Pics: Immediate after the suicide blast targeting Jeyaraj Fernandopulle
Macabre Expose
Piribaran arrest unravels Tiger operandi
Two major arrests made in early this month by the Terrorist Investigation Division have unraveled the LTTE’s modest operandi.
The two arrests, one of a senior police official, Superintendent of Police Lakshman Coory and the other of the former personal chef named Siddeek of the current Chief of Defence Staff Sarath Fonseka have now compelled the security agencies on an overhaul on its strategy in the VIP security. Concerns are further compounded with the renewed fears that at least some of the top echelons of security services have been infiltrated.
The arrest and subsequent revelations of SP Lakshman Cooray is discussed in other pages of this paper.
A veteran Tiger operative identified in his nom de gurrae, Piribaran arrested last month divulged the shocking details of treason, which saw the arrest of two men, both having access to sensitive details.
Piribaran, a handler of LTTE suicide bombers had operated directly under the feared Inteligence Wing Leader , Shivashankar Shanmugalingam alias Pottu Amman.
The circumstances of Piribaran’s arrest are not clear. However, what is clear is his arrest had led to a series of arrests and unraveled some of the great mysteries which confronted the investigators. The story is telling.
Siddeek, a native of Jaffna, who relocated to Akurana after the LTTE forced Muslims out of Jaffna has been a soldier of Sri Lanka National Guard since 1995. He had been posted in Jaffna during the early 2000 where General Sarath Fonseka (then Major General) was the Security Forces Commander, Jaffna.
Siddeek, who had earlier served as the personal chef of Major General Sarath Munasinge and was reputed for his culinary skills was hired by General Fonseka’s staff as his personal chef. But, what they did not know was that Siddeek was already a Tiger operative.
An Intelligence operative of the LTTE had befriended Siddeek during the short sourjoun of peace process, when he frequented a mosque in Kankasanthurai for Friday Muslim prayers.
During the course of period, Gen Fonseka was appointed Volunteer Force Commander and later the Commander of Army. Siddeek moved from Jaffna to Colombo to serve as the personal chef of the commander of army. Siddeek cooked for the commander of army, yet, he had a different mission.
October 2005, while he was riding a motor bike in Seeduwa, he was injured in an accident and was admitted to the Army Hospital.
Piribaran who had, by then, approached Siddeek visited him in military hospital. During his first visit, he obtained a visitors pass from Siddeek, which was sent to Pottu Amman who embossed two passes in the same format and sent them to Piribaran.
Piribaran visited the Military Hospital on the pretext of seeing Siddeek on four occasions during the next two months with the aid of the forged visitors pass. On his visit to the Military Hospital, he monitored the entourage of Gen Fonseka and, allegedly decided it was the best place to target the Army Chief.
During his final visit, Piribaran was accompanied by the would be suicide bomber Manula Devi Kanakapathipillai alias Durga.
Manjula Devi
Manjula Devi born in 1983 is a native of Anuradhapura and later moved to Kilinichchi.
Schooled in Sinhalese medium, she could speak fluent Sinhalese.
A Black Tiger trained for a VIP mission, she fetched a ride to Colombo with a Shanmugalingam Suriya Kumara, a Lorry driver who frequented Kilinochchi transporting dry fish from Wanni to Colombo.
Sooriya Kumara, a native of Chunnakulam, Jaffna is married to a Sinhalese woman, Asha Dilrukshi. Both lived in a house in Rambukkana. They had a four year old child. Running between Jaffna and Colombo, Suriya Kumara had been charged by the LTTE’s police over a traffic violation . He was compelled to attend the hearing of an “LTTE court”. Visiting Kilinochchi frequently for court hearing, he was approached by an intelligence cadre of the LTTE, assigned to the entry-exit point in Puliyankulam, who offered to help him out of his trouble in return of his service to the LTTE’s intelligence wing. Suriya Kumar, reportedly, accepted the offer and was introduced to an LTTE intelligence wing leader identified in his nom de gurrae as Vinothan.
Later, Vinothan offered to sell him dry fish at a cheaper than market price, thereby cultivating a relationship. While travelling frequently to Wanni, Suriya Kumara made an extra income through his new business deal.
Some months later, Vinothan asked a favour. He requested Suriya Kumar to house a woman identified as his sister, who he said is going to Colombo to go abroad. It was Manjula Devi.
Suriya Kumara brought the would be suicide bomber to Colombo and provided accommodation at his house in Rambukkana. On her request, he bribed the local Grama Sevaka to forge a National Identity Card.
Manjula Devi visited Colombo on the pretext of applying for visa and kept in touch with her handler, Piribaran.
Meanwhile, the LTTE financed Suriya Kumara to rent a house in Weliweriya. Suriya Kumara family moved to the new house along with Manjula Devi.
On April 24, two days before the attack, Manjula Devi met Piribaran in Colombo and both visited the Army Hospital using the forged visitors pass. They rehearsed the attack and Manjula Devi returned to Weliweriya on 25th.
