Lt. Col. Suthanthira (Sengathir)
Lt. Col. Suthanthira (Sengathir)
Yesuthasan Mariam Mahinthini Karthi
Paruthithurai, Yarlpanam
Birth: 24.12.1971
Death: 25.04.2001
It is a special team. A very special team. Its selected and trained members are also like tigers. If they hit, the target will not be missed and should not be missed. Those were the days when Suthanthira was fully involved in that great effort to turn humans into tigers.
He was the officer-in-charge of the special team’s basic training base. It was not so easy to take young women who came from home, who believed in the society saying, ‘You can’t do it.’
Suthanthira completed that difficult task. He explained each thing to them. They understood what was being done and why, so they were able to act according to the national leader’s expectations. Everything there was according to the time calculation, everyone had to sit together in the dining room within the specified time and eat the increased amount of food that was being distributed, without spilling it on the ground or leaving any leftovers.
The supervisor’s eyes would be watching everyone and everything. Those who could not eat even after the time passed would have to finish their meal standing at the entrance of Suthanthira´s hut. Suthanthira’s voice, which sounded from inside, would explain how their increased training was depleting their energy and the need for them to eat more to compensate for it. Those who had stood once would not have to stand at the entrance of the hut again.
The half-boiled egg that had to be drunk before going to the track in the morning would be a problem for many newcomers. As he explained why they should drink the egg, Suthanthira would hand out the eggs to everyone.
Suthanthira would stand at the starting point of the race. If anyone in the middle of the route stops or cannot run further, Suthanthira would stand leaning against the tree in front of him. No one would understand how he came through any of the routes. Suthanthira sudden appearance was enough to make everyone run.
Even now, the members of the Special Squad say that when mistakes were made. He would not speak in a way that would cause anger but would speak freely in a way that they could understand. If the fighters made a mistake, they would call the team leader and reprimand him. Suthanthira, who approached everyone according to their nature, was strict with the tough ones and simple with the easy ones.
From the end of 1993 when he was inducted into the Special Squad, he provided basic training to seven teams as the pioneers of Special Training until the end of 1995.
Suthanthira, who was a student of the General Education Standard (GEST) Arts stream, joined our organization in 1989. Surrounded by Indian forces, Suthanthira, who completed her basic training in the fifth battalion of the LTTE Women’s Brigade at the ‘Vidiyal’ camp set up by Major Sothiya, Major Sanchika and others for women fighters in the Manalaru Valley, had emerged from the jungles when the women’s brigade returned to the country with the withdrawal of Indian troops in the early days of 1990. She served as the regiment’s storekeeper and reporter in the initial days and served as the leader of a small team stationed in the Palaly-Kattuvan area in 1990.
Died in the battle to repel the Operation Theechuvalai in the Palay Kandal area of Kilinochchi.
At the end of the Air-Sea Operation at Aanayiravu in 1991, he was selected for the Special Officers’ Training Course. The officers’ college, run by Lt. Col. Rajan, was as disciplined and strict as Rajan himself. Everyone had to drink only boiled water. Even when it came to making cold drinks, it was from that. Boiled water seemed to have lost its taste to our highly immune people who never got sick from drinking anything.
Without Rajan’s approval, one day, a cold drink was prepared with unboiled delicious water and given to everyone. When everyone was in danger of being caught by Suthanthira, who was suffering from diarrhea, they immediately gave up drinking raw water and scolded Suthanthira.
The officers who had interrupted their training with the unexpected death of Lt. Col. Rajan had to face a task immediately. In 1992, Suthanthira was given the administrative responsibility of the LTTE Women’s Brigade teams that participated in the operation to eliminate 150 police stations from Thondaimanaru to Otakapulam. Although that was his first experience. Suthanthira played his role exceptionally well.
After the operation, Lt. Col. Suthanthira, who spent a lot of time with the attack teams, disappeared from the historical pages of the LTTE Women’s Brigade in the latter part of 1993.
Our national leader, who was able to complete it when everyone thought it was impossible, with great confidence formed a Special Squad consisting only of women fighters with the speed of leopards in 1992. It absorbed Suthanthira in the latter part of 1993. Suthanthira, who remained with the basic training of the brigade until late 1995, was given a new task the following year. The responsibility of providing further training to a certain number of fighters who had completed the basic training of the battalion and creating the second generation of special forces now rests with Suthanthira. The special forces entered the forests of Vanni with a massive displacement from Yarlpanam to Vanni.
