From Sampur to Vakarai:

Troops march towards Kathirveli and Vakarai

The fall of Sampoor on September 4, 2006 became a severe blow for the LTTE as it never thought of such a situation even in their wildest dream. However, the LTTE continued to maintain the position that it was a tactical withdrawal from the area.

But they could not hide their complete confusion following the fall of Sampoor as LTTE, declared that the 2002 Ceasefire Agreement which was in effect during the fall of Sampoor was ended. However, there was no official intimation from the LTTE about their position of the Ceasefire during LTTE Political leader S.P. Tahmilselvan’s meeting with the Norwegian Ambassador Brattskar on September 06, 2006.

However, the just confine their statement The regarding the Ceasefire to media.

As Special Forces headed by Colonel Prasanna de Silva and the Infantry troops were consolidating their positions in the Sampoor and adjoining areas covering the Kodyar bay which is a vital terrain to maintain the security in the Trincomalee harbour the Government took initiative to take set of journalists including the foreign media to Sampoor on September 09, 2006.

Special Forces

Since the military operation was conducted by the Special Forces and the Infantry troops under the command of Special Forces Brigade Commander Colonel Prasanna de Silva, the details of the operation were not known to many. Therefore, it created confusing situation in the media about the military victory.

The guided media tour enabled the journalists to have a clear picture about the situation in Sampoor and in Muttur area too since it was the day the people in Muttur too were returning to their villages after Security Forces ensure their safety with the capture of Sampoor.

That was the first opportunity made available to the media to visit the conflict affected areas after the Mavil Aru operation and the Special Forces troops were first exposed to the media. The photographs of the SF troops in Sampoor, therefore, became one of the landmark photographs in the fourth Eelam War.

Although Sampur was captured by the troops the long range artillery guns which were based in the Sampur area posing a strategic threat to the movement of Sri Lanka naval ships from Trincomalee harbour across the Koddyar Bay could not be captured during this operation. The LTTE had managed to pull out the bulk of its artillery to safer areas to further southeast around Eechchalmpattu.

Thus, LTTE still retains to a certain extent the capability to use its long-range artillery from positions in depth to interfere with shipping in and out of Trincomalee. So the Security Forces had to continue their operation to make the entire Muttur East cleared of LTTE threats.

Therefore, troops started focusing their attention towards Verugal in the South of Sampoor and the coastal belt between Trincomalee and Batticaloa.

Since the troops could take the upper hand of the battle in Sampoor and capture this strategic township the LTTE too took their time to reconsider launch of any offensive operation against the Security Forces. By this time the LTTE had faced three humiliating defeats in a row and they were not ready to take any risk at this juncture.

It was under these circumstances, the LTTE started pushing the Tamil civilian population displaced from Sampur and Muttur West into Verugal and Vakarai areas in preparation to face the next step of the battle.

Their intention was not to lose further territory to the Security Forces under any circumstances.

After their Muttur and Sampur experience the LTTE had taken advantage of the presence of civilian population to launch attacks in Vakarai and Kathirveli. The LTTE held more than 20,000 people who had moved into the Vakarai area from Sampur apart from the original population living in the area.

It was with the noble objective of liberating the civilian population from the clutches of the LTTE the Security Forces planned out an operation in October 2006.

The man behind the Sampur operation Colonel Prasanna de Silva was entrusted with this task too. The Security Forces had to face many challenges when commencing and continuing this operation.

The LTTE made use of the civilian population trapped inside this territory to tarnish the image of the Security Forces having located their long range artillery guns in thickly populated areas in the Vakarai and Kathirveli area.

Challenging tasks

So it became one of the challenging tasks for the Security Forces and the term humanitarian operation was matched with this operation since the main task of the operation was to liberate the civilian population from the clutches of the LTTE.

Having realised the human tragedy caused by the LTTE acts the Government in a message sent to LTTE through Norwegian Special Envoy Jon Hansen Bauer requested the LTTE to create a safe haven for the civilians, allowing them to move towards safer areas.

But the LTTE flatly rejected the Government request totally disregarding the plight of these civilians.

Instead they used the human shield they were having in Kathirveli and Vakarai to evict the Sinhala villagers in Mahindapura, Kallar, Agbopura, Serunuwara, Arippu and other Sinhala settlements extending their artillery and mortar fires towards these Sinhala villages commencing December 07, 2006.

Due to the artillery fire directed towards Somadevi Vidyalaya in Serunuwara and another round of artillery shells fell into the village resulting in the deaths of five civilians.

This prompted the civilian population living there to leave their villages and move towards Kanthale and take refuge at schools and temples in the area.

The Security Forces noticed that the LTTE had moved their guns towards Echchlampattu in the North of Vakarai and towards and Thonithandamadu area in the West of Vakarai.

