Back to democracy under Pilleyan

By Ranil WIJAYAPALA

The very last hope the LTTE had to cling on to sabotaging the process of establishing the true democracy in the Eastern province was diminished on Thursday with M.L.A.M. Hisbullah sworn in before President Mahinda Rajapaksa as the Eastern Province Minister of Health and Indigenous Medicine, Social Welfare, Probation and Child Care Services, Women’s Affairs, Youth Affairs, Sports, Information Technology, Education, Co-op Development and Food Supply and Distribution.

The Muslim factions who expressed their dissatisfaction over the appointment of Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan as the Chief Minister of the Eastern Provincial Council finally could brush aside the differences and agree to join hands with other constituent parties of the UPFA to run the Eastern Provincial Council.

Hisbulla’s decision to swear in as a Minister came at a time when the LTTE was trying to take advantage out of the uncertain situation in the Batticaloa district, arousing communalism in the Eastern province. At least five people were reportedly killed amidst this uncertain situation.

Two TMVP (Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal) members who had been identified as Shanthan, the party’s chief organizer of Kaththankudi, and Parasuraman, a party member were gunned down by unidentified gunmen in Kaththankudi town on Thursday.

The victims were riding a motorbike when they were shot by the gunmen in front of the Kaththankudi bus stand around 11.55 a.m. on Thursday.

Two more civilians who received injuries in the shooting incident were also admitted to the Batticaloa hospital. Following the incident Police imposed a curfew in the area. Three more killings were later reported on Thursday.

However, the tense situation prevailed in Batticaloa has returned to normal with Hisbullah expressing his solidarity with the appointment of Pilleyan as the Chief Minister and with his decision to swear in as a Minister of the Provincial Council.

At last the Government has displayed its ability to bring warring parties together and form the Provincial Council that can set an example to the whole world on the ethnic co-existence in Sri Lanka, as against the dismal picture, the international community has painted. It is also proof of equal treatment of all communities irrespective of ethnic differences.

Despite, the repeated failures the LTTE has not given up its efforts of sabotaging the restoration of democracy in the East. According to the intelligence reports, Keerthi the former intelligence leader in the Batticaloa-Ampara sector had sent messages to the Tiger cadres clandestinely operating in Batticaloa to create a conducive environment in Batticaloa district for his operations.

It was after this that many killings were reported from the Batticaloa district, including the assassination of several Police officers. The authorities in charge of the Batticaloa district have been baffled by this situation, as they believe the incidents that taken place are due to the political uncertainty in the district.

But the intelligence sources had confirmed, that the current situation in the district has arisen due to the Tiger cadres clandestinely operating in the district, capitalizing on the political uncertainty.

Therefore, the Security Forces and the Police particularly the Special Task Force in charge of the security in the Batticaloa district will have to make an extra effort to get rid of these Tiger elements from the district without allowing them to increase their presence in and establish a proper network to counter their operations.

It is Pilleyan appointment that nullified all LTTE attempts to sabotage the establishment of full democracy in the East. It was a severe blow to the LTTE. It has been proved beyond any doubt by the number of telephone calls received by Pilleyan after he was sworn in as the Chief Minister of the Eastern Provincial Council.

Reliable sources told this correspondent that a large number of LTTE cadres, including Tiger leaders had phoned him up with two objectives in mind. Both love and hatred included in those calls were received from one time fellow members with whom Pilleyan had worked once, according to the sources.

A group of Tiger cadres had wished him after his appointment as the Chief Minister. At the same time he has also received threatening calls as well, warning that he would soon be assassinated. But many of the senior Tiger cadres had called him out of jealousy, as it was a sore in their eyes to see such a junior LTTE cadre becoming Chief Minister of the Eastern Provincial Council.

The brief sketch on Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pilleyan here in this column will give an idea how he reached to this position after joining the LTTE as a young Tiger cadre. It was true that these senior Tiger cadres were deeply upset to see Pilleyan, in his western attire taking oaths before President Mahinda Rajapaksa. But many of the Tiger cadres have expressed their willingness to join hands with the TMVP after Pilleyan being appointed Chief Minister of the Eastern Province.

But it has now become a very difficult task for the TMVP to identify those who join the TMVP out of conviction and the Wanni cadres who join them with the ulterior motive of assassinating Pilleyan.

Therefore, the TMVP leader will have to adopt strict security measures, like Social Services Minister Douglas Devananda. Extreme vigilance has to be exercised in providing personal security to the Eastern Province Chief Minister as he is the key figure who can throw a challenge to the LTTE in conveying a message to the Tamil population that they too can enjoy the same rights as their counterparts in the East once they are liberated from the Tiger grip.

The Security Forces are now turning their military strategies to further paralyze the LTTE outfit now entrapped in Mullaitivu and Kilinochchi districts.

The sudden death of Balraj, the Military Wing leader of the LTTE on Tuesday came as another severe blow on the LTTE which had suffered enough with the loss of their leaders due to the continuing attacks launched by the Security Forces.

Balraj who was born on 27 November, 1965 was a member of the 9th batch of the LTTE. He was a contemporary of Theepan the present LTTE Military leader in Jaffna. Balraj had a heart surgery in Singapore in 2003.