Conspiracy
On her last night, she didn’t eat, claiming a headache. On the morning of the fateful day, she skipped the breakfast, drank a cup of milk and left for Colombo.
Ayesha, Suriya Kumar’s wife clueless of the conspiracy, however noticed Manjula Devi, usually a cheerful woman was different on that day. Manjula Devi used to cajole four year old child of Ayesha and Suruya Kumar every time before she leaves the house to go to Colombo. That day she didn’t and unassuming Ayesha quipped to her husband that the “akka is different today”
On her last journey to Colombo, Manjula Devi took a bus from Weliweriya to Gampaha, from where she boarded a train bound to Colombo. In Colombo, she took a bus to Wellawatta where she met Piribaran, who helped her don the suicide jacket.
He accompanied her to the Army Headquarters in a hired three-wheeler. She entered the Army Headquarters using the forged visitors pass, while Piribaran headed to the Galle Face Green and waited there awaiting the outcome.
The foursome, Piribaran, Manjula devi, Siddeek and Suriya Kumar used a mobile connection which restricted access to only four of them.
Siddeek was tasked to call Manjula Devi on this line to tip off her of the arrival of Commander’s entourage. He called her exactly at 1.31 pm, when the vehicles were parked. At 1.36, Manjula Devi received another call informing her of the departure of the vehicles.
Bystanders saw, a woman clad in a yellow Shalwar dress under a frangipani tree. With the phone glued to her ear, she swirled to the path of the moving vehicles. In a matter of seconds, she blew her up killing her self and several others. Gen Fonseka survived the attack, but was seriously injured.
Soon after the blast, Piribaran informed Pottu Amman of the news and threw away the mobile phone and the SIM card, thereby erasing any foot prints of the attack. Suriya Kumar threw away the SIM card, but he continued to use the mobile phone.
CID traced back to the mobile phone and arrested Suriya Kumara, who divulged his role of the attack, but did not have much to say about the other collaborators. Piribaran went underground and continued with his macabre career, yet away from the public radar. He continued to work with Siddeek and had found new associates, including a prized one SP Lakshman Cooray.
It took four years for the mysteries of the April 26 bombing to unravel. It was an fortuitous arrest of Piribaran by the sleuths of the Terrorist Investigation Division, that exposed the LTTE’s sleeper cell.
Siddeek and Lakshman Cooray were arrested on the information provided by Piribaran.
Siddeek is alleged to have committed suicide in his prison cell, while Lakshman Cooray is spilling beans on his role in number of successful and abortive terror attacks on VIPs.
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Thursday, September 17, 2009
POST WAR NOTES
LTTE’s head of international relations, Selvaraja Pathmanathan alias Kumaran Pathmanathan’s description of the final hours of the LTTE’s senior leadership detailed extensively in his interview with an Indian news media corroborates with the information of the Sri Lankan military agencies, but barring one episode, which now has raised concerns of the military officials.
Pathmanathan claims that Duvaraka, the daughter of the LTTE leader was killed in the fighting along with her elder brother Charles Anthony. The Military intelligence had however been unaware of the plight of Duvaraka as well as Prabhakaran’s wife Mathivathini-Pathmanathan also claims that he was unaware of the plight of Mathivathini.
Prabhakaran’s parents are now sheltered in an IDP camp had told the military officials that Mathivathini and Duvaraka did not live with the Tiger chieftain during the last two weeks. Prabhakaran’s parents had lived with the Tiger chieftain till May 17, a day before he was believed to have met his maker. Prabhakaran had advised his parents to leave with the civilians, apparently after an abortive Tiger attack on the positions of 56 Division in the early hours of May 17, the Sunday. On the same day, night, Prabhakaran attempted one last attempt and was killed in the wee hours of the next day by an army commando, who took away the Tiger leader’s pistol and the belt, but, could not identify that his kill was the most wanted man in the country. Later soldiers of the Vijayaba Regiment found the body of the slain Tiger chieftain.
Whereabouts of Duvaraka and Mathivathini are not known to the military, though some officers confided that the youngest son of the Tiger chieftain, Balachandran was also killed during the battle. Earlier, a pro- LTTE website hosted in Canada reported that Mathivathini and Duvarka had fled to India, from where they had boarded a Canada bound flight, using forged passports. However, this claim had not been substantiated by the Indian intelligence services, which have been extremely cooperative with their Sri Lankan counterparts in intelligence sharing in recent times.
Link with Soosai
Another expose in KP’s interview was that he was in contact with the Sea Tiger leader, Soosai till the last moment of the battle, which tallies with findings of the military intelligence. According to the intercepted communications, Soosai had commanded the battle to the very end. KP had also referred to his efforts to get the international community to negotiate a ceasefire, adding that it was unsuccessful as the Sri Lankan government demanded an unconditional surrender, which limited the space for the maneuverings by the international community.
