Reminiscences of our heroic soldiers

Thoppigala capture in retrospect :

Shanika Sriyananda reporting from Thoppigala

S. Thangamani is busy buying some vegetables. She has to rush home to cook lunch before her two grandchildren come home after school. She stops for a while near the bus halt to talk to the heroic solider, who is guarding the city which has suffered heavily under the control of the terrorists. City life has now been restored with capturing of the East by the Sri Lankan military.

The Black Bridge at the Chenkaladi junction, connects the road to the A5 road, stands majestically. No one is allowed access to the A5 road, secured by the armed forces last April 11, without undergoing a thorough check by the young army soldiers who were on duty under the scorching sun.

We are on our mission to meet the country's heroic soldiers who captured Thoppigala, the LTTE's last bastion in the East. Young soldiers, majority in their 20s, are busy still searching around the captured areas, guarding the newly built camps and bunkers. The road stretches through open paddy fields which made it difficult for the armed forces to advance during day to capture Thoppigala.

It is 12 noon. The aroma of a curry comes from the temporary bunkers. Some soldiers are busy bringing water and some are washing their uniforms after days and days. Some are polishing their boots. They seemed to be relaxing after months of heavy fighting. Life has begun for them too.

We now reach the Illuppadichenai junction, where we are asked to prove our identity by the Commandos before opening the gate. The place is another bee hive, where the soldiers are busy carving the statue in memory of capturing Thoppigala.

Some commandos are erecting a neatly painted name board to name the road as Sergeant Pathirana Mawatha in memory of the Sergeant killed by the terrorists. He was killed in an inhuman way and beheaded and his head was exhibited at the place where the name board is erected.

We stop near a house with a portico, which is now converted to a communication room in a Military Base. "Hello I'm Brigadier Chagie Gallage". He greets us, and introduces us to his Second in Commander of the 23 Brigade Major Uditha Bandara", says with a sense of a pride. Now the heroic solider who led the Commandos to the victory is in front of us. Believe me his appearance reminds me of Major Gen. Denzil Kobbekaduwa.

I explain to him our mission but at once he says " You better interview my boys. These young boys have sacrificed their lives and their future for the future of the country. So it is worth writing about them rather than me", he says in a humble voice.

"It was a challenge for us because of the limitations that were expressed to me by the Army Commander, Sarath Fonseka. He wanted me to do this operation while minimising our own causalities as well as zeroing casualties of civilians. We were asked to minimise damages to the properties belonging to civilians", he says.

Brigadier Gallage, who is the Commander of the Commando Brigade, which was called to capture Thoppigala, says though the Army Commandos have skill and will conduct these missions they have not been employed for these for years. " So, I thought it was time to get the best out of these wilful soldiers and we started a kind of re-connaissance missions, where their skills are being brushed up more than a normal soldier.

Actually I believed they were the eyes and ears, that was the victory behind the whole operation to capture Thoppigala. What ever my commandos hear and see was like the things what I am hearing and seeing", he says and the whole operation was planned based on that theory and the information gathered from them was exploited in various avenues to make the operation successful.

The Army Commandos were given the task of capturing Thoppigala on February 25 and first they explored to enter the territory without harming the civilians. The area was basically divided into two south of A5 and North of A 5.

The LTTE, which did not want to leave Kokkadicholai, used civilians as human shields. They had their police stations, courts, offices and vocational training centres in the area where later the Commandos captured the area and destroyed their bases.

The three groups in the elite Commando Regiment - ALPHA (A), BRAVO (B) and DELTA (D) launched the mission to capture Thoppigala under the leadership of Captain Thushara Weththasinghe who led the A group, Captain Ravi Ratnayake the B group and Captain Malinda Aluvihare the D group.

The Commandos started their mission again on April 12 and managed to capture the A5 road the Batticaloa, Chenkaladi and Maha oya Road which runs from Batticaloa to Maha oya.

"Morale of the boys were high. They were happy and the Commandos went into the jungle as we commenced phase two of the mission in the Thoppigala Forest Reserve", says Major Bandara.

