The Fallen One of Liberation – Vilvam
The Fallen One of Liberation – Vilvam
It was 1988, when the Tamil Nation stood up to yet another foreign invasion, a war crime by Indian occupying forces. Atrocities watered down his sense of liberation. September 1988, ‘Nila’ was his stage name. Time bestowed upon him the pleasant name of Mango, Amma, Joan, Vilvam. At Mannar – 09 Training Camp, his life as a LTTE Member began. He was fair and his word was bond. ‘Suresh! I hand you twenty pearls (referring to 20 LTTE trainees). It is your responsibility to turn them into diamond stones’ said Colonel Banu to Suresh who was then the political in-charge of Mannar district.
One of those twenty pearls was Nila. The first job is ‘Politics’. Political work of a large area of Vattakandal, Balaperumalkatu, Guruvilwan in Mannar district was all in the hands of this young warrior. The Indian Army’s search will not be caught in detours. Igniting the fire of liberation in the minds of the people whilst understanding the war, pointing out the social grievances and gearing them up are challenging tasks. He faced many challenges. His name is mentioned many times in the final thanksgiving speech at school events. He would give a lecture on the freedom struggle in a bar, at a Muslim school, a friend’s house,
in the shadow of the cross of Jesus. His name is also chanted in the mantra recited in Hindu temple festivals. His feet go up and down the local shops and doorsteps for the educational needs of poor students. He was present virtually everywhere. His was also present in the conflicts that occured in the drainage of Kattukkarai pond. Vilvam is the child of every household in those beautiful villages and a nuisance only to the illegal occupying forces of Indian soldiers. In 1989, his incredible bravery, speed and composure were observed by Suresh in the Mannar Kumanayangula ambush against the Indian Army. September 1989, his ingenuity was recognized when he calmly threw a hand grenade and turned the tide in his favor in an ambush against Indian soldiers and mercenaries who were patrolling from Mannar Adampan camp towards Nedungandal.
He risked his life in his work and acted with great commitment, with a sense of responsibility, this made his mischievousness of his youth admirable to watch. On one occasion, he borrowed a motorbike from one proactive LTTE activist and went from the town Adamban to Maanthai – Vilvam fell into a muddy ditch with the bike. Members of the public ran over immediately to come and help him fearing the worst. Once they came over to the ditch, in embarrassment but to make a joke out of it all, Vilvam said to the helpers there was nothing to worry about and that he was just cleaning his bike in the muddy ditch. The public laughed and joked along with him and admired his ambience in what could’ve been a horrific accident.
His investigative approach, they way he would report his work and his analytical approach to the subject matter, led to his induction into the intelligence department in the 1990s when the Indian Army was removed from our soil. Intelligence is new to him. When the news came that the ‘Intelligence College will begin’, Vilvam geared up for his commitment to ‘make a mark in whatever department he goes into’; He quickly wrote a letter and got permission from the investigating officer to join the college. After completion of the studies, as Nalan’s assistant in the investigation work, the important goals in the investigation work are to face anti-national challenges in the Mannar mainland. This included Madura Pradesh, where Tamil people who have migrated to Mannar district have stayed in large numbers to prevent social crimes and corruption when the activities of the police are not expanded.
Narrating his activities, Nalan said, ‘In my absence, I always had faith in him to analyze the enemy’s espionage directives and social crimes in the district. To find out their depth, find out their end game and take appropriate action’. In 1994, a day came where Vanni and Jaffna were connected by Klali lake. When we got the news that a spy under our surveillance in Jaffna had escaped from surveillance and escaped to Vanni, Mannar rushed to convey this information to Vilvam in Periyamadu. He got a night drive from Sanath, ran about seventy-five kilometers, stopped at Nallur shore before the boat reached from Klalik and welcomed the spy.
His bond with the people involved in the investigation is incredible. Many of the children coming home from school would stop at the site of his motorcycle. He entertains the children by gathering them together, giving sweets and telling stories. He will enter houses with which he was not familiar before and will already be well acquainted and enter into a familiar relationship. The relationship extends to standing in the kitchen and serving the food under the stove. Time will change him as one of their relations. This attitude of his arose from the platform of political work.
Considering the need to destroy a key target, his intelligence became concentrated in the Mannar area. By ‘island’ the mode of transport is by sea. Mannarthivu is an island with a circumference of a few kilometers which is occupied by the Sinhalese forces and is used as their military base. The presence of soldiers, security fences and guards everywhere in the sea areas surrounding the island meant that the trip to the island was a life-threatening one. In 1996, at that time his journey and work were taking place in the sole belief that his people believed in the competence of the LTTE movement. On a night of a new moon, he and his companion Ganesha and many others were travelling by small boats amid the roughness of the sea. This is a normal sea route where they would occasionally dodge Sri Lankan Navy forces on their Navy check posts.
