In the Battlefield
by Sachi Sri Kantha, August 17, 2004
Sooriya Puthalvarkal, Nov 27, 2003 issue
After the posting of my review of the Sooriya Puthalvargal 2003 Memorial Souvenir in the Sangam website [June 23, 2004], I received two appreciatory emails for the details I had provided on Black Tigers. One was from American academic Dr. Robert Pape, Associate Professor in Political Science, University of Chicago. The other one was from a young Tamilian in New Delhi, who is researching LTTE activism. Both correspondents also requested additional details on Black Tigers.
Since Prof. Pape is not fluent in Tamil language, he solicited from me any profiles and vignettes of Black Tigers which have previously appeared in the Tamil press. His request was a reasonable one because I had taken him to task first, for not reading the original LTTE literature in Tamil, and also for depending on dubious secondary sources on ‘terrorism scholarship.’ My criticism was in relation to Dr. Pape’s publication entitled, ‘The strategic logic of suicide terrorism,’ which appeared in the American Political Science Review of August 2003 [vol.97, no.3, pp.343-361]. In my first email to Dr. Pape, sent on April 28, I was rather nasty to him. Excerpts:
“…I present an academic analogy, for you to grasp my criticism. I’d be laughed off the podium if I had wanted to present a research study on the subtle nuance and vibes of Carl Sandburg’s poetry on democracy and liberalism, if I could not comprehend English and had not read a book authored by poet Sandburg. I wonder, how the hell you could read the minds and interpret the deeds of LTTE’s suicide warriors [Yes, that is the endearing term LTTE and Eelam Tamils use for these special military forces, and not ‘suicide terrorists’] without reading the literature [in the original] generated by Eelam Tamils in the past two decades. In the ‘references’ section of your paper, you had not indicated any original literature in Tamil, which you had checked or studied, with the exception of a reference to Peter Schalk’s (1997) book chapter. Of course, Schalk is reasonably knowledgeable on Tamil militancy. But have you checked and analyzed the extensive Tamil Tiger literature in original?”
The very next day, Dr. Pape responded promptly and courteously to my mail missile. Excerpts, as follows:
“Thank you for your message,…I plan to do more work on this subject and am interested in deepening my knowledge of the Tigers…You’re right that I don’t speak Tamil.”
I appreciated Dr. Pape’s academic candor and his interest to learn more on Tamil Tigers. Thus, for his sake, from the LTTE literature in my collection, I dug out three vignettes on the Black Tiger heroes [I use the masculine form, though one is a woman; this usage is gaining currency, as seen in the obliteration of the feminine form ‘actress’ and with both men and women movie stars now being called actors.], and translated the Tamil original into English.
Black Tigers do have an internet presence, but it is provided predominantly by the biased descriptions of non-Tamil analysts, reporters and editorialists in which they are painted in pejorative terms. ‘Terrorism experts’ Rohan Gunaratna and Bruce Hoffman lead the list in such academic skulduggery. Though they posture as academic analysts, their multi-faceted deficiencies in sociological analyses – prime among all, being their illiteracy in the Tamil language – are glaring. Their deceptions on merely quantifying the ‘suicide terrorist attacks’ of Black Tigers – a nonsensical mixing of apples and oranges – were anticipated by Sir Peter Medawar, a leading biomedical scientist and thinker of the 20th century, who was a co-Nobelist in medicine in 1960. In a short perceptive commentary, entitled, ‘Some follies of quantification’ [vide, Hospital Practice, July 1974, pp.179-180], Medawar wrote,
“It is in sociology especially that premature or inappropriate quantification is most obviously an embarrassment. This is because in their anxiety to appear truly ‘scientific,’ many sociologists have based their activities on an entirely erroneous model of scientific procedure according to which important scientific truths grow out of semblage of facts, preferably in numerical form.”
Despite Medawar’s cautious pleading for scientific sense in quantification, reports on ‘suicide terrorism’ in quasi-academic journals cavalierly indulge in mixing ‘apples and oranges.’ Nevertheless, for patriotic Eelam Tamils, the courage of Black Tigers in the battlefield is on par with that of Allied bomber pilots who demolished and disintegrated enemy lines with their bravery and grit. Thus, the thoughts, words and the deeds of these Black Tigers deserve more light, to counter the twisted propaganda from the terrorism industry. Hence, I provide below my English translations of vignettes on Black Tiger heroes, from Kalathil [In the Battlefield] and Erimalai [Volcano] magazines.
Sea Black Tiger: Major Ganesh
Date of Birth: 1973 January 26 – Date of Martyrdom: 1993 November 11.
[courtesy: Kalathil, March 18, 1994, p.8]
In Ganesh’s words, “We all shouldn’t die unnecessarily; but we need to do something purposeful. We shouldn’t become ‘incidents’; we need to become ‘history’.” Now, in the historic ‘Operation Frog’ battle, Ganesh did become history by his black tiger signature attack on the Poonagari – Nagathevanthurai naval base.
In 1987, when aged 14, Ganesh was taken by the Indian army – then in Jaffna – for detention. This detention in Kankesanthurai lasted for a year. When Ganesh’s father went to see him in detention, the teenager was keen on finding out more about town news, and not much about family news. When the Indian army left the island, Ganesh was released. Ganesh stayed at home for 5-6 days, and then joined the Movement completely.
While his mother was praying to God, depositing her sorrows, Ganesh marched all over the Eelam front with his gun. As a gunslinger, he took part in all the LTTE battle campaigns. His gun slung and swirled in major battles in Mandaitivu, the Mankulam army camp attack, countering the ‘Vanni Vikrama’ campaign, the ‘Bala Vegaya’ campaign, the Manal Aru campaign and in Mannar special forces attacks. He demolished the enemy with ingenious courage. During this period, he dreamt of becoming a black tiger.