Being a solider in a deadly battle field is not an easy task. Not because it is a game between life and death but it needs lots of courage, will and commitment. To these army commandos it was not a mission through thick jungles with shady and greeny tree covers.

It is a deadly mission where they crawl throughout nights and hid in LTTE territories for months. With no water around, sometimes it was a secret military mission for them just to find a water hole. It becomes simply a game between life and death just for a few drops of water.

To some, who are living comfortably in concrete jungles, Thoppigala will be merely a jungle. But we saw the real difficulties that these young soldiers face during their mission to end terrorism to free the innocent civilians, who were caged in the LTTE territory in the East.

The soldiers of the Commando Brigade, 6,7,8 Gamunu Watch, Seven Ceylon Infantry and 2 Singha Regiment which led the victorious mission after 13 years faced lots of difficulties due to the nature of the terrain with huge rocky complexes like Narakkamulla which was the base of the LTTE terrorists to view the entire terrain.

Wide open paddy fields and spaces made the task more difficult to capture the rocky mountains where the terrorists had their bases to attack the armed forces.

Thirty-seven- year-old Sergeant M.H. Neelaweera, a father of two was the team leader of the ALPHA team which took the task of capturing the Narakkamulla complex which is Karuna's infamous 'Tora Bora' complex.

He is an 'Angel' to the Commando Brigade. Each and every solider is given a nick name in the Commando regiment and their nick names are printed on their uniform. Until they are promoted to a higher rank they are popularly known by their nick names.

Angel seems to be proud above all. He says that he led his team to the most crucial point of the LTTE and he took the task of capturing Narakkamulla with the strong determination that they could hoist the National Flag on top of the rock.

So, let's listen to the words of this proud army commando, Angel who undertook the arduous task of capturing the Narakkamulla Complex.

"We as Commandos have a very tough training so we undertook the task and launched commando raids, which infiltrated into the Narakkamulla complex with a height of 200 metres.

We decided to launch our land mark mission on July 1 night and we started our journey at 5 am while the terrorists were attacking us with 60 mm mortars. But we advanced further with heavy mortar attacks. A large number of clamore mines were buried in this path.

We did not have an assurance that we would completely win as we did not know how many terrorists were at the top of the rock. But we had the courage that we would capture this vital point any how and it was a 50 to 50 battle at that time".

"When we were going 50 metres forward we found the path that the terrorist used and we estimated that there were more than 10 terrorists on top of the rock. We destroyed their mines and Team one and Team two of the Commandos in my back up teams were there to help us. While advancing five commandos including a team leader received severe injuries due to a mortar attack. I was informed about a serious attack by the terrorist but we did not abandon our mission.

At that time the chances for the LTTE was 75 and 25 for us. But we decided to advance with determination thanks to the hard training and the unity of our teams. We did an infiltration and they did not see us though we were five metres behind them".

"The boy who used binoculars saw us first and then the terrorist who operated the mortar launcher saw us and we attacked them. All the terrorists are in their teens. The others jumped from the rock and committed suicide.

Those who ran down were destroyed by my supporting teams and we recovered 200 mortar gun shells and we started attacking them with their weapons. We had difficulties as we had to crawl for over 2 meters and it took half an hour to reach the rock secretly.

At 10.30 am we captured the whole Narakkamulla Complex. After capturing this rock the terrorists could not remain in the area and we attacked them easily as we could see them clearly. It was also not just a jungle.

The training bases and all the administrative points of the LTTE were located in the eastern side of the Narakkamulla", he says.

With an unkempt appearance, wearing dusty and crumpled uniforms and muddy boots the ALPHA team including Angel, Ponti, Siba and many other heroic commandos were waiting to clean themselves and have a fresh bath after coming from jungles.

Hiding during the daytime in the scorching sun and dusty wind and crawling on paddy fields at nights the commandos had to launch military exercise to get some drops of water as their water bottles are empty.

During the operation the commandos had to survive with the 'MRE' (Meal Ready to Eat). They were given rice packets, dhal curry, biscuits, cheese, chocolate and two litres of water for four days.

"To most of us food is not a matter. We wanted to realise our mission so we did not take half of the food given to us but we filled the vacuum with the extra ammunition and other necessary things that are needed to attack the terrorists", Angel says.