LAKBIMAnEWS can confirm that KP himself and the LTTE political leader, Nadeshan telephoned two senior government officials on May 17, to announce the surrender after a pre-dawn attempt on the same day to break through the positions of the 56 division in the place called “Dara Point” was foiled. The government turned down the offer, claiming that it was too late. Also, by that point, commandos and Special Forces had launched the final assault and there could not have been any turn back of the military mission.
KP says that he has been in contact with Ram, who is the senior most surviving leader of the LTTE. Ram led a group of LTTE cadres operating from the Kanchiku-duchchuaru jungles and was responsible for a string of bomb explosions last year. According to KP, Ram has silenced his guns in line with a decision announced by Prabhakaran days before his death. However, LAKBIMA nEWS understands that Ram himself once offered to surrender, however changed his mind after 11 LTTE cadres were killed in the Kanchikudichchiaru jungles in late May.
KP in the interview had demanded a security guarantee for the surrender of the remaining eastern cadres, including Ram. The elimination of Ram and Nakulan would complete the annihilation of the first and second rung leadership of the LTTE.
The military on its part, rules out special security guarantees, and vows to comb eastern jungles till the last Tiger cadre is flushed out from the East.
Meanwhile, the Sri Lankan military is undergoing reforms to meet the future challenges. Accordingly, the local military doctrine, which hitherto concentrated on internal threats, would be transformed to include deterrence to external threat.
The prime concern, according to military planners, is an intervention by a mercenary army funded by the Tamil Diaspora.
Threat assessment
A threat assessment includes three elements: Capability, intention and vulnerability. True that, the hard-line sections of the Tamil Disapora would be pleased to disrupt the security situation in Sri Lanka, hence, there is intention, but their capability to assemble a mercenary army to match the conventional army of the Sri Lankan state is open to question. Yet, the Sri Lankan military plans to minimize its vulnerability to a mercenary landing through the new reforms, under which the position of Chief of Defence Staff would be granted with extensive powers to develop a doctrine for the joint development of the armed forces. Accordingly, the CDS position, which was just a nominal appointment earlier gets legal status and will function as the head of the country’s armed forces. This was a part of the government’s 10-year re -organization plan re-organization of the armed forces.
The Sri Lankan Army itself is undergoing expansion. Two new Security Forces Head Quarters had been set up in Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu in addition to the existing Security Forces Headquarters in Jaffna, Vanni and East.
The military divisions which had been concentrated in the Wanni region would be reorganized and brought under the newly established Security Forces Headquarters.
Accordingly, SFHQ (Kilinochchi) would have offensive divisions, namely the 57 Division, Task Force 3, Task Force 8 and Defensive Divisions, namely Task Force 5 and Task Force 6 under its control. The Security Forces Head Quarters, Mullaitivu would
Pathmanathan claims that Duvaraka, the daughter of the LTTE leader was killed in the fighting along with her elder brother Charles Anthony. The Military intelligence had however been unaware of the plight of Duvaraka as well as Prabhakaran’s wife Mathivathini-Pathmanathan also claims that he was unaware of the plight of Mathivathini.
Prabhakaran’s parents are now sheltered in an IDP camp had told the military officials that Mathivathini and Duvaraka did not live with the Tiger chieftain during the last two weeks. Prabhakaran’s parents had lived with the Tiger chieftain till May 17, a day before he was believed to have met his maker. Prabhakaran had advised his parents to leave with the civilians, apparently after an abortive Tiger attack on the positions of 56 Division in the early hours of May 17, the Sunday. On the same day, night, Prabhakaran attempted one last attempt and was killed in the wee hours of the next day by an army commando, who took away the Tiger leader’s pistol and the belt, but, could not identify that his kill was the most wanted man in the country. Later soldiers of the Vijayaba Regiment found the body of the slain Tiger chieftain.
Whereabouts of Duvaraka and Mathivathini are not known to the military, though some officers confided that the youngest son of the Tiger chieftain, Balachandran was also killed during the battle. Earlier, a pro- LTTE website hosted in Canada reported that Mathivathini and Duvarka had fled to India, from where they had boarded a Canada bound flight, using forged passports. However, this claim had not been substantiated by the Indian intelligence services, which have been extremely cooperative with their Sri Lankan counterparts in intelligence sharing in recent times.
Link with Soosai
Another expose in KP’s interview was that he was in contact with the Sea Tiger leader, Soosai till the last moment of the battle, which tallies with findings of the military intelligence. According to the intercepted communications, Soosai had commanded the battle to the very end. KP had also referred to his efforts to get the international community to negotiate a ceasefire, adding that it was unsuccessful as the Sri Lankan government demanded an unconditional surrender, which limited the space for the maneuverings by the international community.
LAKBIMAnEWS can confirm that KP himself and the LTTE political leader, Nadeshan telephoned two senior government officials on May 17, to announce the surrender after a pre-dawn attempt on the same day to break through the positions of the 56 division in the place called “Dara Point” was foiled. The government turned down the offer, claiming that it was too late. Also, by that point, commandos and Special Forces had launched the final assault and there could not have been any turn back of the military mission.
