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Meedin
killing: Predator becomes the prey
The visitors he was expecting for dinner had arrived or so he thought. Andrahennedige Chaminda Roshan alias "Ice Manju" was a businessman living in Trincomalee. Among other things, he sold fish including those caught in Tiger guerrilla held areas. He acquired the name "Ice Manju" after he supplied ice to other fish merchants who packed them in crates for transport to Colombo. Inside the Meedin household they sat together. Lt. Col. Meedin was in the middle whilst the two flanked him on either side. Chaminda looked nervous. He did not take off the cap he was wearing. Instead he lowered the hood to prevent showing his entire face. Then Lt. Col. Meedin told his wife Shahmina he was going out with his two friends who arrived unexpectedly. He said he would be back soon. He told her to greet the two visitors who were due for dinner and ask them to wait until he returned. His official driver and the two armed Army escorts were told to wait at home. Then he drove off in his official car in the same T-shirt and shorts he wore. Seated next to him in the front seat was Chamley. Seated in the back, behind the driver's seat, was Chaminda.
Later in the night, Shahmina telephoned her husband whom she fondly called "Baba" on his mobile phone. She said his two visitors had arrived. "Ask them to wait," he replied. Sometime later, the visitors were inquiring when Lt. Col. Meedin would return. His eldest daughter Risha (11) telephoned her father around 9.15 p.m. She wanted him to return since the two visitors were waiting for him. But she was advised to tell her mother to serve dinner for them. He said they should eat and he would arrive home soon. But he did not return. The visitors finished their dinner. They told Shahmina "Tell Sir, we waited all this time and left. We will get in touch with him." The hours ticked by. It was now past midnight. Shahmina was not unduly perturbed. Exigencies did occur frequently and her husband would arrive late to explain. The two daughters, Risha and Sheera (9) had gone to sleep. Shahmina was ending the night's household chores. It was 12.10 a.m. when the telephone rang. She saw on the Caller Line Identification (CLI) system it was the mobile phone of Chamley. She answered. A highly excited Chamley shouted "Sirta Vedi Thiyala (Sir has been shot)." Soon after that, he had cut the line. She could not reach him thereafter. Shahmina found herself in a helpless situation. Lt. Col. Meedin's brother Brigadier Tuan Fardyle Meedin was away in Jaffna or so she thought. He is the Commanding Officer of the Army's 515 Brigade. So she rang a close relative. The latter soon found out that Brig. Meedin had just arrived in Colombo on home leave. She alerted him at his Narahenpita residence. He rushed to the scene. It was past 1 a.m. when he located his brother, Rizli's official car some 500 metres from the National Housing Scheme. He lay bleeding with his head resting on the steering wheel. Two bullets had entered his skull. One had remained inside. Another shot had wounded him below the ear. He was rushed to the National Hospital. Within minutes doctors there pronounced him dead. They said he had bled heavily. That was how Lt. Col. Meedin met with his death. In the first few hours of last Sunday, whilst a nation was asleep, telephone lines of senior officers in the country's defence and security establishment were buzzing with the news. Long time an active intelligence operative having served in hot spots of the North and East, Lt. Col. Meedin had commanded the second battalion of the Military Intelligence Corps (MIC). They were placed in an infantry role in the Jaffna peninsula. Later, he moved to Colombo to become Staff Officer (SO) 1 at the MIC Regimental Headquarters. This headquarters together with the first battalion of the MIC is located somewhere in the City of Colombo. His role there had been both administrative and training of personnel. But his friends in the intelligence community insist that in Jaffna he did play an intelligence role though his battalion was tasked an infantry role. Similarly, even in his new position as Staff Officer 1, he had engaged in limited intelligence roles. Though not officially, through such activity he had helped colleagues in sharing what he disseminated through his wide circle of contacts. In fact, some colleagues had looked to him for leads. At least one of them who served in Trincomalee had inherited several sources Lt. Col. Meedin had cultivated during a posting in that district. A full fledged Police investigation is now under way to ascertain how he came by his death. This includes both the intelligence aspects and any other links he may have had with close associates. The fact that there is a plot involving the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in his killing is in no doubt. But investigators have an uphill task in weaving together how it came about and why. After interviewing members of the Meedin family, Police last Monday arrested Chamley Dissanayake who lived not far away from the National Housing Scheme. This was after they first questioned his two brothers. It transpired that Chamley had gone home and cried before his mother that Lt. Col. Meedin had been shot dead. The story is beginning to unfold though Police have a long way to go. Chamley claimed it was Chaminda who shot at Lt. Col. Meedin from the rear seat. He fired three shots from a 7.62 Micro Pistol. This type of pistol is only used by the LTTE. So far there are no known instances of it being used by any others. The weapon had been brought by Chaminda from Trincomalee and concealed in the base of a pedestal fan in Chamley's house. That was just two days before the murder. Chaminda had beaten a hasty retreat to Trincomalee. From there, he had slipped into Tiger guerrilla dominated Sampur area. Early this week, rumours had been floated that Chaminda had been shot dead. But authorities have heard through reliable channels that he had found safe haven. It has come to light that he was a close associate of Soosaipillai Joseph Anthonydas alias "Col" Sornam, LTTE Military Wing leader for the Trincomalee district. During his many visits to guerrilla held areas to procure fish, he has had close contacts with him. Weeks before his murder, reports that Lt. Col. Meedin was a target of Tiger guerrillas had reached the security establishment. So much so, the matter figured briefly during a discussion by the armed forces top brass at the Joint Operations Headquarters (JOH) - the unified command