The Road to Pesalai Attack
LTTE's attack in the Mannar Island on the 17th June
has been the latest "happening" for those terrorists' Propagandists who
are struggling to win sympathy of international community for Mr.
Prabhakaran and his Clan.
These sympathizers of the LTTE were successful at
times in misleading the world, by hiding the real truth of LTTE as to
the composition and other nefarious activities of the LTTE. The credit
must definitely go to the media personnel supportive of the LTTE to
raise funds illegally for them to (LTTE) continue to kill thousands of
innocent civilians in Sri Lanka. Undoubtedly, this is the type of
funding with which the LTTE began many a business ventures in Shipping,
drug trafficking, arms smuggling, child pornography and many other legal
and illegal enterprise. The funds so raised are also being utilized for
its terrorist campaigns and to maintain the luxurious lives of the high
ranking terrorists.
Comparing all terrorist organizations in the world the
LTTE undoubtedly has been in the fore front of innovating novel methods
of carnage. The failure of the international community to realize the
very nature of this dangerous organization has been contributing to the
development of international terrorism to an enormous extent. In other
words; apart form their links with other terror organizations, the LTTE
has developed many a lessons to similar organizations of how and when to
use many acts of terrorism using new strategies the world hitherto did
not know; thanks to the forced freedom emerging from the western
countries in particularly who till September 11th incident, considered
the LTTE to be liberators not terrorists.
One of their greatest strategies is how they handle
their propaganda campaigns to justify the very existence of the
organization by misleading the international community through
disinformation. None other terror organization in the world has ever
manipulated the media as effectively as the LTTE does; this article
attempts to reveal the reality of one such dangerously effective media
ploy of the LTTE: The attack at the Church of Pesalai.
Early in the morning on 17th June 2006, naval
detachment located at Pesalai received information from police sources
that few suspicious crafts mingling with fishing boats were heading
towards the Mannar Island .Thus, around 6.30a.m two dinghy patrol boats
along with two-four man teams led by Lieutenant S.K. Dalugama were sent
for the purpose of reconnaissance. As the naval craft approached the
cluster of fishing boats at a location 2 Nautical Miles east of Pesalai
( see map) the LTTE vessels camouflaged as fishing boats comprising many
LTTE terrorists launched a surprise attack at the two naval dinghy
boats. Despite two more dinghy boats being sent from the same Pesalai
naval camp as reinforcement, only one of them reached the location of
attack since the other developed an engine failure.
Monitoring of radio communication between the naval
detachment and those navy boats involved in the valiant attempt revealed
that the naval boats were confronted initially by LTTE cadres in eight
boats, with subsequent support from seven which arrived from Pesalai
coast.
Simultaneously naval deployment and the police post at
Pesalai came under direct fire from two LTTE attack boats , arrived from
Veddithalthivu -LTTE dominated area, around 6.50 a.m, (see map). The
troops on the ground defended the island from a possible enemy landing
by directing their fire towards the targets in the sea. A sailor on duty
at the naval detachment suffered injuries due to this attack.
Two inshore Patrol vessel sent from the naval base
Thalaimannar around 7.15 a.m observed the LTTE was withdrawing from the
scene. The crews of the SLAF aircraft which was deployed around 7.45a.m
also confirmed that three LTTE craft were withdrawing and one enemy boat
observed being towed.
Sri Lanka Navy troops at Pesalai lost radio
communication with the three boats which were sent out to intercept the
enemy boats around 7.30a.m. Later it was confirmed that all three boats
were severely damaged (8.15a.m) during the confrontation. The heroic group of
sailors led by ever inspiring Lieutenant S.K. Dalugama made the supreme
sacrifice of their valuable lives in defending the Mannar Island, amidst
a barrage of fire despite being out numbered by the enemy force. It is
worth recalling their mighty effort of eleven sailors fighting against
an enemy flotilla of 15 boats each comprising with a minimum of 4 LTTE
cadres. It is indeed praise worthy that the Naval troops destroyed at
least 08 such LTTE boats completely and captured another 03.
News subsequently reached the Sri Lanka Navy Troops
that whilst six civilians were killed and 40 civilians were also got
injured in another incident at the church of "Our Lady of Victory". Pro
LTTE media and their henchmen were all out in their propaganda that Sri
Lanka Navy sailors had attacked the church with a hand grenade, killed a
civilian, injured many others and then another five fishermen were
killed on the beach just behind the church. Interestingly, these media
reports were on the internet whilst the Sri Lanka Navy along with the
Army and Air Force were still concentrating all their fire power heavily
on the sea battle, in order to avoid a possible enemy landing.
For some unfortunate reason the government officials
including the security forces have paid very little attention to these
media reports. The chaotic situation in Colombo caused by the averted
suicide attack of naval vessels in Colombo and the simultaneous attack
in the Mannar Island made the government be pre-occupied in action than
on correcting misreporting in the media. It was only on the 24th of
June, six days after the attack; that the security forces could
investigate in to the matter and come up with the final report on the
incident.
It is now revealed that there had been eight enemy
boats in the initial cluster of boats that was intercepted by the Sri
Lanka Navy boats. The other seven boats were actually deployed in the
area behind the church to ambush the two inshore patrol craft carrying
those personnel going on leave form Thalaimannar to Pesalai (see the
map). The location of the intended ambush is not visible to the sea
convoy in the radar screen or to the naked eye due to its geographical
positioning. Ever since the LTTE started setting claymore mines,
targeting vehicles carrying naval personnel going on leave, the Navy has
been transporting its personnel via sea convoys from Tahalaimannar to
Pesalai.