KP says that he has been in contact with Ram, who is the senior most surviving leader of the LTTE. Ram led a group of LTTE cadres operating from the Kanchiku-duchchuaru jungles and was responsible for a string of bomb explosions last year. According to KP, Ram has silenced his guns in line with a decision announced by Prabhakaran days before his death. However, LAKBIMA nEWS understands that Ram himself once offered to surrender, however changed his mind after 11 LTTE cadres were killed in the Kanchikudichchiaru jungles in late May.
KP in the interview had demanded a security guarantee for the surrender of the remaining eastern cadres, including Ram. The elimination of Ram and Nakulan would complete the annihilation of the first and second rung leadership of the LTTE.
The military on its part, rules out special security guarantees, and vows to comb eastern jungles till the last Tiger cadre is flushed out from the East.
Meanwhile, the Sri Lankan military is undergoing reforms to meet the future challenges. Accordingly, the local military doctrine, which hitherto concentrated on internal threats, would be transformed to include deterrence to external threat.
The prime concern, according to military planners, is an intervention by a mercenary army funded by the Tamil Diaspora.
Threat assessment
A threat assessment includes three elements: Capability, intention and vulnerability. True that, the hard-line sections of the Tamil Disapora would be pleased to disrupt the security situation in Sri Lanka, hence, there is intention, but their capability to assemble a mercenary army to match the conventional army of the Sri Lankan state is open to question. Yet, the Sri Lankan military plans to minimize its vulnerability to a mercenary landing through the new reforms, under which the position of Chief of Defence Staff would be granted with extensive powers to develop a doctrine for the joint development of the armed forces. Accordingly, the CDS position, which was just a nominal appointment earlier gets legal status and will function as the head of the country’s armed forces. This was a part of the government’s 10-year re -organization plan re-organization of the armed forces.
The Sri Lankan Army itself is undergoing expansion. Two new Security Forces Head Quarters had been set up in Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu in addition to the existing Security Forces Headquarters in Jaffna, Vanni and East.
The military divisions which had been concentrated in the Wanni region would be reorganized and brought under the newly established Security Forces Headquarters.
Accordingly, SFHQ (Kilinochchi) would have offensive divisions, namely the 57 Division, Task Force 3, Task Force 8 and Defensive Divisions, namely Task Force 5 and Task Force 6 under its control. The Security Forces Head Quarters, Mullaitivu would
Sunday, August 16, 2009
The KP end game
The KP end-game
Pic: KP
Operation KP, which netted the LTTE’s chief arms procurer and the newly crowned Tiger leader, Shanmugam Kumaran Tharmalingam better known by his nom de guerre Kumaran Pathmanathan alias KP alias Selvarasa Pathmanathan, is shrouded in mystery.
Equally mysterious is what he is believed to have divulged about the LTTE’s international network.
Barring a few inspired leaks to the media by top defence officials, what KP told his interrogators remains a mystery. This complete blackout on the KP affair, in fact, gave rise to the wild imagination of newspaper scribes. A whole set of grand ‘exposes’ by KP were readily available in the newspapers - one such went to the extent to report that KP planned to purchase nukes from western powers. Such reports, needless to say, should be taken with a pinch of salt.
Conspiracy theories
On the other hand, the information blackout on the KP affair was so exhaustive, it gave in to some other conspiracy theories. Some quipped that information was kept tightly under wraps by the government in order to use such in the up coming elections. This does not mean that we discount the need for secrecy in intelligence operations. But, suffice to say that in a country with a history of allegations of LTTE links being used to besmirch opposition politicians and dissenting voices, it is natural to be cynical.
Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa has told our sister paper, LAKBIMA, that KP had identified Jayantha Gnanakone as the coordinator of LTTE affairs in the United States. The Gnanakone link had been used against the main Opposition UNP during the Presidency of Chandrika Kumaratunga, during which Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe was accused of meeting Charles Gnanakone, the eldest of the Gnanakone brothers in Singapore to negotiate a pact with the LTTE. Such allegations, concocted or real came at a cost of the UNP’s vote base. Old ghosts seem to haunt an already weakened UNP in the coming elections.
Secretary of Defence, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa met KP who is kept in an undisclosed military installation.
Intelligence officials interrogating KP confide that the Tiger leader is apparently stunned at the fallout of the event, yet cooperated with officials.
Other exposes by KP, which had been leaked to the press, are in fact in the domain for quite sometime. KP had said that he was in contact with the Norwegian peace envoy Erik Solheim and the UN envoy Vijay Nambiar during the final phase of the fourth Eelam war. According to him, he had sought a ceasefire yet, efforts fell short of success. He had also revealed that he persuaded the Tiger chieftain Prabhakaran to give up arms, which culminated in his announcement of “silencing guns.” Some interrogators discard his claims, yet, KP, as indicated in his announcements in the post Prabhakaran LTTE, has shown a tilt towards “taking a political path.” However, his zeal for a political path should be qualified by the fact that the LTTE today is largely defunct militarily.
