In search of true heroes...

By Dhaneshi Yatawara

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Reporting from Mannar and Vavuniya

The day dawned with the scorching sun rising fromthe East and everything around us getting drier, windy and dusty brown. We were just passing one of the helipad spots hoping to catch up with the first landing for the day.

It was few minutes late by schedule. Suddenly the big green bird appeared from the horizon took a turn to the left and landed on the helipad, bringing the total setting into a whirl. It was the much awaited arrival of the first group of soldiers for that day.

They came in to reinforce the existing troops. They were like knights yet not in their shining armour but with shining skills and armed with tough training to suit the settings of the new land where they are to be deployed.

This was the freshly captured land from Tiger terrorists’ domination in the Vedithalathivu and Iluppaikadawal areas, now in the safe hands of the Sri Lanka Army.

This remarkable achievement by our troops in reality is an exemplary of operation solid team work. The trust these unseen battalions and companies have among them, the dedication and determination to entirely achieve their target is the sheer reason behind. If not, analyzing the ground situation in actual fact the task soldiers facing extremely tough and dangerous.

My inquisitive nature led me to this visit in the Vanni Forward Defence Lines to bring back the true stories of these young set of men - real heroes of our time. They deserve to be truly recognised.

By the time of our visit, Iluppaikadawal was the newly liberated area of the 58 division under the command of Brigadier Shavendra Silva and from what we witnessed, it seemed to be a well established town with all its resources that spreads over a large area.

“We were in Vedithalathivu when we received orders to go forward to free Iluppaikadawal village and there was an open patch of land of about 1 - 1 1/2 kilometres. Since it was difficult to get cross, we had to take the jungle path dividing into four groups under our commanding officer’s orders,” soldiers of the 10th Gajaba battalion said.

They were settling down at Iluppukadavai village when we arrived. Four groups of the 10th Gajaba battalion, commanded by Lt. Col. Sarada Samarakoon, entered this township while the other battalions in the vicinity were strongly holding their positions blocking any sort of intrusions.

“We saw that the enemy was hurriedly withdrawing while we were entering the area,” they said. According to these soldiers, the Tiger terrorists have been treating their wounded until the last moment - the remains at the hospital proved evidence to that fact.

“We had to give a tough fight to the LTTE and they tried their best to hold onto the position by attacking us, and especially our delta team faced the brunt of it,” the group of brave men relating one of their success stories.

If I was able to visit all the battalions and speak to all the soldiers and listen to the most amazing and daring stories. Yet it is all about wrestling with the time.

At the turn towards the Vedithalathivu jetty there stands a monument pillar put up by the troops of the first Gorkha Rifles regiment of the Indian Peace Keeping Force ‘in memory of all the Indian men who had sacrificed their lives in Sri Lanka,’ - It reads “We came for peace, We came in peace, We sacrificed for peace.”

Supply route

Vedithalathivu, on the main Mannar-Pooneryn Road was the main supply route for the Tiger terrorists during their reign over the area, for almost two decades.

Vedithalathivu has a natural canal system that stands as a cost effective transport mode for the LTTE and its closeness to South India quite advantageous. When the inland lines were getting blocked due to tight security and losing their territory, the LTTE relied more and more on this type of transport system. Hence, the fall of Vedithalathivu was militarily and strategically very much important for the advancing troops.

The Second Commando regiment’s battalion that had entered the Vedithalathivu area related their unforgettable experience (they have an unaccountable number of unforgettable experiences).

“We planed for a 72 hour mission but were able to finish it off by 48 hours,” the triumphant team announced with lots of pride. These soldiers deserved to be proud. Routes to their final destinations were unpredictable and dangerous. They had to be hard fighters if they had wanted their job to be a success.

As the Commandos continued with their story, Lance Corporal Roshan said, “they were totally unaware about our presence. We hid under a bridge on their main route and the LTTE was continuously moving on the road totally ignorant about our presence.” They were unaware until our troops hit with a surprise attack.

“Jungle on the either side of the road (Pooneryn road) was totally destroyed and to cut down such large number of trees the LTTE would have definitely employed civilians by force,” Corporal Sarath Kumara said.

We found that they (LTTE) did not have adequate time to lay trappings and mines since we entered in a surprise attack, he added.

“There has been lot of blood shed on the LTTE’s side and we saw blood dropped in many directions as they were escaping. Most of the voices we heard were of girls and they looked small made so we can assume they can be underaged,” Corporal Sarath Kumara added. Yet they lost one of their colleagues, Lance Corporal Kumara died due to a booby trap explosion.

When the Commandos entered the area soldiers of the 12th Gajaba Regiment battalion commanded by Major Saliya Amunugama, came towards the area to recommission the power supply. Speaking to us Lance Corporal Sunil Shantha, Lance Corporal Jayawickrama and Private Jayaweera related their part of the story.

“We found few vehicles left behind by the Tigers due the attacks by our troops. In many the driver seats were soaked with blood. In one of the vehicles, the signal lights were switched on and the doors were wide open when we came across,” they added.

Their action in cutting off the routes from the jungles and the Pooneryn road was highly supportive.

This area is well-known for LTTE’s high and heavy bunkers and solid bunds. Now our soldiers have become experts in counter-effecting their tactics. Troops of the 6th Gemunu Watch battalion have one of their success stories. In addition to capturing the bund, soldiers had to cross a deep trench.

Two members, Lance Corporal Jayawickrama and Private Thushara Sampath carried two huge logs and threw them across the trench making the others to cross. With fire support from their members on either side part of the crew successfully invaded the bunker lines.

The artillery support throughout strengthened their success. Sergeant Adman, Lance Corporal Premaratne, Privates R.C. Seneviratne and Piyasena, one part of the team who were at the scene when we visited, retold their victory. “After a four to five hour battle we were able to get capture the area by around six in the morning,” they said.

These were just few of the many victory stories in the Vanni battle front. None of these soldiers forget to remind us the supportive role played by other battalions. They very well-knew that the credit goes to all.

Truly, this is their story - stories that would be written with gold letters in the history books. They deserve to be remembered and honoured. They do get all the facilities - they get their food on time, they get enough ammunition, they are well taken care of but above all comes the difficulty they undergo to liberate our motherland from the clutches of the Tigers. So, this is their story - heroes of our time.

Pix: Rukmal Gamage