the LTTE’s Last Redoubt, 19-22 April 2009

Michael Roberts

On the night of Sunday, the 19th April, the SL Army’s special forces crossed the waters of Nandikadal Lagoon and “blasted through a massive earthen wall built by the LTTE” (Hull & Sirilal 2009a) at a point near Pokkanai (see Figs. A & B) and secured a beachhead within the area that is best described as the Last Redoubt (rather than the “Second No Fire Zone – because that phrase is not legally valid). In doing so the Government of Sri Lanka was disregarding instructions, supported by threats, from the US government via its ambassador Robert Blake not to enter that arena.[1]

22=WAR ZONE- late April ICGA=Graphic Map composed by International Crisis Group

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March 10, 2016 · 2:35 am

Gotabaya Rajapaksa Clarifies, III: American Volte Face in 2008

Michael Roberts, courtesy of Colombo Telegraph

During the telephone conversation with former Defence Secretary, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, on Monday 7th March a tangential path developed towards the end of the session: namely, USA’s striking shift of emphasis and increasing hostility to the government of Sri Lanka at some point in 2008. Gotabaya Rajapaksa agreed with my allusion to this change. The information below does not follow the sequence of my notes, but adheres to a temporal order.

RICE + OBAMA + EBDEN Ebden, Rice & Obama Continue reading →

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March 9, 2016 · 7:36 am

The Dilemmas of Accountability in Eelam War IV when Exploring Reconciliation Today

Neville Ladduwahetty, courtesy of The Island, 8/9th March 2016, where the title is “Addressing Accountability“ … with the highlighting and illustrative images being my editorial impositions. Michael Roberts

The current debate in the country is whether there should or should not be any foreign “participation” in the accountability processes and if there is to be foreign “participation”, to what degree it should be. The uncertainty as to the final outcome of the debate has caused the Security Forces to be understandably apprehensive. However, what needs to be appreciated is that accountability is only one facet of the entire reconciliation process.

Issues such as the closure on missing persons, reparations, reconstruction and rehabilitation have a far greater impact on reconciliation than accountability. This is particularly so because the focus on accountability would primarily be on the period from January to May 2009, since the strategies adopted by the Security Forces in the conduct of the separatist Armed Conflict prior to this period were acknowledged by the US in a cable that stated: “The Government has gained considerable credit until this point for conducting a disciplined military campaign” (Cable to the US State Department by the US Embassy, WikiLeaks, 27 January, 2009).

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March 8, 2016 · 9:29 am

Speaking to Gotabaya-II: Listening in on KP’s Chats with Prabhakaran’s ‘Man Friday’

Michael Roberts, … courtesy of Colombo Telegraph– https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/gotabaya-rajapaksa-clarifies-listening-in-on-kps-chats-with-prabhakarans-man-friday

The government of Sri Lanka’s conduct of Eelam IV from 2006-09 was not without its inefficiencies, especially on the propaganda front. But no less a person than retired SAS officer JT Holmes has stated clearly that the SL Army faced “an entirely unique situation” and took tactical options that were “stark,” but “justifiable and proportionate” in those circumstances. While I aware of the important role performed by the SL Air Force and SL Navy in support of the war effort, and the value of UAV’s in the battlefield situation, Gotabaya Rajapaksa sprang a surprise when, more or less in passing, he indicated that the SL military had listened in on the radio-tel communications between Selvarāsa Pathmanathan (KP to the world) and the LTTE command in Sri Lanka.

VP KP marriage gp KP next to Prabha & Madhivadhani as bestman at the latter’s wedding in Tamilnadu,circa 1984 Continue reading →

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March 8, 2016 · 9:17 am

Speaking to Gotabaya-I: Plans Afoot in 2009 to Rescue the Tiger Leadership

Michael Roberts, courtesy of Colombo Telegraph, where the title is different

I am deeply entangled in drafting an article entitled Saving Talaivar Prabhakaran, an effort that has involved several revisions and is now being subject to further embellishments in the light of Mark Salter’s presentation of the Norwegian spin on events in the last stages of Eelam War IV.[1] A chance inquiry from a friend put me in touch with the former Defence Minister, Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Skype telephone yesterday Monday 7th May.

PRABHA ON PLANE Pirapāharan on an Indian plane in August 1987 bound for Jaffna Continue reading →

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February 24, 2016 · 1:56 pm

DBS Jeyaraj’s Reflections on Sri Lanka’s Political History

DBS Jeyaraj, courtesy of his Facebook posting, 4 February 2016, where the title is “68 Years of Independence, Nation Building and the Future of Tamils in Sri Lanka”

DBSSri Lanka will celebrate its Sixty-eighth Anniversary of Independence from the United Kingdom this Thursday. The country then known as Ceylon obtained full freedom from the British on February 4th 1948.Independent Ceylon/Sri Lanka / has faced many challenges and problems in the past 68 years. We have had military coup attempts, communal riots, pogroms, armed revolts, external military intervention, assassinations of heads of state, terrorist violence and above all a long secessionist war that threatened to tear apart the country. What Sri Lanka can be proud of as Asia’s oldest democracy is the fact that despite many formidable challenges and crises the country continues to be democratic. Flawed but Democratic! On January 8th last year the Sri Lankan people did the nation proud by voting out the incumbent executive president and bringing about effective regime change through the ballot amidst extremely difficult circumstances Continue reading →

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