Until his arrest, KP enjoyed the loyalty of LTTE cadres who were on the loose in the Wanni and in the East, including two military leaders, Ram, who is the senior- most surviving military leader and Nakulan. He has however told his interrogators that LTTE cadres who infiltrated the South prior to the annihilation of the LTTE are out of his control.
Understandably, the obliteration of the top level leadership has isolated the cells of suicide bombers and their handlers, leaving them to decide on their own missions (if they ever wish to go ahead). This holds a resemblance to the operational strategy of al Qaeda in the aftermath of the invasion of Afghanistan by the coalition forces. The coalition invasion deprived al-Qaeda- which until then had a top down command structure of its training grounds. Al- Qaeda evolved in to loose netted cells capable of operating independently, which Marc Sageman described as “Leaderless Jihad”. While al-Qaeda central has receded in importance, those loose knitted cells, inspired by al-Qaeda ideology have taken precedence over the attacks as observed in 7/7 London bombing and Madrid bombing.
However, how fast the LTTE, once a well-organized terrorist group with a semi conventional army and a strict top town hierarchical structure, could evolve into cells capable of independent action, needs further observation viz. the metamorphosis of the movement. Yet, suffice to say that once the conventional battle fought in the Wanni had now transformed to an intelligence war. The challenge before intelligence agencies at the moment is to dismantle cells before they rebuild contacts with the new leaders of the transnational LTTE.
Arrest and extradition
Amnesty International has questioned the legality of the arrest and extradition of KP. Amnesty International’s Asia Pacific Director Sam Zarifi is on record as saying: “International law prohibits sending someone, including a criminal suspect, back to a country where they face real possibility of torture and ill-treatment and Sri Lanka does have a poor track record of torturing and poorly treating detainees.” “So there are some real questions about how KP was taken to Sri Lanka.”
“We want to see proper justice with proper due process for KP, for any of the LTTE members detained,” he told media.
However, Sri Lankan government officials had referred to the International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism (1999) and the International Convention of Suppressing Terrorist Bombings (1997) to underscore the legality of the arrest.
The key provisions of the International Convention of Suppressing Terrorist Bombing states: Any person commits an offence within the meaning of the convention if that person unlawfully and intentionally delivers, places, discharges or detonate an explosive or other lethal device in, into or against a place of public use, a state of government facility, public transportation system or public facility, with the intention to cause death or serious bodily injury or extensive destruction likely to result or actually resulting in a major economic loss. Any person also commits such an offence, if that person attempts to commit such an offence as set forth above or participate as an accomplice in an offence, organizes or direct others to commit such an offence or in other way contribute to the commission of an offence by a group of persons acting in a common purpose.
States parties are required to establish jurisdiction over and make punishable under their domestic laws, the offences described, to extradite or submit for prosecution persons accused of committing or aiding the commission of offences, and to assist each other in connection with the criminal proceedings under the convention. The offences referred to in the convention are deemed to be extraditable offences between States parties under existing extradition treaties and under the convention itself.
Article 11 of the International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism also states: “The offences set forth in article 2 shall be deemed to be included as extraditable offences in any extradition treaty existing between any of the States Parties before the entry into force of this Convention. States Parties undertake to include such offences as extraditable offences in every extradition treaty to be subsequently concluded between them.”
Accordingly, government officials argue that KP being the chief smuggler of the LTTE’s lethal arsenal is an accomplice and has directed and organized terrorist attacks against the Sri Lankan state facilities and public places and that he is accused of controlling multi-million dollars funds intended for the LTTE, an internationally proscribed terrorist group. Hence his extradition is lawful under international law.
According to government sources, the government would push ahead with an extradition request for the Gnanakone brothers and V.Rudrakumar, Prabhakaran’s legal advisor under the same legal basis.
There had been two Interpol arrest warrants against KP.
Interpol Headquarters in Lyon, France issued a red notice against Pathmanathan, which requests member states to arrest the suspect and hold him for extradition. The notice stated, “Tharmalingam (Pathmanathan) is alleged to have been involved in the murder of Rajiv Gandhi on 21 May 1991 in Tamil Nadu, India.”
That is in addition to an extradition request made to Interpol by the Sri Lankan government.
The Thai government also issued an arrest warrant on KP after an extradition request made by the Sri Lankan government in 2008.
Born in Kankesanthurai on April 6, 1955, KP, a native from Kankesanthurai left Sri Lanka in 1983 as a merchant mariner. In 1986, Prabhakaran, still a budding terrorist, yet loathed the sole reliance of the pre-1987 Tamil militancy on India and sent KP to build an arms smuggling network for the LTTE. Using his exposure as a seafarer, KP travelled to south East Asia, the then ground zero of the underground arms market. Since then he headed the LTTE’s arms smuggling network aptly dubbed ‘KP department’.
The ‘KP Department’ functioned in liaison with LTTE wing called the ‘Aiyanna Group’. The latter was tasked with overseeing fund raising and intelligence collection.
