LTTE supremo Vellupillai Prabhakaran and his leaders were surrounded by the Sri Lanka Army and the final battle was about to begin. The scene is familiar but the year is different. This was not Puthukudiarippu in May 2009 but Vadamarachchi in June 1987.

Unfortunately Indian intervention prevented Sri Lanka from completing that mission and a war which would have ended 22 years ago became a roaring inferno which claimed many lives. 

History would have been different and perhaps even Rajiv Gandhi may be alive today if not for that misadventure.

General Cyril Ranatunga, of the Joint Operations command, describes in detail the frustrations of his troops in his autobiography to be released on July 1, 2009. The book, titled ``Adventurous Journey: From Peace to War, Insurgency to Terrorism    is a first hand account of the experiences of a military giant of our land, who lived through some of the most turbulent years of our history.

Laced with anecdotes and details which have never been revealed before, General Ranatunga fills in some of the gaps of what were Sri Lanka’s darkest hours.

 He was in the forefront in transforming a ceremonial army to a fighting unit  Mrs Sirima Bandaranaike turned to him to successfully quell the JVP insurrection in 1971 in the Kegalle district. He says the JVP did not have a centralized command to instruct their cadres and did not have access to modern weapons like the LTTE, which helped the army to bring that rebellion under control in a few weeks.

 He describes how after winning a Rs 750 million tender, the Americans wanted to supply tanks without the turrets to the army. The government then turned to China for help. The intriguing way in which Israel’s assistance was obtained to get the Dvora vessels and the assistance from Pakistan are also explained in detail.

But there are intriguing questions too. Why were the firing pins removed from the ceremonial guard of honour to Rajiv Gandhi? Was the actual target Indian Prime Minister Gandhi? 

Despite the anger at Indian intervention in 1987, he had to coordinate with the IPKF when they arrived in Sri Lanka. He recounts how the IPKF commanders began by addressing the LTTE leader as Mr Prabhakaran but in a few weeks it was changed to "that bugger." He narrates how President Premadasa naively provided guns to the LTTE to fight the Tamil National Army and how his attempts to stop Premadasa were unsuccessful.

President Premadasa believed the assurance of the LTTE to never use these guns against the security forces and did not listen to reason .The LTTE not only turned the guns on policemen in the East but also blew up Mr Premadasa.