by Shamindra Ferdinando
Defence Minister Tilak Marapone has sought further clarifications from military investigators probing the January 2 police raid on a Directorate of Military Intelligence [DMI] run safe house at Athurugiriya, used by a deep penetration unit or a Long Range Patrol Group responsible for a series of successful operations behind the LTTE lines in the north-east, authoritative sources said yesterday.

Marapone, a former Attorney General has sought additional information when army’s Provost Marshal Ivan Dassanayake who headed the inquiry submitted a preliminary report to the Defence Minister a few days ago, the sources said adding that the investigators have returned to Kandy where the members of the unit including the officer who commanded them were being held at a police station since their arrest 12 days ago. The investigators were to question them again, the sources said while expressing the belief that investigators would be able to forward their final report within the next few days. The Island, in a front-page exclusive report headlined ‘Controversy over police raid on army officer’s Millennium City residence,’ appearing in the January 4 issue, revealed the raid on the safe house, arrest of a group of covert operatives and the bid to link the group with the December 5 Udathalawinna massacre and the so called pre-poll conspiracy to mount a mine attack on the bus the UNP leader used on the campaign trail.

Premier Ranil Wickremesinghe has implied that he wants both the army and the police to sort out the safe house affair as soon as possible. So far there was no evidence to suggest that the detained group of men were involved in anything other than operations against the LTTE authorised by the army headquarters.

Police has given military investigators access to the detained men. They are being questioned by both military and police investigators.

The DMI was established in late June 1990 during the then President Ranasinghe Premadasa’s administration about two weeks after the LTTE mounted a series of lightening strikes on the army and the police after breaking their 14-month long cease-fire with the government.

Army headquarters initiated its own inquiry on a directive given by Marapone.

The minister has implied that he wants the army to forward a comprehensive report on the activities of the covert operatives. Army headquarters has vouched for them, the sources said while pointing out that higher-ups of the STF considered para-military wing of the police were aware of their activities because they operated out of some STF detachments in the Ampara-Batticaloa sector.

Police too continued with its own investigation, the sources said adding that senior DIG H.M.G.B. Kotakadeniya has been asked to conduct a fresh investigation into the safe house affair. The sources indicated that SSP Kulasiri Udugampola who ordered the January 2 raid too would be part of Kotakadeniya’s team that includes several experienced CID investigators. The CID has released them temporarily to assist in the investigation, the sources said. Kotakadeniya was placed in charge of the investigation by Interior Minister John Amaratunga.

Senior army officers have expressed disgust at the way the detained members of the deep penetration unit were treated by the police. Insiders say that the raid and subsequent reports in the print and electronic media have destroyed one of the most secretive operations carried out by the DMI. The sources said that a close relative of one of detained personnel had received several death threats over the telephone. "We are concerned," the sources said adding that the LTTE would now try to target the members of the group and their families.

The LTTE has accused the DMI’s deep penetration units of killing several senior LTTE cadres including a self styled colonel who had been a member of LTTE leader Velupillai Prabakaran’s inner circle. They have been also accused of making a bid on the life of so called LTTE political chief Thamilchelvam. Their operations in LTTE held areas in the north-east were believed to have created a lot of problems for the LTTE hierarchy, the sources said adding that they were recalled to Colombo after the government declared a cessation of hostilities effective midnight December 24 for a month in response to the LTTE cease-fire that came into operation at the same time.

Commenting on the alleged pre-poll bid to assassinate the UNP leader, the sources said that when former UNP chairman Charitha Ratwatte and his Deputy, Daya Pelpola wrote to Army Commander Lt. General Lionel Balagalle informing him of the DMI initiated move to bomb Wickremesinghe’s campaign bus, the army chief promptly assured them that there was no plan against the leader.

The PA too accused the army of conspiring to rig polls in Jaffna in support of the then UNP administration at the August 1994 parliamentary elections. Several senior army officers including the late Major General Lucky Algama were questioned but the CID failed to prove anything.

In late 1999, the PA again accused the army of vacating several bases in the Wanni in a bid to upset their presidential election campaign. The PA repeatedly claimed that the debacle was due to the Wanni top brass conspiring with the then UNP presidential election candidate Ranil Wickremesinghe. The late Major General Algama was also accused of being part of the Wanni conspiracy. But, later investigations revealed otherwise.