In the eye of the storm

Story and Pictures By Amantha Perera In Batticaloa 

The small child stared at the heavens, squint-eyed. There was no fear in those eyes, no anger, just a sense of childish bewilderment mixed with the innocence of ignorance. He stared into my camera, at Kokkadicholai, in Batticaloa, the centre of the LTTE in Batticaloa.

The no-name boy's future is hanging in the balance though he was hardly aware, two years of no hostilities have been ruptured by the defection of Karuna and the intra-LTTE skirmishes that have ensued since. His eyes were the eyes of a generation that is once again waiting like lambs to slaughter.

The Karuna defection has seriously undermined stability in the east. "It is clear that the LTTE is trying to consolidate itself," said SLMM Head (Batticaloa District), Susanne Ringgaard Pedersen.

Despite Karuna's very unceremonious departure in April from the jungles he once ruled, the renegade Tiger has returned with a vengeance and is wrecking the calm in the district. The LTTE is now faced with a double headed monster, on one hand it is fending off Karuna's attacks while on the other, engaged in re-establishing itself.

LTTE recruitment drive

The LTTE has commenced a recruitment drive all over the north east and especially in the east to fill the numbers that fled with Karuna or left the organisation. The recruitment is both voluntary and forced.

The numbers that Karuna sent home vary, according to the party you talk to. EPDP Head in Valachchenai, Siva said it was 2,000, military officers in Colombo have gone so far as to put it at 4,000, the LTTE has limited it to a three digit figure.

The truth of the matter is under Karuna, 7,000 cadres served in the east. When he first announced his rebellion, sources with close links say 2,000 left him for the Wanni. "Five thousand were there with him," said the source who met with Karuna loyalists  while the rebellion was on. At least some of those have gone back to be under the Wanni command.

However, evidence suggests that the LTTE is looking for manpower, in whatever age it may come. "There is an increase in the number of complaints on forced recruitment of children and adults from all over the north east, but especially from the east," UNICEF Communications Director in Colombo, Geoffrey Keele told The Sunday Leader.

SLMM in Batticaloa said that it hardly received any complaints of forced recruitment and abductions in the past, but now several are made every week. The change took place with the Karuna defection.

Child soldiers

Latest UNICEF reports said that since April, 190 children have been recruited by the LTTE and they confirm 330 cases of child recruitment for this year. Amnesty said that in the event of war, the children would be the first casualties. A case in point is that of Yogenathan Gajen.

On May 28, Andrea James who heads the UNICEF office in Batticaloa wrote to the LTTE highlighting the case of Yogenathan Gajen requesting that the family not be harassed and that Gajen not be taken back to the LTTE without his consent. He had been a child soldier trained by Karuna who left the LTTE when Karuna defected.

In another letter on Gajen, LTTE Political Wing Head, S.P. Tamilselvan said that the LTTE was deeply concerned about recruitment of children and that he had advised, no one under the age of 18 should be working in the LTTE's political or administrative network.

The letter further said that if children who are below the poverty line come to join the LTTE, they should be sent to the vocational training center in Wanni. Even workers of the donor agencies who tackle the tricky issue of child and forced recruitment say that some children do join the Tigers voluntarily due to extreme poverty.

Karuna's defection has also meant that the LTTE is under pressure to regroup and rearm. When Karuna fled, he destroyed an armoury. "Trying to recover from the split is very difficult," said a source who deals both with the LTTE and the army.

UNICEF and the SLMM said that they were alarmed by recent reports that highlighted the violence and harassment against families that resist forced recruitment of members. Two weeks ago Amnesty International charged the LTTE of beating up such families and burning their houses.

UNICEF together with other NGOs and donors have  brought pressure on the LTTE to look into the complaints. The LTTE high command in Kilinochchi has conveyed that it was looking in to the allegations but there has been no other action beyond that. UNICEF made the communication to the LTTE about two weeks ago.

Keele said that the LTTE had said that it was against the recruitment of children. UNICEF is a partner in running transit homes for former child soldiers together with the Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO). There has been criticism levelled on the project with critics arguing that the TRO is just an extension of the LTTE.

Violence against families

Though allegations of child recruitment have persisted, Keele said that the use of violence against the families was a recent phenomena.

The Sunday Leader saw first hand training of children in the use of automatic weapons taking place in Batticaloa. Last week, eight such children were undergoing training at  a camp close to Kokkadicholai.

"Training the children is completely against international laws. The LTTE must take immediate steps at the highest level," Keele said. However, UNICEF can only go as far as bringing pressure and the LTTE would have to take action voluntarily.

Not only children, but young adults mostly between 19 and 25 years have been forcibly recruited, according to the UNHCR. In the past, according to UNHCR Protection Officer in Batticaloa, Annka Sandlund, 65% of the young cadres who leave the LTTE have been re-recruited.

Since the Karuna split, former cadres have reached out to UNHCR for protection against being forced back into the LTTE. The UNHCR office in Batticaloa has registered 450 former LTTErs under Karuna's command  who have said that they do not want to go back to the LTTE and that if they were re-recruited, it was forced.

Of that, 20 have been re-recruited without their consent. UNHCR has contacted the LTTE regarding the 20, but so far they have not been allowed access. Sandlund however said that the cases were confirmed. "We hope international pressure will tip the balance, but the political situation will play a big role," she said.

It is the political situation in the country as a whole and in the east particularly that is pushing the LTTE to strengthen itself both politically as well as militarily. Since it was reported in The Sunday Leader two weeks ago that Karuna had returned to the east, the former eastern commander has re-surfaced in the media breathing fire against his former leadership.

