LTTE Naval Chief Soosai “Surfaces” After Accident at Sea
by D.B.S. Jeyaraj
The significance of the date September 26th has become another example of differences in perception illustrating the ethnic divide in Sri Lanka. To most members of the Sinhala community it is the day on which Solomon West Ridgeway Dias Bandaranaike died in 1959 after being shot in Colombo the previous day by a Buddhist monk. To many members of the Tamil community it is the day on which Rasiah Parthiban alias Thileepan died in 1987 at Nallur after a 12 day fast unto death campaign protesting actions of the Indian and Sri Lankan Governments.
The Sri Lanka Freedom Party has been for many decades observing Sep 26th as a day honouring the memory of its founder SWRD Bandaranaike.The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) organization has also been commemorating the day and even the fortnight preceding it in honour of Thileepan.
In recent times two other incidents have added to the date’s significance in LTTE annals. It was on September 26th in 1990 that Bhanu the LTTE Jaffna commander of the time hoisted the tiger flag atop the ramparts of the Jaffna Fort after the armed forces abandoned it. Incidently the Present Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse and current army commander Sarath Fonseka were involved in this evacuation then.
The other incident was in 2001 when senior LTTE leader Vaithilingam Sornalingam alias “Col” Shankar was killed in a claymore mine explosion on Sep 26th while he was motoring along the Oddusuddan - Puthukudiyiruppu road in the Mullaitheevu district. Shankar was the man who pioneered the LTTE’s airwing and a close associate of tiger supremo Velupillai Prabakharan. The Army’s Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol (LRRP) or deep penetration squad was allegedly responsible for the assassination.Nowadays the tigers honour Shankar also on the 26th.
[Performance at an Arts Festival held at a Sea Tiger base on Sep 19, 2005]
Re-appearance
Among ceremonies held this year to observe Thileepan day was the release on Sep 26th of an audio CD titled “Siragu Viritha Puligal” (tigers unfurl wings)consisting of songs about the LTTE’s air wing.This particular event was held at the “Maaveerar Mandapam” (great heroes hall) in Puthukudiyiruppu.While the widows of Lt. Col Chutta and Lt. Col Kunjan lit the special lamps it was the lot of “Col” Shankar’s widow Kuha to do the honours by receiving the first disc of the newly released CD. What was more important as well as interesting was the identity of the person who released the CD officially and handed it over ceremonially to Kuha: Read The Full Article here - Sea Tiger Chief Soosai “Surfaces” After Accident at Sea, in transCurrents.com
