TULF politician helped plan 'Jaya Sikurui' - paper
[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 October 1997, 23:59 GMT]
'Thinamurasu' the Tamil weekly tabloid with the largest circulation in Sri Lanka accused a senior Tamil politician today of providing valuable information about a little known, but strategic jungle track to the Sri Lankan army engaged in Operation Jayasikurui.
It was alluding to the manner in which the army had been able to move swiftly towards the Mankulam Ottisuddan road in the latest round of battles in the Sri Lankan army's Operation 'Jaya Sikuru'.
The following are excerpts of the report which appeared in today's Thinamurasu.
"The army may have knowledge about the Vanni through maps; but this is not enough to familiarise oneself with the jungle paths and the heavily forested terrain."
"In Jaffna, (Sri Lankan army) officers who have served there may still remember the topography of the place."
"But in the case of the Vanni even people who live there do not know about many things and places of that region. In this context many were surprised as to how the army was able to intricately plan their moves (in the battles for Mankulam)."
"In fact the path for moving (troops) planned out by the army this time was a very smart one."
"It (the path) is favourable to a conventional army. It is only the fierce resistance and the fighting prowess of the Liberation Tigers and the conventional weapons in their possession that blocked the army."
"Information has now seeped out that it was a senior Tamil politician who told the army that it need not advance along the Vavuniya Kilinochchi road but that there is another easy route (to do so) and provided all the facts (about it)."
"This politician is said to have owned land in the Mankulam area". The paper said that he is from Kilinochchi.
Tamil political observers in the Northeast who saw the story this morning were of the opinion that the Thinamurasu was almost directly alluding to Mr.Anandasangari of the TULF.
Party circles were alarmed today by the story's far reaching implications, said one of its members in Vavuniya.
The Thinamurasu is believed to be owned by Douglas Devananda and is edited by his colleague 'Ramesh'. Ironically, the Sri Lankan army in the Northeast accuses it of being a pro LTTE paper.