Karuna's whereabouts

The EPDP, general public and Karuna backers say that he is in the east. The LTTE denies it saying that there was no chance he could operate in that theatre. LTTE commanders in Batticaloa maintained  that Karuna was still in Nugegoda.

"We have no indication whether Karuna is here or not," Pedersen said.

Irrespective of the fact whether he is there or not, his supporters have been operating in Batticaloa. Karuna supporters have been distributing leaflets discouraging potential cadres from joining the LTTE. When government servants and businessmen were asked to report to Kokkadicholai and pay taxes, Karuna supporters approached them thereafter and demanded the same.

The competition has apparently reduced tax collection to a minimum according to truce monitors. A story emerged last week of Karuna's wife Nira setting up a front company to funnel money just before the defection.

On July 5, the Black Tiger commemoration day, suspected Karuna supporters shot dead two LTTE political wing officers during two separate shootings in government controlled areas. Ramalingam Padmaseelan alias Lt. Col. Senathiraja, the Batticaloa political wing head who was injured in one of the attacks succumbed to his injuries on Tuesday, July 13. When news of the death spread, apprehension rose that the LTTE would retaliate.

On July 14, the day of Senathiraja's funeral, the LTTE said that it had killed a Karuna cadre and captured two others following a skirmish at a location called Punai, south of the Polonnaruwa-Batticaloa main road.

Most daring attack

The most daring attack came on Thursday morning when LTTE cadre Mahendran Pulidaran at the Batticaloa jail shot Kanapathipillai Mahendran alias Satchi Master inside the jail. Earlier the LTTE had accused Satchi Master of working as the spokesperson for the Karuna faction from inside the jail with the help of army intelligence. He had been jailed since March 31 this year when he was arrested with weapons at Kathankudy by police.

The LTTE has accused army intelligence of helping Satchi Master get out of jail. "Sri Lanka Army intelligence is compelling Batticaloa jail officials to provide telephone facilities to Satchi Master for giving live interviews," the LTTE said in a statement two weeks back.

Satchi Master was a former LTTE cadre from Amparai who was kicked out of the organisation for financial irregularities in 2002.

According to military sources, Pulidaran had been in touch with Ramesh, the LTTE military leader for the east, soon after the attack and surrendered to police only after the LTTE intelligence wing spoke to him.

However on Friday, army sources said they had seen around 100 LTTE cadres moving towards Sandiveel near the Kiran bridge. They said the SLMM had been informed. However, the SLMM denied any knowledge.

The deaths coming one after the other have heightened tension in Batticaloa. Soon after Senathiraja died, family members accused the LTTE of not making efforts to transport him to a better hospital. One even went so far as to say that the doctors had recommended he be transferred to Apollo Hospital in Colombo. However, they did not make the accusations public.

Senathiraja used to maintain cordial relationships with the army and the SLMM and both parties feared that it would be difficult to replace him. High ranking army officers along with Pedersen liased with LTTE members to arrange the funeral. The LTTE had requested military protection while the body was being transported from various locations due to fear of more attacks.

"It is only the tip of the iceberg we are seeing, this is the sad reality," Pedersen said.

With the situation in Batticaloa worsening, the army inducted forces from Maduru Oya about two weeks back and security has been heightened with street patrols and checkings. Personnel manning the crossover points from LTTE held areas into government controlled areas say that fewer LTTEers are crossing over since Karuna defected.

Batticaloa infiltrated

The LTTE office in Batticaloa is virtually closed now and is deserted most of the time. The LTTE continues to boycott meetings with the army. An army intelligence officer said that members from both the LTTE pistol gang and Karuna supporters had infiltrated Batticaloa.

The fear and the apprehension felt by the general public prevents any accurate gauging of how much support Karuna really enjoys. At Kiran, Karuna's hometown, villagers said that the LTTE was losing support.

Just a few miles away, another said that the LTTE was stronger than ever. "Karuna does not have that much of ground support," sources with detailed knowledge of the parties said.

But one thing is certain, that Karuna has struck a chord many eastern Tamils agree with. "Ninety five percent of the people do not know who Karuna is but 95% support his claim for eastern autonomy. The cry that Karuna put forward is now wildfire," said a public servant.

He brought the situation of the five Tamil National Alliance (TNA) members of parliament from the east to illustrate his argument. The five were elected with Karuna's support but were not offered any official post among 22 TNA MPs.

Karuna's stretch of land

During the peace process, LTTE Leader, Velupillai Pirapaharan bought an intercooler jeep for Karuna's use. When it was handed over, he inquired whether Karuna had room to ride it. "He was not aware of the extent of the land that Karuna was holding. It stretched from Trincomalee to Panama (close to the northern Yala boundary)," he said.

The same source however said that people were not happy with Karuna's public alliance with EPDP Leader, Douglas Devananda, saying, "He is from Jaffna, isn't he?"

Even with the Devananda connection, he was insistent that the cry that Karuna has raised would resonate with or without him. "He said the right thing at the wrong time and did the wrong thing," a religious leader from Batticaloa said.

"These are troublesome times," said EPDP's Siva whose office was shot at last weekend.

Here is where the military could be moving in to take advantage - by playing each side against the other. No one knows whom to trust anymore and who is doing what. While the army has been accused of helping Karuna, the military also provided security cover for the Senathiraja funeral and also allowed hundreds of boats to cross over from the north through Vaheri when the Wanni leadership finally moved against Karuna.

War of guns

But, Karuna and his supporters cannot operate and carry out intermittent attacks if there was no support. The proxy war of words has evolved into a proxy war of guns with lives lost. If the situation in Batticaloa deteriorates further, the whole peace process could collapse. Leaving it to elements of nature is the last thing Colombo should be doing.

Issues