The Infantry battalions in the general area of Mahindapura on December 09 in order to neutralise the LTTE gun positions in Echchalampattu, moved physically towards the area confronting a large number of LTTE cadres.

During this battle Security Forces were able to push the LTTE cadres further south of Mahindapura killing more than 30 of them. In this battle two Security Forces personnel were also killed and four others reported missing during this limited operation aimed at neutralizing LTTE gun positions directed towards the villages of Mahindapura, Kallar, Serunuwara and Alioluwa areas.

On the same date LTTE intensified its artillery and mortar fires towards Kajuwatta and Mankerni Forward Defences using their 120 mm mortar launchers and 122 mm canons from Kathirveli and Vakarai areas.

On December 10 the infantry troops physically moved ahead of the Kajuwatta Forward Defence line and towards Thonithandamadu to neutralise the 120 mm mortar position of the LTTE. The Security Forces successfully destroyed the LTTE 120 mm mortar launcher killing nearly 40 LTTE cadres wounding a large number in the process.

Six soldiers were also killed and 19 sustained injuries in this confrontation.

Meanwhile, the Security Forces at Kajuwatta FDL also went ahead and took control over the first and second Defence Lines of the LTTE inflicting heavy casualties to LTTE cadres. During this confrontation Security Forces confirmed that 47 LTTE cadres had been killed.

Two Army Officers and 16 soldiers were killed during this clash while two officers and 47 other rankers were injured.

The Security Forces had to suffer due to the continuous artillery fire directed from the LTTE in Vakarai and Kathirveli using 120 mm mortar launchers, 122 mm artillery guns located in densely populated areas of Vakarai and Kathirveli and the 152 mm gun located in the Palchena area.

The Security Forces were very careful not to be provoked by the artillery attacks directed from these populated areas since such a reaction would have had brought detrimental consequences on the civilians forcibly kept at schools and other public places by the LTTE. If the Security Forces were able to neutralize these artillery guns they would have easily faced LTTE cadres on the ground compelling them to retreat towards the Thoppigala jungles. The Security Forces moved ahead of Kajuwatta FDL and discovered how the LTTE was keeping buffer food stocks from the food convoys sent by the Government for the use of civilians living in the Vakarai area.

The Security Forces made those observations amid a situation where LTTE through various international organizations were putting the blame on the Government for not sending enough food stocks and medicine for the people living there As the Security Forces taking the upper hand of the battle, the LTTE kept the Panichchankerni bridge as a reserve for demolition by setting explosives in each part of the bridge to explode the bridge at any given time using a remote control devise.

Acted humanely

The Security Forces acted very humanely when conducting this operation to salvage 30,000 people from the clutches of terrorism. The Security Forces unlike the LTTE allowed the ICRC to bring the civilian casualties to Valachchena hospitals.

The Security Forces detected that the LTTE is using two 122 mm artillery guns, two 120 mm mortar launchers and 152 high calibre artillery guns to launch their assaults on Security Forces. The LTTE also used ‘Mon gun’ manufactured by the outfit, in the Vakarai area.

The Security Forces having conducted operations in the area west of Panichchankerni lagoon for few weeks also killed 296 LTTE cadres in different confrontations. They also learnt through communication intercepts that more than 133 LTTE cadres had sustained injuries during these confrontations.

As these efforts by the Security Forces were going on the civilian population trapped inside Vakarai realized the fact that LTTE is no longer strong enough to control them. The civilians under seige of the LTTE had strongly challenged the Tiger leadership.

By December 15, 2006 the civilian population amounting to 40,000 were aware that the LTTE was in a weaker position and they can easily escape from the LTTE open prison as they were running out of cadres to keep them under their control.

They started to crawl into cleared areas since last Friday through jungles, crossing the lagoon risking their lives. They even braved the guns pointed at their heads by the LTTE cadres who tried to prevent them from escaping to cleared areas.

A group of women challenged one LTTE cadre to shoot them if he wants and started to flee towards the Government held areas.

By December 19 nearly 30,000 internally displaced people arrived mainly to Rideetenna on the Batticaloa - Polonnaruwa main supply route after crossing the Upparu lagoon and through thick jungles to avert heavily mined areas between Vakarai and Kajuwatta.While these civilians reach the cleared areas in Batticaloa a section of civilians from North of Vakarai too reached Selvanagar in Trincomalee after a three-day long hazardous journey across jungle paths. The Security Forces made arrangement to receive those civilians at Rideetenna transit camp.

That was the first occasion such an exodus of civilian arrived in Government controlled areas. The Security Forces along with the INGOs and NGOs operating in the Batticaloa district helped them with food and shelter.

After this huge influx only a few people, a majority of them from the Mahaveer families from the Sampur were living in Vakarai and Kathirveli areas and they too are expected to arrive in cleared areas.

Since the Security Forces faced the first challenge of safely liberating the civilian population at the next step they were ready to launch the next step of the operation to enter Vakarai.