MAKING OF AN LTTE SUICIDE BOMBER-THE INSIDE STORY

By RUWAN WEERAKOON
I was seated face to face with a Human Suicide Bomber once the dreaded weapon of destruction so often utilised by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to create mayhem in public life, in its failed dream of a Tamil homeland of Eelam. He is a self-confessed LTTE Black Tiger suicide bomber. But I am somewhat comfortable in the knowledge that he will not blow himself up now, as he is not wearing a suicide kit. The location is a high security law enforcement premise, officers of which are engaged in tracking down the remnants of the terrorist outfit.
The date and time of the suicide bombers arrival, and his intended target cannot be divulged as these may hamper the on-going investigations by the law enforcement officers.
I first studied his facial expressions and his gestures. I make sure that both of us make and maintain eye contact, so as to ensure that he does not lie to me. He claims to be 26-years-old, has short cropped hair, clean shaven face, is tan in complexion and looks innocent. At first appearance no one will take him to be an LTTE suicide bomber. But on closer examination, I noticed scratch marks and scars on his elbows, one sign of rigorous battle training.
I try my best to cooperate with him on some occasions I provided meals so as to ensure that he cooperates with me and comes out will all the minutest details regarding his life, before, during and after he became a suicide bomber. My intention is to probe the how and why of what he became.

The likes and dislikes of the suicide bomber

From time to time, for two weeks, I visited the suicide bomber, whom we shall call Rajadurai Ganesh, which of course is not his real name. I talked to him through my interpreter whom I could trust.
Ganesh said his favourite food is Masala and ghee thosai. He liked to eat these delicious foods, he said. On one of my visits I took him some Chinese fried rice, with due permission from the authorities, that is. He asked me what it was. I told him to eat it and see for himself. After the meal, he said it too was delicious and that he liked it. He also ate the ice cream provided as dessert and confessed that it was very tasty and that he hasn’t ever had ice cream during his life in Puthukudyiruppu in the North.
After I make him comfortable, he opens up regarding the most confidential secrets of the LTTE’s so-called most powerful weapon, its Black Tiger suicide cadres.
Now I will pen his story in first person, so as not to dilute the narration. From time to time I interrupt him to verify certain points and those sections will carry the necessary notes.
Rajadurai Ganesh relates his story:
“From the day I began to see this world with some sort of understanding, I never knew who the Sinhalese were, or who the Sri Lanka Army was. I only saw the LTTE cadres carrying their weapons like real heroes. At around the age of 16, when I used to keep watching the weapons carried by LTTE cadres, my mother used to distract me and always persuaded me to concentrate on my studies. I have two sisters and a brother. I loved them very much as I was the eldest in our family.
One day, while I was on my way to the local shop at Puthukudyiruppu to get our rations, the LTTE took me forcibly for training as a child soldier. That is how I became a child soldier. After nearly two years of training they gave me permission to visit my family. I went home and when I met my sisters and brother, I persuaded them to continue their studies.

I decide to become a ‘Black Tiger’

One day, while observing a queue at the shop where people buy their rations, I noticed an elderly lady arriving to get her rations. I noticed that almost all those in the queue gave her preference to go right to the front and get her rations first. I also noticed that the shop owner did not even charge her a single cent for her purchases. What more, two persons even volunteered to carry her bags for her.
When I inquired as to who this lady was and why all the preference for her over the others, they told me that she was the mother of a Black Tiger, the suicide wing of the LTTE who was died in mission. The LTTE had a concept that if any person from a family joined the organisation as a suicide cadre, the other members of the family will not be recruited into the organisation. Not stopping at that, that family will be treated as a ‘Maveerar Family’ and provided with all their needs.
This fact prompted me to decide on the way to protect my family. To protect my sisters and brother from being recruited and at the same time provide for my family while drawing respect from others towards my family.
So one day I told my unit leader named Nagesh that I wanted to become a suicide cadre. The following day he took me to Vishvamadu, which was then a high security area and where no one other than those authorised were permitted to enter. There I was confined to a room and was not allowed to associate with anyone. It was like being imprisoned. They gave me food like string hoppers, thosai, iddly and rice and curry. I was provided a glass of milk every morning. A caretaker was provided to me to carry out all these duties.
I was taken out for training by this caretaker. And while being taken for training, I was always blindfolded. Even during the lectures I was kept blindfolded. But I realised from the sounds like the dragging of furniture that there were many others like me were undergoing the training.