On this particular day, when the guns of the Sri Lankan Naval forces started to fire within a few hours of the team arriving, the boatman, Otti Sundaramani, suffered a mortal wound from gun fire. Otti lost his pulse instantly and Vilvam being selfless, not caring about the danger to himself; he dragged the body of Otti, a patriot, into the water and hid safely. He brought Otti’s body and retreated back to where they were stationed before nightfall. He showed his respect for the defiant supporter who loved the ideology of freedom, a supporter who came forward to participate directly in the field. One day in the town of Mannar, Vilvam and his Senior Vinayaka interacted with the people in an undercover operation. While drinking tea with Vinayaka in a tea stall, an undercover Sinhalese officer accidentally walks in. Whilst the undercover army officer stood close by smoking his cigarette, Vilvam jokingly says to his senior discretely, ‘Shall we give him a drink?’ (Meaning, ‘Shall we take him out?’) The shopkeepers trembled in fear that something was going to happen, but Vilvam and Vinayaka left discretely without any encounters.
On that day when ‘Nagar’ was active in Mannar town, two Sinhalese Policemen came in a Jeep with guns to a busy liquor store between the Sinhala army camps. In it, one went inside the shop to drink while the other stood guard at the front of the shop next to their Jeep. Vilvam arriving with his motorbike, calmly stopped and got off. He noticed the Jeep; he took the pistol from his waist and kept it calmly and fired a single shot and confirmed the kill on the policemen who was standing guard. He then entered the liquor store and shot the other Police officer who was staggering there with a cup of alcohol. The army quickly surrounded the area but Vilvam managed to evade his capture.
In Mannar, Vilvam operations continued. A key event was the destruction of a telecommunication tower of the Sri Lankan Army, this attack helped with a very important intelligence target and for another operation. His commander Vinayaka was also posted in Mannar, which was under complete occupation by Sri Lankan soldiers at the time, but the LTTE command post had ordered to avoid heavy attacks during this period to avoid unnecessary losses and ensuring highest security.
In order to achieve that investigative goal – he set the stage among people of all religions and communities in his work. As one supporter said, ‘He saw that even if some people did not help the liberation struggle, they did not become “traitors”’. An agent called ‘Citizen’ who was captured by the enemy and did not reveal his top-secret cover is a testament to his agent structure that ‘does not turn under any circumstances’. His family was very wealthy and was living within the Sri Lankan Army’s occupied area.
LTTE cadres who were absorbed by Vilvam into the organization are testimony to the fact that in his investigative work, the search for liberation has been carried across the upper, and lower of professions and religions. He was well aware of how important the need for forged documents was to his investigative work – and so he protected agents accordingly. On many levels, the investigative successes achieved by the documents he collected were numerous. Due to the many years of dedicated work of many fighters including him and his friend Ganesh; When the moment came to succeed their planned ‘reconnaissance target’ the project was abandoned due to the command’s denial that there were ‘prospects of civilian presence’, this meant going back to the drawing board and reassessing the game plan. Vilvam is again one of the hands that worked on it.
On 11.12.1998, while staying in a house near the Mannar Sebastiyar temple after completing the investigation work, the house was surrounded by a brigade led by Arjun Weerasinghe, the officer in charge of the Sinhala camp in ‘Shanny Village’. Arjun makes his move to one of the windows of the house. As he approaches the house, Vilvam catches wind something is off and prepares a pistol. As Arjun approaches the window and shines a torch light in, Vilvam immediately shoots and injures Arjun’s knee. Unfortunately, at the same time, a hand grenade explodes in the room dealing a devastating blow to Vilvam. Ganesh, who was lying on his back, was lightly wounded but had enough strength to get up and move. Before Vilvam’s last breath, he muttered to Ganesh ‘Machan (Comrade) you escape, I can’t make it this time’. Respecting his wishes with regret, Ganesh escapes. As he makes his way out, a blast of a pistol was heard.
“Why didn’t ‘Vilvam’ escape?” a supporter asked when he saw Ganesh with his injuries. Ganesh breaks the bad news to the supporter. The supporter responded tearfully, “I bought the Brother a set of clothes for him to wear for the New Years thinking he’d be around’.
‘I became like a lost child in the temple that day when he was not there,’ his in-charge Vinayaka said in their trust in him and ‘His character of winning people’s hearts without anger, without authority, with love is an example for all intelligence operatives.
It is rare for such a gentleman to have much courage by nature – and he had it exceptionally. ‘Our motherland must be freed. The animals that bind us must be broken. Our people must live in freedom, dignity and security. If we want to achieve this ideal, we have to fight for it.’
A leading intelligence officer
Major Vilvam (Joan)
Arumugam Thanapalasingam
Born – 06-09-1971
Death – 11-12-1998
Commemoration – C. Madula
LTTE magazine
Masi – 2004
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