of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Police. The Sunday Times learnt Lt. Col. Meedin was warned on October 21 of a Tiger guerrilla threat to murder him. Though such a warning was not accompanied by specific details of the plot, he was told that his circle of contacts had been infiltrated. Some persons were identified. But this senior intelligence officer found it difficult to believe the people whom he associated with would turn traitor to him. He had been convinced they were helping him. He confessed to a close friend and colleague who was among those who gave him the warning "Don't worry, I know what I am doing. I am careful. I am trying to get at Sornam. I am running him. This guy has promised he would kill him." The reference was to Chaminda. Instead, it now transpires that Chaminda had plotted to kill the handler. Was Chaminda throughout a double agent? Lt. Col. Meedin is said to have known him since 1995. Was it a case of the predator ending up as the prey? These questions assume greater importance in the light of another fact. Officially, state intelligence agencies have called a halt to all covert operations since the ceasefire of February 2002. Hence, only the completion of Police investigations can throw more light into the matter. Like his friend and colleague, the late Major Tuan Nizam Muthaliff (posthumously promoted Lieutenant Colonel), Lt. Col. Meedin (also posthumously promoted Colonel) had ignored a vital requirement which their superiors had wanted followed. This is to ensure they utilised the armed escorts assigned for their protection. When Lt. Col. Muthaliff was shot dead by a Tiger guerrilla gunman at Elvitigala Mawatha, right opposite an Army camp, he was found to be travelling only with his driver. He had boarded his car from inside an Army housing complex where outsiders could not have seen. The mystery of how the assailants became aware of his unscheduled exit and hurriedly planned the shooting is yet to be resolved by detectives probing the case. It does not take an expert investigator to conclude that someone inside tipped off. That gives rise to a question of infiltration. Lt. Col. Meedin too failed to use the armed escorts assigned to him. Unfortunately he had also violated a cardinal unwritten tenet of the intelligence community - not to entertain sources at their private residences. Usually they are not expected to even divulge their private residences. In this instance, besides Chamley and Chaminda, the two visitors invited for dinner, it has now transpired, were also informants. Like in the case of Lt. Col. Muthaliff, a new feature that is disturbing in the murder of Lt. Col. Meedin is the use of civilians in the South in planning and executing murders. It was early this week that the Criminal Investigation Departement (CID) told the Additional Magistrate, Colombo, M. Irzhadeen, that Indurugolla Vithanaratchige Sanjeeva had aided and abetted to kill Lt. Col. Muthaliff. The man, who is being described as a journalist, is the first accused in this case. Similarly, in the killing of Col. Meedin, Police investigations so far has established the connections of both Chamley and Chaminda. Since the ceasefire, says a senior intelligence official, the Tiger guerrillas have had unimpeded access to the City of Colombo. "They have been able to establish cells for intelligence activity, hideouts to conceal arms caches and safe havens for their pistol groups. This has given them greater freedom to operate. Moreover, armed forces and police operations have not caused any dent in this activity," he said. He disclosed one of the "secrets of their success" was their ability to throw vast sums of money to rent property and lure people to help them. "It is clear they have purchased their way through to infiltrate even the armed forces but we have not even touched the tip of the iceberg," he added. The
latest killing drew a strong response from the Sri Lanka Monitoring
Mission (SLMM). A press release said: "Over 190 people have been killed in Sri Lanka since the beginning of the year in suspected political killings. The SLMM has on countless occasions expressed major concerns over this constant violence. The killings have gradually undermined the CFA and resulted in mistrust and bad atmosphere between the Parties. "The SLMM would like to urge the Government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam to work together to end violence in the country so that the confidence between the two Parties can be restored and the Peace Process continued." There appears to be more than one knotty problem for the state intelligence agencies to resolve in this backdrop. The first is a reported increase in the number of Tiger guerrilla groups in the City of Colombo. Different groups from Kilinochchi, Trincomalee and Batticaloa have come on special missions to eliminate targets assigned to them. Additional security measures have been put in place but for the armed forces it comes at a time when they will have to help Police in the conduct of a trouble-free poll. This has caused fears of further killings. The other, a bigger puzzle, is how the LTTE was going to respond to the November 17 presidential elections. Until yesterday, the LTTE has not taken a formal decision on whether to back a particular candidate or refrain from doing so. Parliamentarians of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) were summoned for a meeting on Friday in Kilinochchi with Political Wing leader S.P. Thamilselvan. It was intended to give them the guidelines but the meeting has now been put off until November 10. State intelligence agencies believe the guerrilla leadership is still undecided. Yesterday, leaflets calling upon voters in the Jaffna peninsula not to cast their votes were distributed to civilians. It was also pasted on walls in several buildings by a so -called "Makkal Padai" (or People's Force), a front organisation of the LTTE. The intelligence community seems divided in their projections about what the LTTE portends over the November 17 polls. Some believe there were signs they may call for a boycott. Others disagree. They say this is a ploy. "At the eleventh hour, they will go into full gear and back a candidate most useful to them," said one intelligence source. Either way, the Tiger guerrillas will remain the focal point of attention in the coming weeks. This is not just because of their vote bank. A bigger question is the fear of rising violence. |
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Copyright © 2001 Wijeya Newspapers
Ltd. All rights reserved. |
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