Death trap in the mud
By Chris Kamalendran
Immersed in hip-deep murky waters, 34 commandos were wading through a paddy field turned marshy land, on Wednesday unaware of the death trap that would soon suck them in.

It was just before dusk and they were ending another day of special infantry training conducted off the Eluthumattuval area in Thenmarachchi. Lance Corporal Chaminda Janaka Illesinghe was leading the ill-fated group.

The group was heading towards the Nagarkovil area just 300 metres away from the A9 main road, when he got dragged into the soft mud narrowly escaping drowning. As soon as he fell into trouble he alerted the soldiers following him.

But what he witnessed next was a horrific scene of some of the trainees disappearing in the muddy waters and another group rushing to their rescue. Within minutes, 10 commandos had perished in the unseen death trap hidden in the murky waters.

A military court of inquiry comprising four senior officers are probing the circumstances that led to the tragedy and whether any senior military officers should be held responsible for it. They are also looking into ways to prevent such tragedies occurring in the future and means of compensation for the victims' families.

The terrain used for the training programme was an abandoned paddy field spreading over a vast area between the areas of Eluthumattuval and Nagarkovil. This was not the first time the area was being used for training. Before this tragedy two batches had undergone training at the same spot during the past 21 months.

During heavy rains, this area gets flooded and as it had rained heavily in Jaffna the past week, the area had gone under water on that fateful day, but the training exercise went ahead as scheduled.

For the latest training exercise 350 soldiers had been selected and they had been divided into two batches. It was the smaller group of this batch that fell into trouble.
Chavakachcheri Magistrate B. Subramaniam who visited the scene of the tragedy on Friday said according to eyewitness statements, the victims had been dragged into the marshland.

More statements were to be recorded over the weekend and the verdict would be given tomorrow, he said. According to the statements, the soldiers had been moving in small batches of three.

Residents say the victims would have fallen into a deep pit that is usually dug to collect water during the drought. With the rains setting in it had filled up with water resulting in an unseen death trap.

The soldiers who drowned have been identified as Wijekoon Banda, M.D. Chaminda, E.M.S.K. Ekanayake, M.J.U. Wimalasuriya, Y.M.Dayaratne, M.P.A.R. Dissanayake, B.C.D. Jeewantha, A. Janaka Chandimal, D.Y. Amarasena and D.M Piyaratna.

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