LTTE officers graduate from Karadiyanaru Training school

[TamilNet, Friday, 14 March 2003, 01:29 GMT]
A graduation ceremony to award certificates and confer honor badges on 89 LTTE fighters (49 of them women fighters) trained at the Lt. Col. Balendra Officer Training College in the second lieutenant grade, took place Thursday in Karadiyanaru, in the LTTE controlled area of the Batticaloa district, sources said.

Mother of graduating officer placing the honour badge

The ceremony took place at the "Tea House" grounds in Karadiyanaru, where the LTTE's senior commander, Col.V. Karuna, was given an honor parade by the graduating officers. Special commander for Batticaloa-Ampara, Mr. T. Ramesh, commander Mr. Robert, commander of the women's wing, Ms. Nilavini, commanders Ram and Jim KellyThatha accompanied Col. Karuna and inspected the guard of honor. Parents of the officers conferred the honor badges and Col. Karuna awarded the certificate of graduation, the sources said.

At the end of the ceremony, an arts program, consisting of music by the "Singing Fish" musical band and dance and drama by the graduating officers, was conducted under the direction of the principal of the officer training college, Mr. Uthayakumar.

The Officer Training College was inaugurated on March 19, 2002, and named after Lt. Col. Balendra, who died during an attack on the Vavunatheevu camp of the Sri Lankan Army on March 5, 1997. Education and training at the school is imparted in wide-ranging subjects such as Administration, Politics, English, Internal and Foreign affairs, Military affairs, sports and arts.

The current batch of graduates is the second batch to complete its one-year training program and graduate.

Parliamentarians Mr. G. Krishnapillai (Batticaloa) and Mr. A. Chandraneru (Ampara), parents of the graduating officers, government servants and businessmen, and a large number of the public participated at the event, sources said.


Col. Karuna awards certificate to an officer





Senior officers, including Col. Karuna, Special commander Ramesh, commanders Robert, Ram and Jim Kelly Thatha, Political division head Kousalyan and Women's wing commander Nilavini, accept guard of honor


Col. Karuna and Commanders Nilavini and Ramesh