No Eelam without bloodshed

Every day, the lecturers stressed on one main point! That is, there will be no Eelam without bloodshed. During these lectures we were never allowed to ask questions. And even if one asked a question, it was never answered. These lectures continued for two months every day.
I was taken to lunch while still being blindfolded. When I was confined to my room, I noticed that the caretaker was observing my every move. After around two months, a television and a video player were installed in my room. One night, when I was fast asleep, my caretaker woke me up and switched on the TV. I saw people screaming, some lying in pools of blood, others dead or dismembered. For about another two weeks this video was repeatedly shown. This was followed by the performances of the LTTE against the Sri Lankan security forces, showing their attacks on army positions and camps.

The mission:To accomplish a suicide mission, apart from the human bomb, there should be a handler and accurate intelligence information from surveillance of the target.
The handler takes the bomber to Colombo or required area. Another person transports the suicide kit separately from the handler. Once the bomber is safely established in the area, he/she prepares for the mission.Meanwhile, LTTE intelligence gathers information on the target and passes it to an overseas contact. The suicide bomber gets the exact details from the overseas contact to carry out the mission.
This is how the LTTE’s Black Tiger suicide network operates. This is just a part of the revelations. The Bottom Line hopes to bring more to the readers in the future.

Thereafter, I was sent for practical training. First I watched others making suicide kits and jackets. They made me wear dummy jackets, without explosives but with the same weight as with explosives. They made me walk and run while wearing these, so as to make me comfortable with them. The hung a piece of wood resembling a cyanide capsule around my neck and made me bite it from time to time.
After being trained wearing dummy suicide kits, I was made to wear a real kit with explosives included. They made me walk and run while wearing it to observe whether I raised any suspicions.
Following that, I was trained in targeting a moving motorcade. They set up a convoy on instructions received from LTTE intelligence reports from Colombo. I had to carry out a mock attack. During this mock operation, instead of explosives, the suicide jacket contained a red stain, like ink or paint, and I had to get close to a certain vehicle among the convoy and press the detonator button. Once I press this button, the red paint would splash and they would check how accurately I had hit the target. I had to undergo severe training till I perfected the art of hitting the target accurately.
At the end of this training, Black Tiger leader Pottu Amman visited us and gave a long lecture.
[I interrupt Rajadurai Ganesh for a while to ask some questions.]
Q: Have you seen Pottu Amman in person?
A: Yes, I saw him and he spoke to me. He said “You are the asset of the LTTE. You are not supposed to bite on your cyanide capsule as soon as you think you are to be caught. Keep your cyanide concealed, or insert it in your anus until you accomplish your mission. If apprehended, you have to try and convince the security forces personnel that you are really an innocent Muslim textile trader. Try to accomplish your mission at whatever cost. If you really believe that you cannot escape, then bite your cyanide capsule. Why I tell you all these is because you are very valuable to our organisation. You have to be alive as long as you can and continue to accomplish your task.”
[Here I would like to mention the strategy of a suicide mission. During the assassination of former Indian Premier Rajiv Gandhi, though one female exploded herself killing him, there were other alternative suicide cadres involved in the attempt. There were persons Thanu, Nalini etc who escaped the scene and for some four months tried their best to leave India. During the latter stages, when the Indian intelligence services surrounded their safe house, two of them committed suicide while Nalini was captured alive.]
Q: Have you ever seen Velupillai Prabhakaran?
A: No, I have never seen him.
Q: We hear from the LTTE media that before any suicide mission, your leader Prabhakaran used to meet the suicide cadres and partake of a meal with them? Have you had such a meeting?
A: No I did not have such a meeting.
Q: Why? Your target was not that important?
A: I don’t know, I never got that opportunity.
Q: Then is it just LTTE propaganda?
A: Well, now I think it is. During lectures and before my departure Pottu Amman said my target was a very, very important person.

Ganesh continues….

After two weeks of this training, I could walk and run comfortably wearing a suicide kit. I felt that I was now a real human bomb and felt proud of it. I believed that my name will be written in letters of gold in the history of Tamil Eelam, in our struggle and that my family will be respected for the rest of their lives.

I get my new identity

After further training, I had to appear as a Muslim person. I was instructed to take the identity of a Muslim textile merchant. During this period, I had to grow my beard and maintain it to resemble that of a Muslim. I was given instructions in the practices of a Muslim and when a LTTE medical team arrived, I was circumcised as well, making my appearance as a Muslim complete.
They tried to teach me some basic Sinhalese and I found it very difficult and never grasped it thoroughly. They gave me a thorough training in all aspects of the textile trade. I became accustomed with the current prices, the varieties, textures, colours that are popular etc.
Before I left Puthukudyiruppu to Vishvamadu and from there to Vavuniya, I was given an identity card which carried the name of a Muslim. I was instructed to accompany another person, who in turn would hand me over to my handler. Once I met my handler, he told me, “You do according to what I say. Then there will be no problems and you will be alright.”
My first identity stated that I was from Mannar. I dressed as a Muslim person and was given Rs.75,000 in cash. While traveling to Vavuniya from Vishvamadu, I was stopped at a security checkpoint and they asked me where I was going. I told them that I was going to Vavuniya to purchase some textiles. They let me pass and I was relieved as that was my first experience of being checked in my new identity.

