Karuna's Shame

By: Defencewire

(October,03, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian)The LTTE's famous renegade commander Vinayagamoorthi Muralitharan alias 'Colonel Karuna' left Sri Lanka several days ago. The Thamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal or 'Karuna Group' is now under the command of Pullaian, a seasoned fighter from the East. Karuna's exit is the result of a deep rift between him and Pullaian which left several fighters like Ampara District Military Wing Cadre Sindujan dead and forced others like Intelligence Wing Cadre Vivekananthan alias 'Charan' into exile.

The CID recently issued details of a Batticaloa Tamil who had allegedly masterminded the killing of two Red-Cross workers on 1st June 2007. Vivekananthan alias Charan is a former LTTE Intelligence Wing Cadre who disbanded the organization in 2004. While in the LTTE, Vivekananthan had engaged in intelligence gathering under Pottu Amman in Colombo for five years, without being detected by the police or the security forces. Vivekananthan's brother had been abducted, tortured and subsequently murdered by the LTTE at the beginning of this year. He has since disappeared and is thought to be hiding in a Southeast Asian country.

The rift occurred due to financial misappropriations by Karuna. Instead of targeting those that fund the LTTE for 'tax' collections, Karuna and his aide, the violent Ineya Barathi started collecting money from all Tamil businessmen they could find. During the Thoppigala Battle, large numbers of Tamil families started arriving in cleared areas, some of whom were family and relatives of Karuna Group fighters. These families required financial and other assistance and the fighters turned towards Pullaian for help. Unfortunately for Pullaian, who was the field commander, the funds available for welfare activities was grossly inadequate to meet the needs. However, the 'Tax' collection process had yielded vast sums of money for Karuna and at one point, a Bank Account in Ampara, operated from Vavuniya had over 30 million rupees in it when the Vavuniya Magistrate froze that account on charges of extortion by the group. On another occasion, a group operating under Karuna abducted a Tamil businessman holding an Australian Passport who had invested a large sum of money in the Sugarcane Industry. This abduction exposed two corrupt junior officers in the Police and an ex-officer and Airman from the Air Force.

Karuna ran amok and attempted to lure Pullaian into a trap in order to assassinate him. But Pullaian's loyal assistant, Seelan was able to escape certain death and save Pullaian's life. The TMVP split into two soon after. Many of the seasoned cadres like Jeyam and Riya-Seelan moved to Trincomalee with Pullaian, and were later responsible for the detection of a one-tonne Freezer-Truck bomb in Trincomalee. Although the differences were patched-up superficially, the two commanders of the TMVP have 'decided' that Pullaian should continue as commander in Sri Lanka and that Karuna should operate 'internationally'.

Pullaian is one of the most clever fighters the LTTE ever produced. prior to the Thoppigala capture, Pullaian was preparing for an assault on Thoppigala on his own. He even managed to capture a 122mm Howitzer in one attack against the LTTE. Unfortunately, the rift in the TMVP forced Pullaian to move to Trincomalee with his cadres while Karuna, Ineya Barathi and Mangalam Master remained in Batticaloa. With Karuna's departure, Pullaian will have to somehow coexist with Ineya Barathi and Mangalam Master. Their task will be to provide a political alternative to Tamils in the East whilst keeping the remaining LTTE units engaged. This is if the Military allows them to operate in Batticaloa and Ampara. As we have pointed out earlier, Paramilitaries can be dangerous bedfellows.