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Information on LTTE Chemical Weapons Attainment and Use.
Fears of rebel trap as army closes on Jaffna
November 3, 1995
SRI Lanka’s army was yesterday pushing ahead warily in its advance on the Tamil Tiger stronghold of Jaffna city, fearful of rebel ambushes and possible chemical weapon attacks. Aid workers said the army could move into the city within hours if it wanted to after a mass exodus of tens of thousands of rebels and civilians had left it a virtual ghost town. But a suspicious military said yesterday it sensed that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam were preparing a trap. “They may have tried to depopulate Jaffna so that they can use chemical weapons when our troops move in,” a senior military officer said. The rebels used chlorine gas to attack troops in 1990 during a failed attempt to overrun an army camp, but caused no harm. The officer said the army was taking the chemical weapon threat seriously and had distributed gas masks to some of the troops. Government forces have been within 8km of Jaffna city for the past few days and yesterday the LTTE said from their London office that battles were raging at the town of Urumpirai, just 3km from Jaffna’s municipal limits. According to the military the army’s new defence lines are about 7km from Jaffna’s municipal limits. Sri Lankan military officials have warned that minefields, booby-traps and ambushes may await them. “We should be able to move in quickly if there is no resistance,” a military official said. “But we’re obviously going to be careful of walking into a trap.” A top-level military source even suggested that moving into Jaffna right now might not be the objective, despite the two-week push towards the city. “There could be changes in strategy,” he said, echoing some diplomats’ view that little would be gained in taking Jaffna when it could prove difficult to hold. Rebel resistance to the army’s two-pronged advance crumbled on Monday after troops captured Neerveli, 10km northeast of Jaffna. The Government yesterday ordered schools across the country closed after saying threats had been issued against children. In Delhi, India, the Tigers’ chief theoretician, Mr Anton Balasingham, said in an interview published yesterday that a guerilla campaign would be maintained if Jaffna fell to government forces. “Even if they take over Jaffna, it will not be a military success,” he said. “The (Sri Lankan) north-east is a vast area and our guerilla movement cannot be crushed in conventional battle. “The Lankan forces can take over the territory, but they cannot hold on. We will strike back,” he told the weekly news magazine Outlook. In Geneva, the World Council of Churches appealed for intervention by a neutral government such as Norway or Australia to relaunch peace efforts. The council’s secretary-general, Mr Konrad Raiser, who has returned from a visit to India where he met Sri Lankan religious leaders, has called on the Colombo Government and Tamil rebels to resume talks broken off earlier this year.
Voice of America reports on Sri Lanka’s disinformation campaign…
November 28, 1995
“The Sri Lankan Government is waging a propaganda war to complement its military offensive. Correspondent Michael Drudge reports from Colombo that truth has become one of the war’s victims. Media observers say Sri Lankan television has begun resorting to disinformation in its reporting on the war against Tamil Tiger guerrillas.
A Government television news broadcast Monday quoted Tamil Tiger Commander saying the military take over of the northern Jaffna peninsula was a serious set back for the rebel movement. In truth Commander Prabhakaran called the loss of Jaffna only a temporary set back.
The Government newscast said Commander Prabhakaran’s reference to peace negotiations was a sign of Tamil Tiger weakness. In reality, he simply rejected any negotiation as long as the army occupies Jaffna.Observers say the television newscast was but the latest instance of government media officials hedging the truth.
The military press office on Saturday issued a statement that the Tamil Tigers had used gas on troops, implying it was a chemical weapons attack. Only later did military sources admit the gas in question had been tear gas.The government continues to ban reporters from the northern war zone. The state information department hands out video and still photographs produced by the Sri Lankan army. Information is provided by fax.The government is also forbidding reporters to visit camps where hundreds of thousands of civilians have fled to escape the fighting.
Sri Lanka media are subject to military censorship. The local cable operator even blacks out stories about Sri Lanka that appear on foreign television channels.”
Weapons of Minimum Destruction
August 19, 2004
The Tamil Tigers’ use of chemicals angered some of their support base.