My second identity

Once I reached Vavuniya, I received a second identity card, which stated that I was a resident of Anuradhapura. I was provided with samples of textiles and a list containing the telephone numbers of textile merchants in Pettah. I realised that I could pass off as a Muslim trader without arousing the suspicions of anyone.
From Anuradhapura I proceeded to Colombo where my handler provided me accommodation in a house at Alwis Town in Wattala. I was given a copy of the Koran and a prayer bead chain. My handler instructed me not to associate closely with anyone in the area. He said the LTTE intelligence wing will be monitoring my each and every move. He warned that if I tried to escape, I would be killed by them. My handler said that if I am checked at any point, for me to produce my identity card and always act the part of a Muslim person.
I got used to my role so much so that even if someone visited me, I used to speak a few words on the religion Islam, as is the usual practice among the Muslims.
A shop near where I stayed was owned by a Tamil person. But I was under strict instructions from my handler not to acquaint myself with that person. Even if I had to purchase something from the shop, I had to do so and depart as quickly as possible. One day, I came across the Tamil shop owner speaking in fluent Sinhalese to another person who was a Sinhalese. This surprised me. For, during our training in the LTTE, we were impressed upon that the Sinhalese were the bitterest rivals of the Tamils.

Preparing for my mission

One day, my handler arrived and told me to get myself ready for my mission. He said my suicide kit will be provided soon. I didn’t know my target and when asked, he said I will receive instructions on the target through a caller. He gave me a mobile phone and said that a caller from overseas will instruct me regarding my target, its identity and the rest of the details once the LTTE intelligence completes its surveillance on it.
Thereafter, my handler took me in a vehicle around Colombo to familiarise me with the city.
[At this juncture I again interrupt the suicide bomber Ganesh to ask a few questions.]
Q: What did you think of Colombo and the people here?
A: I really thought that I had come to a different world.
Ganesh continues, “During the days my handler took me around Colombo, I became friendly with him. I asked him about my family members. He said he will let me know later after inquiries.
And one day, he told me that the LTTE had recruited both my sisters and brother and that they too had been sent to the battlefield. When hearing that I knew that my siblings would never come out of it alive. I was disgusted. I really wanted to blow myself up after that. I did not have a purpose to my life any longer.
But I felt helpless. I just remained where I was. I waited for my suicide jacket and further instructions, even though I was confused. And one night, I heard my handler outside my door, calling me by name. I stepped outside to meet him, to find the security forces waiting to arrest me.
Initially, during the interrogations I insisted that I was just another Muslim trader. But by then I was too late. My handler had already confessed and revealed my true identity. They retrieved my cyanide capsule too. And after that, here I am, revealing the A to Z of my involvement with the Black Tigers of the LTTE.
[I interrupt Ganesh Rajadurai again]
Q: Do you want to carry out a suicide mission again?
A: Well, now I don’t want to.
Q:Why?
A: Already our leadership has been wiped out by the security forces.
Q: Do you believe that Velupillai Prabhakaran has been killed?
A: Initially I never thought he will be killed by the security forces. That is because there was a firm belief among the LTTE membership that V. Prabhakaran will not be killed by the army. He would bite his cyanide capsule and commit suicide rather than be captured or be killed by the army. When I later heard that the army had killed Prabhakaran and K.P. admitting that V. Prabhakaran was killed probably by army gunfire, I was really surprised. Surprised to realise that a leader who had introduced a new philosophy of biting a cyanide capsule without being captured alive or be killed, had not practiced the philosophy he so fervently preached.
[Tears well up and streak down Ganesh’s cheeks.]
Q: Why are you shedding tears? For Velupillai Prabhakaran or Pottu Amman?
A: No not for any of them. I remember my two sisters and my brother. Can you please find out if they are still alive? Can you please do that for me?
I end this session of my interview for now. I see the tears of a once ruthless Black Tiger. Are they capable of shedding tears as well? Probably, for within any rough surface there exists a soft core, a core where family, affection, loved ones take pride of place. These tender spots are made use of to create a rough exterior. And thoroughly brainwashed to carry out barbarous acts of violence on others they perceive as the enemy.
How many thousands of youth like Ganesh Rajadurai have shed tears or sacrificed their lives for an elusive dream called Eelam?