Tuesday, 3rd June 2014
By supun dias
The arrest of three LTTE operatives in Malaysia recently has shed light on the overseas activities of the defeated terrorist group to resuscitate itself and the assistance provided by a friendly nation to foil those moves.
Malaysia is one of Sri Lanka’s most trusted and reliable partners in South East Asia since both countries regained independence from the British.
After regaining independence during the same period, both countries earmarked on a journey to develop the countries where the majority of the population was living under poor conditions.
However, in recent times the level of trust between the two countries achieved a new plane due to the activities of the LTTE, as the two countries found common ground in combating terrorism and the need to stop attempts to revive the defunct terrorist outfit.
At the height of the war, the LTTE expanded its global network to South East Asia from Canada, the Scandinavian region and Europe.
One of the prime destinations chosen by the LTTE leadership was Malaysia where its chief arms procurer Kumaran Pathmanathan alias KP began to live under different identities.
This was because the LTTE had good relationships with terrorist organisations in Malaysia’s neighbourhood, Cambodia, Myanmar and Thailand.
These organisations had helped the LTTE to purchase weapons from them and also from third parties in the black market, which mostly entered the black market from North Korea and Eastern European countries.
According to security sources, LTTE operatives in Malaysia obtained funds for the movement through their arms trafficking racket.
The LTTE had around 20 secondhand merchant tankers registered under different flags including many Latin American countries which were mainly operating through the Indian Ocean.
At that time the South East Asian corridor was the main route used by the tigers to smuggle illicit weapons such as 122mm, 130mm, 152mm artillery, 81mm/120mm mortar launchers, Surface to Air Missiles (SAM), Igla Manpads used to bring down enemy aircrafts, antiaircraft guns, sub machine guns, communication equipment, GPS equipment and high powered boat engines.
However, in the early 1990’s KP had to leave Malaysia as the local police began to track down on terrorism in the country. Thereafter he made Thailand the base.
Since 2009, following the defeat of the LTTE in Sri Lanka, collaborated efforts helped to track down key LTTE leaders such as KP and Sumbramanium Sivakumar in the Malaysian territory with the direct involvement of the Sri Lankan Military Intelligence officers.
Sivakumar was a key LTTE intelligence wing member under its intelligence chief ‘Pottu Amman’. He was also involved in trafficking weapons into the country.
Soon after they were deported to Sri Lanka, both provided valuable information to the Sri Lankan government about the LTTE global operations especially in the South East Asian region which was a prime destination for the tigers to shop for weapons and smuggle them into Sri Lanka through the territories held by the tigers.
Both of them now live freely in Sri Lanka and KP was running the North-East Rehabilitation and Development Organisation (NERDO), a non-governmental organisation in Mullaitivu, and Sivakumar was based in Colombo.
The LTTE operatives in South East Asia had developed a close link with their colleagues and sympathisers in Europe through a crucial air link from Malaysia to Europe via Teheran.
Following the defeat of the LTTE in May 2009, its former international operatives were trying to revive the terrorist outfit through its operations in Malaysia.
The first step had been re-organising and engaging propaganda activities to promote the organisation.
The three operatives who were arrested by the Malaysian police on May 15 were involved in promoting the LTTE, as propaganda materials and electronic equipment were seized during raids carried out in Petaling Jaya and Klang.
The men were identified as Sundaralingam Raja alias Mullichelvam who had joined the LTTE political wing in 1994, and the second operative was Mahadevan Kirubaharan who was involved in the LTTE music group after having joined in 1996. He had been in Norway in 2002 and then gone to Malaysia in 2004. The third suspect was identified as Selvathurai Kirubananthan who joined the LTTE intelligence wing in 1999 and fled to Malaysia. He was also one of the main organisers of the ‘Maha Viru’ celebrations held in Malaysia last year.
Sri Lankan authorities have confirmed that red notices had been issued against them since they fled the country.
At the time of their arrest they were registered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and used UNHCR cards to stay in the country and to avoid legal action by the local authorities.
Initial investigations have found that the suspects had used Malaysia as a base to collect data and spread propaganda, while trying to revive the defunct LTTE terrorist group at the international level.
Since 2009, Malaysian authorities who had been working closely with the Sri Lankan counterparts had detained eight LTTE members, including the second in command of the Nediyawan faction who was identified as Nanthagopan. All of them have been deported to Sri Lanka to face prosecution for terrorist acts.
According to Sri Lankan Defence sources the fact that the three men were using UNHCR cards was a blow to the UN body. Malaysian police were currently working closely with the UNHCR to ensure that terrorists would not exploit and abuse the UNHCR cards to turn Malaysia as their operation base or to carry out terrorism activities, which could pose threats to Malaysia or other countries.
Sri Lankan Defence sources further noted that it was an eye opener for such organisations operating around the world to be more cautious while providing refugee status to members of banned terrorist organisations.
In April Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa visited Malaysia and met with the top brass there to pave the way for more collaborated efforts in the near future in Malaysia, where joint efforts had successfully led to curbing down most of the activities carried out by the LTTE.
In this regard the Ministry of Defence under the direction of Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa had taken action t o improve the state intelligence as well as the military intelligence apparatus, in order to curb the activities of the LTTE in the South East Asian region, especially in Malaysia.