Thus, the seven enemy boats which lay in ambush
reportedly joined the other eight enemy boats which were intercepted
earlier by the Navy. Thus the LTTE tried to "sandwiched" the Naval unit
in the attack.
Meanwhile, the two LTTE craft that had entered in to
the scene form Veddithalthivu area started firing at the police post and
the naval detachment on the coast using 12.7mm machine guns and grenade
launchers (see map). These two LTTE vessels apparently attacked the
targets on the ground to facilitate the enemy landing to the Island by
neutralizing the ground defence of the Navy. The type of damage caused
to the Police post and the naval units provide ample evidence for the
type of weapons used by the enemy, to cause such severe damages.
The allegation against the Navy
The initial complaint against the Navy came up when it
was mentioned that three men wearing blue shorts, who had come on a
bicycle, and attacked the church with a hand grenade. In the next
version the bicycle became a "trailer" motor bike and the final version
of this allegation is now that three men in blue shorts traveling on
a standard motor bike lobbed a hand grenade in to the church. The only
reason for the victims to believe the attackers were naval personnel was
that they had been wearing blue shorts.
The next allegation against the Navy came up for
killing five more fishermen on the coast near the church. The only basis
for the allegation is that these dead fishermen had the fishing passes
issued by the navy with them. Nobody saw them being shot or had any
other clue on the killers. It is obvious that these innocent civilians
were forced to provide evidence against the navy by the LTTE.
However, the Bishop of Mannar insists that there was
no presence of the LTTE in the Island. Despite the fact that the naval
troops has never checked religious establishments as a policy, there
were only two LTTE cadres that were apprehended by the troops in the
area around the Bishops house and that also when they were planning a
claymore mine attack in late December in the year 2005. The table below
provides the evidence for LTTE activities that particularly concentrated
around religious places in the Mannar Island.
|
The date |
Incident |
|
23rd December 2005 |
LTTE attacked the naval
convoy killing 13 naval personnel, with a claymore mine close to the
Pesalai Church. No trace of the attackers could be found, despite
the cordon search immediately laid excluding the religious
establishment. It shall be noted that Mannar is a small Island that
security forces almost know each permanent resident by their names.
Thus, it is very unlikely to an intruder to hide himself in the
civilian community without getting noticed by the security forces.
|
|
29th December 2005
|
Naval route clearing party
found two claymore mines planted on a Palmyrah tree close to the
Bishops house. The remote control device and the other accessories
though found the attackers could not be traced. However, two LTTE
cadres on motor bike were arrested along with a video camera
opposite the Bishops house. The two suspects admitted that they were
LTTE cadres and told the police that they had been assigned to video
the scene following the bomb explosion .The two LTTE cadres are
still in the police custody. |
|
14th January 2005 |
The naval troops recovered
remote control accessories used for clay more mines; within 10
meters form the Pesalai church premises. The area commander Mannar
along with few other senior military officers were scheduled to
arrive to the location to have a meeting with the Bishop.
|
|
21st January 2006 |
Three claymore mines were
found in the Pathima government school premises Pesalai, close to
the same Pesalai church. |
From the contents of the table above, it is crystal
clear that the LTTE has been very fond of choosing their attacks near
the churches particularly in Mannar Island for some unknown reason.
Obviously, one reason is to ensure civilians that a
lot suffered either casualties in the retaliatory firing and through a
possible provocative action of the military. But none of these could be
full filled by the LTTE so far. Yet, there lies a question, whether
there is another reason for LTTE to choose their attacking sites near
the churches, especially in Pesalai. Was it safe for them to plan
attacks near churches due to some superstitious reasons as; the
attackers could mysteriously vanish after the attack. No cordon and
search operation that deliberately excludes these religious
establishments so far could arrest any suspects for the terrorist acts.
In this backdrop the naval sources questions as to why
their troops should kill fishermen if they had the fishing passes issued
by the very same Navy. Fishing passes are issued to identify the
fishermen in the area by the naval troops. Hence, on what basis are the
charges leveled against the Navy be framed that Navy personnel killed
those civilians who were closely cooperating with them. Is not it
logical that some other party wanted to kill these civilians for showing
the passes to them, since the passes were issued by Sri Lanka Navy?
Further, the distances between the police post and the
church is 500m and similarly the distance between the church and the
naval detachment is 1.5Km. To throw a hand grenade at the church amidst
the previously mentioned attack by the LTTE is indeed unthinkable. The
question is, is it logical to assume that three Naval personnel had the
leisure to travel 1.5 Km from their camp with a hand grenade to attack
the church, whilst their very own camp was under a heavy enemy attack,
coming from the sea. Yet the Bishop of Mannar denies any presence of LTTE
in the Island.
Naval sources further assume that, if there was no
LTTE presence in the Island as the Bishop vehemently claims. There might
be a possibility of a grenade being launched by those LTTE personnel who
were in two fishing craft that to attacked the ground targets would have
accidentally got in to the church premises (see the map).
The latest evidence for Bishops claim for the absence
of the LTTE in the island came up as the Naval troops were fired up on
by some unknown gunmen near the same church at Pesalai on the 23rd of
June. Minister Jeyaraj Fernandopulle along with other VIPs, on their
visit to Mannar, was scheduled to have a meeting with the civilians in the
church on the very same day. However no suspect could be traced by the
cordon and search operation excluding the religious establishments. The
Bishop of Mannar must be having very good reasons for his claim.
|