The present Army Commander Lt. General Sarath Fonseka and Balraj fought during the Yaldevi operation in early 1990s and both sustained injuries. The irony of life is that the Army Commander could even survive a deadly suicide attack but Balaraj could not survive a heart attack even after having the best treatment in Singapore.

According to the LTTE the funeral of Balraj was held on Friday evening in Mullaitivu with the participation of several Tiger leaders.

It was amidst the funeral of one of their top leaders, the LTTE announced the killing of 16 civilians at Mullankavil in Kilinochchi. Though the Sri Lanka Army’s, Deep Penetration Units were blamed for this claymore attack on the Hiace van the Army denied any involvement in the attack.

The LTTE media machine is in full swing in capitalizing this incident highlighting the deaths of civilians to tarnish the image of the Security Forces and also justifying their brutal attack on civilian targets in the South. With this background chances are very high for the LTTE to take another civilian target in the South in a tit for tat act.

The LTTE is engaged in this false propaganda highlighting the case of civilian victims. The LTTE’s movements are highly restricted with effective targets taken by the Security Forces.

The Security Forces have been able to restrict the LTTE supplies to the Mannar and Vavuniya battlefronts cutting off many of the supply routes from Kilinochchi. Troops operating in the Vavuniya front had shifted their operations to the Mullaitivu district close to Mannar- Vavuniya border.

The troops attached to the 57 Division are now poised to capture Periyamadu as they have cut off all supply routes to Periyamadu.

However, troops are expecting a severe resistance from the LTTE due to the importance of this strategic location, which they used to locate their long-range heavy calibre guns to pose a major threat on the Security Forces operating in the Vavuniya and Mannar fronts.

With the expansion of the area coming under the 57 Division, the Sri Lanka Army is now in the process of forming the 61 Division to back up the 57 Division which is functioning as an offensive division in the West of A-9 road.

The basic idea of the formation of the 61 Division is to hold the ground captured by the 57 Division enabling them to further advance in to the Tiger territory.

So the 61 Division is expected to form as a defensive Division, most probably under the command of Major General Davulugala who acted as the Acting General Officer Commanding the 57 Division and 58 Division in the absence of the 57 GOC Major General Jagath Dias and 58 GOC Brigadier Shavendra Silva.

The formation of this new Division will be another step forward by the Sri Lanka Army to achieve its objective of bringing ongoing battle in the Wanni to a turning point.

So far the Security Forces have not faced any human resource problem as it got the highest number of army recruits to its Regiments during the last year and this year.

Therefore, the formation of new Divisions will not be a problem for the Army. According to the latest statistics 9,000 Tiger cadres so far have been killed after the outbreak of the fourth Eelam War with 1,700 Security Forces personnel sacrificing their lives.

The current progress of the war predicts that LTTE will soon have to face a decisive phase of the battle in the Weli Oya battlefront as troops have already advanced nearly seven kilometres into the Tiger territory from the Weli Oya front.

They are now reaching towards famous 1-4 Base of the LTTE located in the Mullaitivu jungle close to Nityakulam tank. Heavy fighting are expected in this region once the troops reach the strategic LTTE bases in the Mullaitivu district.

With the fall of the key LTTE locations after a long and arduous task by the Security Forces in the Mannar and Vavuniya front, the task of bringing the war into a turning point is becoming more and more realistic.

From terror outfit to Politics

Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pilleyan had his own way to politics and to become the Chief Minister of the Eastern Provincial Council.

The very roots of Pilleyan lie in the Batticaloa district to which they wanted a separate leadership, distancing from the Northern domination.

Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan was born on August 18, 1975 at a small village called Pethalai, in Kalkudah, Batticaloa. His father Sivanesathurai Arumugan is now 62 years old and his mother Sivanesan Kamala is 52 years old and are still living to see his son’s achievement.

Chandrakanthan was the second among the seven children his parents had.

Suresh Kumar (35), Sugandhi (32), Chandrakanthi (29), Meena Lakshmi (27), Sugandan (30) and Kumar (28) were the other members of his family.

Chandrakanthan had his education at Pethalai Vipulanand Vidyalaya and Valachchenai Hindu College. At the age of 15, as a young boy enjoying his days in the beaches in Kalkudah, Chandrakanthan joined Karuna Amman, the then LTTE eastern leader.

Having undergone military training under the LTTE, he joined Karuna Amman for the Pooneryn Battle in 1993.

Since then he had participated in almost all the major battles along with Karuna Amman.

When Karuna Amman left the LTTE on April 03, 2004 Pilleyan was with them. As the cadres under Karuna Amman were entrapped in the Verugal Aru bordering Trincomalee and Batticaloa districts when the Tiger leader Prabhakaran declared war against Karuna cadres with the political backing from the South , Karuna Amman summoned all the Tiger cadres under his command to Meenam Base in Thoppigala and allowed them to leave the organization.

But Pilleyan did not leave the organization but continued to work along with Karuna Amman. He became the leader of the Karuna faction military wing after Regie was assassinated. In May 2007,Pilleyan distanced himself from Karuna Amman and shifted to Trincomalee district.

On November 02, 2007 a group led by him captured Batticaloa office of the Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal and he became its leader.

Since then he is following the foot prints of democracy with the backing of the present Government having contested the Eastern Provincial Council election held for the first time after 1987.

Today Pilleyan is the Chief Minister of the Eastern Provincial Council.