Controlled
Two departments are believed to have controlled 200-300 million US $ worth of LTTE’s procurement budget, according to Jane’s Intelligence Review.
In January this year, Pathmanathan was appointed head of the newly created ‘Department of International Relations’. He was the sole voice of the LTTE to the international community during the heightened phase of the war. Last month, he was appointed Leader of the LTTE, in a statement issued by the Executive Committee of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. On August 5, he was arrested in Malaysia and brought to Colombo by Sri Lankan Intelligence agents.
The arrest of KP at the Tune hotel in 316 Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman
Kuala Lumpur remains a top secret. The Malaysian Government, whose intelligence agency, the Malaysian Special Branch arrested KP, has been tight- lipped over the arrest.
The Sri Lankan Government, true to an assurance given to its Malaysian counter part has declined to disclose the point of pick up. However, according to information pieced together by LAKBIMA NEWS, intelligence on KP’s satellite phone which was instrumental in tracing him, the tip-off has been provided by the Sri Lankan intelligence services.
KP was arrested by MSB agents when he came out to answer a phone call. Some sources claim the caller was Daya Mohan, a senior LTTE cadre who fled to Malaysia after the rout of the LTTE.
KP was in the presence of two LTTE sympathisers, the brother of former LTTE political leader B Nadeshan and his son who flew down to KL to meet the LTTE leader.
After his arrest, KP was transported to Bangkok where intelligence agents from the Sri Lankan government received him and flew him to Colombo in a chartered flight.
KP who left the shores of Sri Lanka as a seafarer and then roamed the world clandestinely in underground arms bazaars finally has reached the end of his macabre career.
PROFILES
Jayantha Gnanakone
Jayantha Gnanakone, former Air Ceylon pilot and NGO activist was seen in a demonstration against SethuSamuderam Canal Project held opposite the Fort Railway Station, Colombo in August 2005. He is an assistant editor of the pro LTTE, eelamnation website hosted in Canada and USA. In an interview to a Sri Lankan English weekend newspaper, Sharmalee Gnanakone, his wife admitted that her family was a prominent overseas supporter of the LTTE. She also said that her husband was indirectly connected to the LTTE and supplied medicines and essential food supplies to the Tamils under Tiger control.
Jayantha Gnanakone in a right of reply to a Sri Lankan website claimed that “I have always been a good supporter of the UNP until 1983 July.” and “Of course I have known Ranil and J R since the early seventies, when I was a pilot in Air Ceylon with his son Ravi.”
He is a permanent US resident since 1983, after he fled the island in the aftermath of the Black July. Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa says KP has revealed that Jayantha Gnanakone is the coordinator of LTTE affairs in the United States.
Charles Gnanakone
“Captain” Charles Gnanakone, a retired DC-8 pilot and an Australian passport holder was arrested after the killing of former Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar and was later released. Gnanakone has allegedly assured the former Foreign Minister that the LTTE would not assassinate him, enticing Mr Kadirgamar to scale down his security precautions.
‘The Australian’, newspaper , has described Capt. Charles Gnanakone as an agent of the LTTE known for “money-laundering and smuggling guns for the Tamil Tiger terrorists group of Sri Lanka”. Charles Gnanakone in an interview with the Weekend Liberal, an Australian newspaper has said that he was playing a key role as a peace broker and that the Sri Lankan government headed by Wickremesinghe had sent him a first class ticket to attend the peace talks. The Sri Lankan High Commission was instructed to pay the air fare for Gnanakone to attend the “peace talks”.
V. Rudrakumar
V. Rudrakumar is the legal advisor to the LTTE and a member of the LTTE team to the peace talks held during the Ranil Wickremesinghe Administration. He is a member of the LTTE’s ‘transnational government’ declared
Pic: KP
Operation KP, which netted the LTTE’s chief arms procurer and the newly crowned Tiger leader, Shanmugam Kumaran Tharmalingam better known by his nom de guerre Kumaran Pathmanathan alias KP alias Selvarasa Pathmanathan, is shrouded in mystery.
Equally mysterious is what he is believed to have divulged about the LTTE’s international network.
Barring a few inspired leaks to the media by top defence officials, what KP told his interrogators remains a mystery. This complete blackout on the KP affair, in fact, gave rise to the wild imagination of newspaper scribes. A whole set of grand ‘exposes’ by KP were readily available in the newspapers - one such went to the extent to report that KP planned to purchase nukes from western powers. Such reports, needless to say, should be taken with a pinch of salt.
Conspiracy theories
On the other hand, the information blackout on the KP affair was so exhaustive, it gave in to some other conspiracy theories. Some quipped that information was kept tightly under wraps by the government in order to use such in the up coming elections. This does not mean that we discount the need for secrecy in intelligence operations. But, suffice to say that in a country with a history of allegations of LTTE links being used to besmirch opposition politicians and dissenting voices, it is natural to be cynical.
Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa has told our sister paper, LAKBIMA, that KP had identified Jayantha Gnanakone as the coordinator of LTTE affairs in the United States. The Gnanakone link had been used against the main Opposition UNP during the Presidency of Chandrika Kumaratunga, during which Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe was accused of meeting Charles Gnanakone, the eldest of the Gnanakone brothers in Singapore to negotiate a pact with the LTTE. Such allegations, concocted or real came at a cost of the UNP’s vote base. Old ghosts seem to haunt an already weakened UNP in the coming elections.
Secretary of Defence, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa met KP who is kept in an undisclosed military installation.
Intelligence officials interrogating KP confide that the Tiger leader is apparently stunned at the fallout of the event, yet cooperated with officials.
Other exposes by KP, which had been leaked to the press, are in fact in the domain for quite sometime. KP had said that he was in contact with the Norwegian peace envoy Erik Solheim and the UN envoy Vijay Nambiar during the final phase of the fourth Eelam war. According to him, he had sought a ceasefire yet, efforts fell short of success. He had also revealed that he persuaded the Tiger chieftain Prabhakaran to give up arms, which culminated in his announcement of “silencing guns.” Some interrogators discard his claims, yet, KP, as indicated in his announcements in the post Prabhakaran LTTE, has shown a tilt towards “taking a political path.” However, his zeal for a political path should be qualified by the fact that the LTTE today is largely defunct militarily.
Until his arrest, KP enjoyed the loyalty of LTTE cadres who were on the loose in the Wanni and in the East, including two military leaders, Ram, who is the senior- most surviving military leader and Nakulan. He has however told his interrogators that LTTE cadres who infiltrated the South prior to the annihilation of the LTTE are out of his control.
Understandably, the obliteration of the top level leadership has isolated the cells of suicide bombers and their handlers, leaving them to decide on their own missions (if they ever wish to go ahead). This holds a resemblance to the operational strategy of al Qaeda in the aftermath of the invasion of Afghanistan by the coalition forces. The coalition invasion deprived al-Qaeda- which until then had a top down command structure of its training grounds. Al- Qaeda evolved in to loose netted cells capable of operating independently, which Marc Sageman described as “Leaderless Jihad”. While al-Qaeda central has receded in importance, those loose knitted cells, inspired by al-Qaeda ideology have taken precedence over the attacks as observed in 7/7 London bombing and Madrid bombing.
However, how fast the LTTE, once a well-organized terrorist group with a semi conventional army and a strict top town hierarchical structure, could evolve into cells capable of independent action, needs further observation viz. the metamorphosis of the movement. Yet, suffice to say that once the conventional battle fought in the Wanni had now transformed to an intelligence war. The challenge before intelligence agencies at the moment is to dismantle cells before they rebuild contacts with the new leaders of the transnational LTTE.
Arrest and extradition
Amnesty International has questioned the legality of the arrest and extradition of KP. Amnesty International’s Asia Pacific Director Sam Zarifi is on record as saying: “International law prohibits sending someone, including a criminal suspect, back to a country where they face real possibility of torture and ill-treatment and Sri Lanka does have a poor track record of torturing and poorly treating detainees.” “So there are some real questions about how KP was taken to Sri Lanka.”
“We want to see proper justice with proper due process for KP, for any of the LTTE members detained,” he told media.
However, Sri Lankan government officials had referred to the International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism (1999) and the International Convention of Suppressing Terrorist Bombings (1997) to underscore the legality of the arrest.
The key provisions of the International Convention of Suppressing Terrorist Bombing states: Any person commits an offence within the meaning of the convention if that person unlawfully and intentionally delivers, places, discharges or detonate an explosive or other lethal device in, into or against a place of public use, a state of government facility, public transportation system or public facility, with the intention to cause death or serious bodily injury or extensive destruction likely to result or actually resulting in a major economic loss. Any person also commits such an offence, if that person attempts to commit such an offence as set forth above or participate as an accomplice in an offence, organizes or direct others to commit such an offence or in other way contribute to the commission of an offence by a group of persons acting in a common purpose.
States parties are required to establish jurisdiction over and make punishable under their domestic laws, the offences described, to extradite or submit for prosecution persons accused of committing or aiding the commission of offences, and to assist each other in connection with the criminal proceedings under the convention. The offences referred to in the convention are deemed to be extraditable offences between States parties under existing extradition treaties and under the convention itself.
Article 11 of the International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism also states: “The offences set forth in article 2 shall be deemed to be included as extraditable offences in any extradition treaty existing between any of the States Parties before the entry into force of this Convention. States Parties undertake to include such offences as extraditable offences in every extradition treaty to be subsequently concluded between them.”
Accordingly, government officials argue that KP being the chief smuggler of the LTTE’s lethal arsenal is an accomplice and has directed and organized terrorist attacks against the Sri Lankan state facilities and public places and that he is accused of controlling multi-million dollars funds intended for the LTTE, an internationally proscribed terrorist group. Hence his extradition is lawful under international law.
According to government sources, the government would push ahead with an extradition request for the Gnanakone brothers and V.Rudrakumar, Prabhakaran’s legal advisor under the same legal basis.