In late 1992, on the battlefront, Ganesh received a serious injury below his left knee. The bullet pierced one of the vital nerves. At the battlefront, due to lack of immediate medical attention, he lost consciousness following heavy loss of blood. Two days later, his left leg (below knee) was amputated. He didn’t cry because he lost a leg. He sobbed because, ‘How can I go to battle again?’
By nature, Ganesh was a ‘silent person’; he was more a listener, and was keen on learning about processes in which he was rather less knowledgeable. He was assigned work in the financial section of the Movement. But, he argued with his superior, and soon received battle duty. Finally, he received ‘home leave’ before his big assignment. His mother says, ‘Ganesh asked her to feed him rice gruel to his mouth (like for a child)’ and she did. Also, unusually, Ganesh asked both his parents to bathe him, and they did that, too.
Sea Black Tiger: Major Santhana
Date of Birth: 1973 February 11 – Date of Martyrdom: 2000 June 26.
[courtesy: Erimalai, August 2001, p.46]
Major Santhana knew well that her long dream and the objective would be successful this time. With this, she went to see her mother at home for the last time. Her mother told her, ‘Child, will you visit us frequently?’ She responded, ‘I’ll return mother, very shortly.’ Her mother, at that moment, didn’t understand the meaning of her daughter’s words. She bid farewell to her daughter, by hugging and kissing her, with tears. Then, her mother was unaware that Santhana would surely return home shortly; but, as a photograph!
Major Santha was one of the thousands of young women who joined the Movement to fight and liberate the Tamils from Sinhalese dominance. She was in Women’s Tiger battalion, and in 1995, with the permission from the Leader, she joined the Black Tiger team. Once completing the special training assigned for the Black Tigers, Santhana began to search for targets.
When she was about the launch her final attack, and when she boarded the boat, she handed her slippers to her fellow fighter, saying: ‘I’ll not return; so, you can keep this.’ Within a minute, she cracked, ‘Suppose, if I return, please give the slippers back to me, without minding.’ Even in her final moments, she was delighting in making others smile, with a joke.
On June 26, 2000, the ship ‘Ugana’ brought armaments, explosives and food provisions to the Kankesanthurai harbor from Colombo for the army. The battle boats of the Sea Tigers and Black Tiger were on their mission to block and thwart this supply ship. About 55 miles from Point Pedro harbor, in the mid-sea, there was a confrontation of high intensity. Black Tiger boats cavalierly rammed the ‘Ugana,’ which then sank. Ten Sri Lankan navy cadres got killed. Those who wrote heroic history – Major Santhana and five of her colleagues; Black Sea Tigers, Lieut.Col.Gnanendran, Major Suran, Major Nallappan, Capt.Ilamathi and Capt.Bhamini – also settled into the sea permanently.
Black Tiger: Lieut.Col.Borg
Date of Birth: 1959 November 11 – Date of Martyrdom: 1990 November 23.
[courtesy: Erimalai, October 2001, p.48]
In the heart of the Vanni district, the Mankulam military camp of Sinhalese was located. It carried out quite a number of atrocities. When Eelam War II began, the Liberation Tigers surrounded this military camp. There was a special plan to attack this camp. It was decided that a Black Tiger attack was needed to capture the camp.
Col.Balraj, who led the attack stated, “When we were planning the attack, Borg asserted, ‘I’m the one who knows much about this camp. So I’ll be the one to drive the explosive-laden vehicle.’ ” Col.Balraj continued, “Borg is not a neophyte in the battlefield. He was in charge of the district, and he led a quite a number of attacks. Before he left on his final mission on 1990 November 23, Borg hugged me and said, ‘I’m about to leave. With this, Mankulam military camp is history.’” He drove the explosive-laden vehicle. In a few minutes, we heard a big explosion. The military camp was floored. In a few hours, we captured the camp territory.”
Before his final mission, brother Borg went on his home leave for few days. His village (Semamadu, in Vanni district) is in the vicinity of the Sinhala border. He walked in the sands of his village and appreciated the lake, fields and forest. No! he was bidding farewell to his familiar surroundings. Nearby, a few children were playing. Brother Borg sat near them and asked; ‘Little brothers, you know – Heroes’ Day is nearing. Suppose if I die, what will you do on that day?’ The little guys retorted, ‘Why? Are you going to die?’ Borg responded: ‘Suppose if I die, in my memory, will you plant a tree – each one of you?’ The little guys laughed. Borg also smiled.
The day to leave home arrived. Borg had lunch and rested on a mat for while on the verandah. His mother also came nearby and placed a mat to rest herself. Borg requested, “Mother, come near me, and place your mat adjacently.” Mother obliged and patted his head. That afternoon, Borg said farewell to his family members (father, elder brothers, younger brothers and loving sister). Finally, he went to his mother and said, “Mother, please place a pottu – blessing charm – on my forehead.” Mother obliged accordingly. He smiled, and bid farewell to her. He took a last look of all, from the gate and he left.
A few minutes later, his elder brother shrieked: ‘Thambi – has left his lungi and T-shirt.’ For that, his mother consoled, ‘Maybe, he left these, because they had worn out.’
Borg’s mother says sobbingly: ‘I couldn’t feel, why he behaved rather differently on that last day. Only after he died as a Black Tiger, I realized why he had asked me to come and sleep next to him, why he asked me to place the blessing charm, why left his clothing. Now, I know.’