Rapoport says that terrorist use of chemical and biological weapons is similar to state use – in that it is rare and, in terms of causing mass destruction, not very effective. He cites the work of journalist and author John Parachini, who says that over the past 25 years only four significant attempts by terrorists to use WMD have been recorded. The most effective WMD-attack by a non-state group, from a military perspective, was carried out by the Tamil Tigers of Sri Lanka in 1990. They used chlorine gas against Sri Lankan soldiers guarding a fort, injuring over 60 soldiers but killing none.
The Tamil Tigers’ use of chemicals angered their support base, when some of the chlorine drifted back into Tamil territory – confirming Rapoport’s view that one problem with using unpredictable and unwieldy chemical and biological weapons over conventional weapons is that the cost can be as great ‘to the attacker as to the attacked’. The Tigers have not used WMD since.
Sri Lanka: LTTE warns against use of “Chemical Weapons”
August 17, 2001
COLOMBO. The LTTE today accused Sri Lanka of purchasing a banned chemical weapon and warned of “dangerous consequences” if it was inducted in the battlefields of northeastern Sri Lanka. The LTTE statement appeared to be referring to the Russian- manufactured RPO-A Shmel rocket launcher without naming it. The Sunday Leader newspaper reported this week that the Government had purchased 1,000 units of the weapon.
The Sri Lankan Army spokesman, Brig. Sanath Karunaratne, confirmed the purchase of the Shmel, but denied it was a chemical weapon or that it was banned.
The RPO-A Shmel is a rocket-propelled incendiary/blast projectile launcher whose warhead contains a “thermobaric” flammable mixture, that is, it simulates high pressure conditions when detonated in enclosed structures and in the open.
The use of this weapon by the Russian Army in Chechnya came in for strong criticism by the human rights groups.
Described as a “bunker buster”, the shoulder-fired weapon uses a fuel-air explosive warhead that is most destructive when detonated inside structures, killing living beings through suffocation and burns, but also causes death and destruction over wide areas.
“We are perturbed over reports that the Sri Lanka Government has purchased new infantry weapon system with chemical warheads… The acquisition of this banned weapon by Sri Lanka marks a new and dangerous escalation of the armed conflict in the island”, the LTTE statement declared.
The decision by the Sri Lankan Government to introduce mass destruction technology into the northeast theatre of the conflict was a reflection of its single-minded determination to continue with the military option and escalate the war against the Tamil people, the LTTE said.
Tamil Tigers ready to attack Sri Lankan forces with toxic weapons
July 12, 2006
COLOMBO: Hidden in the jungles of Vanni, a toxicological laboratory of the Tamil Tigers is manufacturing their ‘special weapon’, as described by Anton Balasingham earlier, to attack the Sri Lankan Government forces located in Jaffna. Prof. Peter Chalk of Queensland University (now attached to Rand Corporation as an expert on terrorism) told an audience in Melbourne that the LTTE is the first known terrorist group to use chemical weapons.
Prof. Chalk, a leading expert on Tamil Tigers strategies, said that the Tigers fired a ‘chemical’ into an army camp in one of its early offensives. Ironically, it backfired because the winds brought most of it back and deposited the chemical on the LTTE side.
Reports leaking out from Vanni reveal that the LTTE has now increased the potency of this “secret weapon” and also improved the method of delivering it to selected targets. The new chemical weapon is designed to stun the victims. If it is targeted on Sri Lankan Army camps with a total of nearly 40,000 troops, it could easily immobilize the forces, according to informed sources in London.
Balasingham has informed groups raising funds in UK that the LTTE is now armed with a “special weapon” to launch its next major assault on Jaffna. As any major offensive against Jaffna is bound to cost the Tigers heavily in manpower their new strategy is to use the “special weapon” that would immobilize the Sri Lankan forces before a counter-offensive could be launched to attack the LTTE. The LTTE objective in using this chemical weapon is to minimize losses to their cadres.
Reports from Vanni claim that the Tamil Tigers have almost completed the production of this “special weapon” in sufficient quantities to launch their next offensive. The production was carried out in a toxicological laboratory housed in two floors underground. It is protected by a three-storied building above-ground. Reports also state that this is the tallest building in the Vanni constructed under the direct supervision of Velupillai Prabhakaran.