The vehicles carrying the supplies stopped outside the forest, and the fighters carried all the supplies on their heads and shoulders. Meanwhile, Suthanthira’s team had built huts with forest sticks and prepared storerooms with thatched roofs with grass. The arrival, carrying, and stacking of supplies was going on day and night. Suthanthira divided his team into three. One team would build huts and dig wells, one team would carry supplies, and one team would do its special training. This was a rotational movement for all three teams. The training sessions were not suspended. Those were the days when a team would train for a whole day with a biscuit, and on some days even that was not there. Suthanthira would send the teams on a long patrol, giving them a distance and a pitch.
These hard days continued until the warehouse set up in the forest was full. Now everything was somewhat better. There was no water facility. Only a pond in the distance helped. That night, a fighter who came to the warehouse to collect supplies while holding a bottle lamp, suddenly the fire spread in the wind and suddenly decreased and burned, and his hands spontaneously threw the bottle. Standing far away, he saw the high fire touching the tops of the trees, ran and pushed everyone who was standing in the fire and trying to collect supplies out, and forgetting himself, he took what he caught in his hands and threw it out. The bottles exploded, the bells melted… everything was destroyed except a few. He would often talk to the team about that event, saying that we are indebted to the organization.
Those firearms had just been received by the organization. The national leader had given them to the special team members. In the initial days, it was Suthanthira who cleaned everyone’s firearms. After about a week of getting the team members used to it, he cleaned them. While checking the cleaning, a small speck of dust would somehow get into his eyes.
These were the firearms that eighteen sea lions, including four Karumpulikal, had sent home at the cost of their lives. Suthanthira, who would remind everyone of the value of their lives repeatedly, would punish those who did not keep their firearms clean. Before the second team of the special forces had completed their training, Suthanthira was called to the ‘Vetri Tirtha’ counter-operation field. Suthanthira left to fill the void left by Lt. Col. Nantha, who had been leading the special forces attack team in the Puliyankulam area until then.
A team of special forces stationed at the critical Vanni frontline was given training in operating a new type of anti-aircraft gun. He would send his team members stationed at the frontline in turns for training. Due to work pressure, he could not continue to do so. Even when the guards were walking among the guards, he would ask them about the things he had read. He would show them pictures scratched on the ground and check them with them. Whenever he got the opportunity, he did not fail to go directly, and he did not fail to surprise everyone by scoring the most points in the shooting competition held at the end of the training. Suthanthira’s feet also walked all over the wide frontlines.
Karipattamuripu, Moondumurippu, Olumadu, Kilinochchi… He was also involved in some of the infiltration attacks that the Special Forces participated in during this period. In 1999, when “Oyaatha Alayakal – 03” began to circulate, Suthanthira entered the area Nedunkeni and Manalaru with his team. At the end of the year, another officers’ training college accepted him.
On 2000.04.01, he participated in the progress operation held in Mukavi, Iyakachi, and other officers. The expanding field continued to take him with it. He often said that we should be ready to accept and do any task that the organization gives us at any time. Colonel Kittu would cite their example, saying, “If the organization gives me the job of washing clothes, I will see how to wash them very clean, and I will not worry about whether I will do this job.” He did as he was told. Even when a fighter he had raised became a superior officer, he naturally accepted it and obeyed his orders.
We saw firsthand what Suthanthira had to say about the phrase ‘Even if it is bad, the noble ones are noble ones – even if it is shot, it will turn white’. That is why we all sorrowed the loss of Suthanthira. It is in his nature to get to know someone’s nature and get used to it. The life of the guard is new to the special forces. Seeing the condition of the guards they had cut, Suthanthira took them inside wearing the extra uniform, asked them what was wrong, corrected them, and got them used to the life of the guard. It was always his nature to be a pickpocket, and when a new anti-aircraft gun arrived, it was given to them without breaking the package. Since the barrel cap was very tight, everyone gave up, and he tried to remove the cap for more than forty-five minutes. Refusing to do the task given is not in his history. He would not hesitate to say that this or that was not there but would start the work with whatever was there.
He participated in “Oyaatha Alaikal – 04” and led the teams confidently even when ‘Phase – 02’ moved along the most difficult paths.
He spent his last days with Major Sothiya’s regiment in the Muhamalai area. Before they could be proud of having gained a great strength, the “Theechuvalai – 01” counter-operation took him away from them. The freedom that was with us when we chased the enemy from Aanayiravu when we chased the soldiers who tried to recapture Aanayiravu, he put an end not only to the arrival of the enemy, but also to his history.
Author: Malaimagal, Vidhualaipulikal Magazine
(Translation by Tamilpriya)
0 Comments