TMVP: Government’s Dilemma

by Ajit Kumar Singh

(The views expressed are writer’s own)

(February 12, New Delhi, Sri Lanka Guardain) Denying the accusation of Vinayagamoorthi Muralitharan alias ‘Colonel’ Karuna Amman, the founder of the Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pullikal (TMVP), a breakaway faction of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam , that the Sri Lanka Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapakse provided the passport for his travel to Britain, the Defence Secretary on January 27, 2008, argued that he had no reason to want to send Karuna away from Sri Lanka. Rajapakse asked "Why should I want to send him away when he could be useful in Sri Lanka?", thus, corroborating the widely believed, though officially vehemently denied, fact that Karuna has been acting as an adjunct of the Sri Lankan Armed Forces in its fight against the LTTE in the Eastern Province, ever since the group broke away from the LTTE in March 2004. The TMVP is presently led by Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pillayan

Karuna was sentenced to nine-month imprisonment on January 25 by a United Kingdom (UK) Court for violating British immigration laws by entering Britain on a Sri Lankan diplomatic passport that carried his photograph but a different name. He had pleaded guilty at the Uxbridge Magistrates Court on December 24, 2007, to breaching the UK Identity Card Act 2006 following his arrest on November 2 in London, and had told the Isleworth Crown Court in West London that Gotabaya Rajapakse had arranged the documents for him.

According to reports, Karuna fled to London after an internal rift in his organisation. The central committee of the TMVP, which met on October 7, 2007, decided to suspend Karuna from the organization and formally appointed its former ‘supreme commander’ Pillayan as its leader. Pillayan, who had his activities confined to Trincomalee District under Karuna, had since started setting up offices in Batticaloa District. Of the 1,200 TMVP cadre base, 800 are now said to be in Trincomalee supporting Pillayan, including senior leaders Thuyavan, Markan, Jeyam, Seelan and Ajith. The remaining 400 remain loyal to Karuna, and include leaders like Mangalan Master, Bharathi, Thileepan and Sinnathambi. The TMVP had never functioned as one united entity and always had different commanders – such as Sinnathambi, Riyaseelan, Mangalan Master, Iniyabharathy, Markan and others – in different spheres of influence, each accountable to a different handler. Pillayan was considered the "first among equals" among them and was also the channel of communication between Karuna and the other commanders. In the process Pillayan progressively began to style himself the ‘supreme commander’.

The Government is reportedly concerned that cadres of the two factions would clash in the East and has urged Pillayan to ensure Karuna loyalists Iniyabarathy, Mangalam and Sinathambi be drafted into the outfit under the new leadership. Reports also suggest that the Sri Lankan Armed Forces, which allegedly plotted the split, prefer Pillayan to Karuna because it is Pillayan who is in the field and actually working with Government Forces. Most of the instructions from the military intelligence hierarchy to the TMVP were relayed through Pillayan.

The involvement of the group in acts of violence in the East has been a matter of serious concern for the Government, which has been criticised for its lackadaisical attitude in dealing with this armed group. The Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) warned of growing insecurity in the Eastern Province owing to the activities of the Karuna faction, which included killing, abductions, and extortion from local businesses in the Province. In its report published on December 15, 2007, the SLMM accused the TMVP of involvement in the abduction of 18 of a total of 22 civilians, including seven children, during the first week of December. According to the report, the group was also involved in one murder case. The SLMM noted that, despite the growing insecurity in these areas, "The TMVP/Karuna group was well protected by the authorities and thus even the police are reluctant to pursue them in certain areas." The SLMM stated further that it received frequent complaints of the Karuna faction holding people inside its political offices. The SLMM, however, had no power to act: "We can’t really rule against Karuna since he is not a part of the CFA but the Government is responsible for their areas and since they have not made any attempts to stop the Karuna faction then they bear some responsibility." The United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, in a report published on December 28, 2007, covering the period from November 1, 2006, to September 14, 2007, noted that the number of children recruited by the TMVP/Karuna faction rose to 207 between November 1, 2006, and August 31, 2007, from 193 in the previous 12-month period.

The group is also reported to be involved in acts of intimidation against the media and humanitarian groups working in the Eastern Region. Reports indicate that Iniyabarathi, one of the TMVP ‘commanders’, telephoned Asian Tribune Editor K. T. Rajasingham on June 9, 2007, and threatened to kill him. The Asian Tribune is an online internet Daily published by the World Institute for Asian Studies, currently based in Sweden. Earlier in April, Iniyabarathi had threatened the Colombo-based Daily Mirror Editor, Champika Liyanaraachchi, and warned that he would send a killer squad to execute any person who filed adverse reports. According to available information, Iniyabarathi threatened the Daily Mirror staff in a conference call, with an interpreter at hand to translate his death threat into English. Separately, a group claiming to be the ‘Intelligence Unit’ of the TMVP sent a threatening email on April 17, 2007, to several international non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and United Nations agencies working in and around Trincomalee, demanding registration of all workers with the TMVP, and explicitly stating that all unregistered expatriate NGO workers will not have their security guaranteed.

Notwithstanding the adverse impact on the polls to elect a total of 101 members from nine local councils in the Batticaloa District, scheduled to be held on March 10, 2008, the Election Commissioner’s Department, on January 23, 2008, recognised the TMVP as a political party, allowing it to contest polls.

However, many independent groups and political parties have opposed the TMVP’s participation, as it is still a group bearing arms and involved in numerous acts of violence. People's Action for Free and Fair Elections, a citizen-based Election Watch organization in Sri Lanka, in a Press Communiqué issued on February 6, 2008, stated, "It is possible that violence and election malpractices will surface as the election campaign gathers momentum, as the armed groups have not been disarmed. Further complicating factor is that the Government has apparently decided that its partner in the East would be the TMVP, which retains its arms."

The Sri Lanka Muslim Congress has also accused the TMVP of unleashing violence in a bid to wreak havoc in the run-up to the nominations for the local polls. Justifying their fears on September 7, 2007, were leaflets distributed in Batticaloa, allegedly in the name of Chennan Force, an armed wing of the TMVP, threatening people against extending support to political parties such as the Tamil National Alliance, Tamil United Liberation Front, Eelam People's Democratic Party, People's Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam and Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front. "If this warning is neglected, they will be killed", the leaflet stated. The main opposition United National Party noted that the Government’s commitment to crush terrorism was questionable as it had weakened one terrorist group in the East while permitting another such group to function freely in the area.

Though the TMVP may have been an ‘asset’ for the Government in its fight against the LTTE in the East, allowing it to take the law into its hands in the recently cleared areas of the East is evidently problematic. The TMVP has, of course, adopted a political idiom as well, putting forward its power devolution proposals to the All Party Representative Committee, focusing primarily on establishing a provincial council for the East with greater powers, resettlement of displaced people in the East and deciding whether the Eastern people want to ‘re-merge’ with the North through a referendum. However, its substantial and continued armed strength injects a necessarily extremist and non-democratic dimension to the TMVP’s profile, which is fraught with risk, particularly as the LTTE’s dominant power is eroded by ongoing military operations. As the TMVP’s sway over Tamil areas augments, there is no reason to believe that this opportunistic formation will not use its considerable and increasing capacity for use of force to consolidate its power by all means available – and potentially in opposition to Colombo’s will.