Believe, the full weight of a commando including the body armour, ammunition and weapon, is over 40 kilos. It is not an easy task at all. " We took additional ammunition as we thought we had to fight with the terrorists for a long time. We gave priority to ammunition not for our dry rations", Angel says with glittering eyes.

He says that they did not have big plans but under the directions of their Commander Brigadier Gallage and Group Commander Major Bandara they led the victory. Unity among the ALPHA group was the other secret behind their victory.

A simple body language of the leader during the battle field will be recognised by the fellow soldiers who know the mentality of each and every member of the group. No guarantee that they would come back alive the 16 commandos sweared to end the mission until their death. " We did it.

Sharp at 10.30 in the morning we hoisted the National Flag. But if they saw one of us we could not achieve our target. So we were determined to capture the Narakkamulla Complex. Fighting together we captured the most vital point of the LTTE and we are proud to be soldiers of the Commando Regiment", Angel says before he leaves for another mission with his team to the jungles of Thoppigala.

After capturing the 'Tora Bora', the task of capturing Thoppigala called the 'Barons Cap' was given to Captain Bandara. Looking tired the tall Captain Bandara and his four member team is relating their heroic mission to us in a jubilant voice.

"We started the operation as three teams on June 30. We had put three ambushes and in our first ambush we killed several terrorists and the supportive groups helped us. There were over 40 terrorists and we were only five in our team", he says.

They reached the Baron's Cap three days later after an 18 km trek passing open paddy fields, taking the cover of bushes and speeding their journey under the cover of darkness.

July sixth at 5.30 am we started the ambush again and my team was a small group compared to strength of the LTTE's. The LTTE had a big strength as those ran away from Narakkamulla had joined them. Again on July 9th night we climbed Thoppigala while they were firing. They knew we were advancing and they set fire to their vehicles and they withdrew, he explains.

The team got the first order to climb the Thoppigala rock on July 8 and they made their first attempt under the leadership of Captain Bandara. Corporal Indika took the lead.

"When he climbed up the rock on a ladder, he heard a voice "Yara da" (Who are you) and he covered himself quickly. He saw there were over 100 terrorists. We stopped our mission as it was dangerous to climb the rock at that time and rested near the rock".

On July 10, the team was ordered to climb the rock for the second time and they started their mission at 7.30 am cutting off all the supply routes to the Baron's Cap.

They removed anti-personnel mines around the rock and removed a 25 kg claymore mine fixed to the ladder to reach the top of the Thoppigala. Corporal Indika climbed the ladder and they reached the rock around 4.30 in the evening.

After establishing their positions on the top they hoisted the National Flag and the Commando Regiment Flag marking the end of the mission and also turning a new chapter in the recent history of the East at 4.35 on that bright evening.

As the nation takes their hats off for the soldiers for their bravery and commitment, the following saying of a heroic soldier echoed in the eastern sky ... "We knew from the beginning that the tigers in the wilds of Thoppigala can be tamed only by the mighty lions of the Sri Lankan military".

We stop for a while to listen to it. It is Brigadier Gallage's humble voice that we hear.

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He is Lance Corporal Pushpa Kumara from Tissamaharamaya. He was injured due to a mortar attack at Rugam on March 3 and was transferred to the Anuradhapura Hospital for treatment.

Due to the severity of the injury he was given seven day medical leave but returned before given rest period as he wanted to be in his group which was fighting with the terrorists. " I wanted to take part in their fight to capture Thoppigala", his voice reflects the dedication that the Commandos have.

Twenty four year old Lance Corporal Sanath Silva serving in the North and east for the last four years was injured twice during the mission to capture Thoppigala but returned to the battlefield without taking the given medical leave full.

He got gun shot injuries on his hand and came back to the battlefield again and suffered injuries due to a mortar attack when crossing the Narakkamulla Complex.

"I was asked to rest for 14 -days but when remembering our team who were fighting with the terrorists I could not stay at the hospital. I came back to the battlefield and took part in the mission. I am proud to be a solider attached to the Commando regiment", he says.

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