There had been two Interpol arrest warrants against KP.
Interpol Headquarters in Lyon, France issued a red notice against Pathmanathan, which requests member states to arrest the suspect and hold him for extradition. The notice stated, “Tharmalingam (Pathmanathan) is alleged to have been involved in the murder of Rajiv Gandhi on 21 May 1991 in Tamil Nadu, India.”
That is in addition to an extradition request made to Interpol by the Sri Lankan government.
The Thai government also issued an arrest warrant on KP after an extradition request made by the Sri Lankan government in 2008.
Born in Kankesanthurai on April 6, 1955, KP, a native from Kankesanthurai left Sri Lanka in 1983 as a merchant mariner. In 1986, Prabhakaran, still a budding terrorist, yet loathed the sole reliance of the pre-1987 Tamil militancy on India and sent KP to build an arms smuggling network for the LTTE. Using his exposure as a seafarer, KP travelled to south East Asia, the then ground zero of the underground arms market. Since then he headed the LTTE’s arms smuggling network aptly dubbed ‘KP department’.
The ‘KP Department’ functioned in liaison with LTTE wing called the ‘Aiyanna Group’. The latter was tasked with overseeing fund raising and intelligence collection.
Controlled
Two departments are believed to have controlled 200-300 million US $ worth of LTTE’s procurement budget, according to Jane’s Intelligence Review.
In January this year, Pathmanathan was appointed head of the newly created ‘Department of International Relations’. He was the sole voice of the LTTE to the international community during the heightened phase of the war. Last month, he was appointed Leader of the LTTE, in a statement issued by the Executive Committee of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. On August 5, he was arrested in Malaysia and brought to Colombo by Sri Lankan Intelligence agents.
The arrest of KP at the Tune hotel in 316 Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman
Kuala Lumpur remains a top secret. The Malaysian Government, whose intelligence agency, the Malaysian Special Branch arrested KP, has been tight- lipped over the arrest.
The Sri Lankan Government, true to an assurance given to its Malaysian counter part has declined to disclose the point of pick up. However, according to information pieced together by LAKBIMA NEWS, intelligence on KP’s satellite phone which was instrumental in tracing him, the tip-off has been provided by the Sri Lankan intelligence services.
KP was arrested by MSB agents when he came out to answer a phone call. Some sources claim the caller was Daya Mohan, a senior LTTE cadre who fled to Malaysia after the rout of the LTTE.
KP was in the presence of two LTTE sympathisers, the brother of former LTTE political leader B Nadeshan and his son who flew down to KL to meet the LTTE leader.
After his arrest, KP was transported to Bangkok where intelligence agents from the Sri Lankan government received him and flew him to Colombo in a chartered flight.
KP who left the shores of Sri Lanka as a seafarer and then roamed the world clandestinely in underground arms bazaars finally has reached the end of his macabre career.
PROFILES
Jayantha Gnanakone
Jayantha Gnanakone, former Air Ceylon pilot and NGO activist was seen in a demonstration against SethuSamuderam Canal Project held opposite the Fort Railway Station, Colombo in August 2005. He is an assistant editor of the pro LTTE, eelamnation website hosted in Canada and USA. In an interview to a Sri Lankan English weekend newspaper, Sharmalee Gnanakone, his wife admitted that her family was a prominent overseas supporter of the LTTE. She also said that her husband was indirectly connected to the LTTE and supplied medicines and essential food supplies to the Tamils under Tiger control.
Jayantha Gnanakone in a right of reply to a Sri Lankan website claimed that “I have always been a good supporter of the UNP until 1983 July.” and “Of course I have known Ranil and J R since the early seventies, when I was a pilot in Air Ceylon with his son Ravi.”
He is a permanent US resident since 1983, after he fled the island in the aftermath of the Black July. Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa says KP has revealed that Jayantha Gnanakone is the coordinator of LTTE affairs in the United States.
Charles Gnanakone
“Captain” Charles Gnanakone, a retired DC-8 pilot and an Australian passport holder was arrested after the killing of former Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar and was later released. Gnanakone has allegedly assured the former Foreign Minister that the LTTE would not assassinate him, enticing Mr Kadirgamar to scale down his security precautions.
‘The Australian’, newspaper , has described Capt. Charles Gnanakone as an agent of the LTTE known for “money-laundering and smuggling guns for the Tamil Tiger terrorists group of Sri Lanka”. Charles Gnanakone in an interview with the Weekend Liberal, an Australian newspaper has said that he was playing a key role as a peace broker and that the Sri Lankan government headed by Wickremesinghe had sent him a first class ticket to attend the peace talks. The Sri Lankan High Commission was instructed to pay the air fare for Gnanakone to attend the “peace talks”.
V. Rudrakumar
V. Rudrakumar is the legal advisor to the LTTE and a member of the LTTE team to the peace talks held during the Ranil Wickremesinghe Administration. He is a member of the LTTE’s ‘transnational government’ declared
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