LTTE chief was inspired by his teacher to create cyanide cult

By Anil Bhat

(February 06, New Delhi, Sri Lanka Guardian) Theravada, “the teaching of the elders” or “the ancient teaching”, the oldest surviving Buddhist school — founded in India and considered to be relatively conservative, and generally closest to early Buddhism — has, for many centuries, been the predominant religion of Sri Lanka, accounting for about 70 per cent of the population.

Following the exit of the British, Sinhala Buddhist nationalism gradually gained ground to the extent of becoming discriminatory against minorities, particularly Tamils , as reflected by the Sinhala Only Act passed in 1956. While colonisation of the Eastern Province inhabited mainly by Tamils had already begun in the 1950s, the Republican Constitution adopted in 1972, according Buddhism privileged status and denying the protection to minorities as the earlier Constitution did, came as a further shock. Shortly afterwards, “standardisation” of marks for university admissions, meaning non-Sinhalas had to get higher marks, added further insult to injury. With the response by the State to peaceful protest by Tamils often being violent, the last straw that broke the camel’s back — the rise of Tamil militancy — was the Black July killings of 1983.

On July 23, 1983, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE also known as the Tamil Tigers), a separatist militant organisation under Velupillai Prabhakaran began its bloody insurgent fight aiming to create an independent Tamil state named Tamil Eelam in the north and the east of the island.

When escalation of level of the conflict in Sri Lanka led to the pouring of refugees into India, in 1987, the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, took the decisive step to push the Indo-Sri Lankan Accord through and on the request of then Sri Lankan President J.R. Jayewardene, the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF), formed under the accord’s mandate, was inducted into Sri Lanka.

Maj. Gen. Raj Mehta was serving in directorate general of military operations, Army Headquarters, when the IPKF was sent to Sri Lanka and maintained his interest. Lost Victory is the result of his sustained incisive research.

As per the terms of the accord, IPKF’s main task was to disarm not just the LTTE, but also all the different militant groups. It was to be quickly followed by the formation of an Interim Administrative Council. IPKF was initially not expected to be involved in any significant combat, but within a few months, it became embroiled in battle with the LTTE to enforce peace. The differences which cropped up owing to LTTE trying to dominate the Interim Administrative Council and also refusing to disarm, a pre-condition to enforce peace in the island, and soon led to the LTTE attacking the IPKF. The prolonged 32 months of IPKF’s Operation Pawan was fought at a disproportionately high cost of the lives of over 1,100 Indian Amy personnel. This was largely because of a flawed political approach, hurry and adhocism which also meant lack of preparation and lack of vital and even basic intelligence and maps for IPKF in the face of the LTTE, which was highly trained in guerilla warfare, extensive use of explosives and motivated as well as its ruthlessnes of using women and child soldiers to fight. Following the election of the Vishwanath Pratap Singh government in India and on the request of the then newly-elected Sri Lankan President Ranasinghe Premadasa, the IPKF de-inducted from Sri Lanka in March 1990. Whereas Rajiv Gandhi visited Sri Lanka during Operation Pawan and even escaped a crude attack by Sri Lankan Navy sailor, what was most disgraceful was the government’s cold reception to the IPKF, when it returned back home.

For almost 26 years, the insurgency brought misery upon the people, ruined the environment and economy of the country and took a toll on 80,000 lives. 32 countries, including the United States, India, Australia, Canada and the member nations of the European Union declared LTTE a terrorist organisation. After two decades of fighting and three failed attempts at peace talks, a ceasefire was declared in December 2001, with its agreement, facilitated by international mediation, signed in 2002. Then again, hostilities were renewed in late 2005 and the conflict intensified. This time major military offensives against the LTTE beginning in July 2006, drove the LTTE out of the entire Eastern province, after which it declared to “resume their freedom struggle to achieve statehood”. In 2007, the offensive shifted to the north and on January 2, 2008, the Sri Lanka government formally announced its withdrawal from the ceasefire agreement accusing the LTTE of repeatedly violating it. Thereafter, Sri Lanka’s Armed Forces became quite effctive by destroying a number of LTTE’s large arms smuggling vessels and an international crackdown on the funding it. Eventually, the entire area previously controlled by the Tamil Tigers, including their de-facto capital Kilinochchi, main military base Mullaitivu and the entire A9 highway, was captured leading to the LTTE to finally admitting defeat on May 17, 2009.

Velupillai Prabhakaran of Velvettithurai, inspired by his teacher, Venugopal, began his fight, creating the cult of the cyanide capsule necklace and “blow yourself up” suicide bombers and believing in “Nature is my Friend, Life is my Philosopher and History my Guide” became a larger-than-life figure. Over the years he became extremely elusive and even callous enough to remain very safe himself, sending thousands of his cadres, including young boys and girls, to die. Ironically, he is reported to have died without the cyanide capsule on his neck.

While the LTTE under Prabhakaran’s directions killed Rajiv Gandhi, an interesting finding of the Jain Commission as recorded in Justice Milap Chand Jain’s conclusion, reads “Ramesh Dalal’s (author of Rajiv Gandh’s Assassination: The Mystery Unfolds, UBS) evidence does establish the involvement of Chandraswami in the assassination.” He also recommended a further probe and subsequently, the Central Government tabled the Action Taken Report (ATR) in 1998 and constituted the Multi Disciplinary Monitoring Committee (MDMA) in 1999.

The book, in four parts, with 22 chapters packed with lots of details and thereby quite useful for reference, ends with a copy of the letter of resignation of Sri Lanka’s former Army Chief, Gen. G.S.C. Fonseka, who stood against President Mahinda Rajapakse in the country’s presidential elections held on Tuesday.

Anil Bhat, a retired Army officer, is a defence and security analyst based in New Delhi