The sources further revealed that technicians and engineers were brought from Punjab, India for the construction. Pro-LTTE Sri Lankan chemical experts and engineers who worked in Western countries are said to be the brains behind the building of the lab as well as the toxicological products.
A hedge fund trader from New York who migrated from Vadamarachchy has made generous contribution towards the constructions of the building which would also double as ordnance factory. He is married to a Punjabi.
The LTTE was thrown out of Jaffna by the Sri Lankan Army led by Maj-Gen Janaka Perera in 1995. The Tigers withdrew into the jungles of Vanni and since then they have been plotting and planning to recapture Jaffna without success. Both sides are aware that the next war, when it comes, is going to be costly to both sides. With the international forces ranged against them the LTTE is making a bid to make their attack short and swift by engaging in “chemical warfare.”
Analysts believe that this is a huge gamble, which may backfire on the LTTE. Velupillai Prabhakaran is already on the international list of wanted criminals. A mug shot of his is posted in Interpol list of wanted criminals. India too is facing internal pressures to extradite him for the killing of Rajiv Gandhi.
If he resorts to “chemical warfare” he will seal his fate as a war criminal hunted by the international community which has banned such warfare since World War I. Besides, the international community fighting a global war against terror will consider this new “chemical warfare” as opening new leads for other terrorists to follow. LTTE terror technologies (example: suicide kit tied to the body) have been the models for other terrorists to follow.
Chemical Weapon Story a Concoction: LTTE
July 14, 2006
The LTTE yesterday strongly rejected media reports which suggested it possessed chemical war fare weapons and was even prepared to use it against the government security forces in the event an all out war were to resume once again.
LTTE Batticaloa political leader Daya Mohan told the Daily Mirror he was not authorised to comment on such issues on behalf of the LTTE but insisted the rebels would never go against UN protocols on the use of chemical weapons.
‘We will never go against UN protocols on the use of chemical warfare. The report you mentioned is not factually correct,’ Mr. Mohan said.
The rebel district leader was responding to an Asian Tribune website report which suggested the LTTE had in its possession a new chemical weapon designed to stun the victims and if it was targeted on Army camps with a total of nearly 40,000 troops, it could easily immobilize the forces.
The government meanwhile said it would not rule out the possibility of the LTTE possessing chemical weapons although there was no evidence to substantiate such claims.
‘Taking the history of terrorists it remains a possibility that the Asian Tribune report may be true. As a government we are not ruling it out,’ Defence Spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella told the Daily Mirror.
He said as a Defence measure the government would ensure it was prepared to face the eventuality of the LTTE resorting to chemical warfare in the future.
The Asian Tribune report quoted a terrorism expert as saying the LTTE had on one occasion made a failed attempt to use a chemical weapon while it added that the LTTE theoretician Anton Balasingham had informed groups raising funds in Britain that the LTTE was now armed with a `special weapon` to launch its next major assault on Jaffna.
Excerpts from “Toxic Warfare,” by Theodore Karasik
http://www.rand.org/pubs/monograph_reports/2005/MR1572.pdf
Poisoning with chemicals, sewage and pesticides.
Many recent incidents of toxic warfare have involved poisoning with chemicals, sewage, or pesticides. All these substances can be used to interfere with military operations, disrupt the functioning of civilian infrastructure, cause physical harm, and instill fear among the general
- 1 Episodes of poisoning have a long history in toxic warfare. In 1986, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) poisoned tea with potassium cyanide in an effort to cripple the Sri Lankan tea export industry.2
2See Abraham D. Sofaer, George D. Wilson, and Sidney D. Dell, The New Terror: Facing the Threat of Biological and Chemical Weapons, Stanford, CA: HooverInstitution, 1999, p. 82.
Sri Lanka
During the 1990s, the LTTE used chemical waste to attack industrial facilities on several occasions as a means of creating confusion at strategic points. In November 1995, LTTE forces launched a gas attack on Sri Lankan troops in a bid to lift a siege on the rebel bastion of Jaffna, sparking heavy battles that left 84 dead on both sides. The toxic attack was the first since 1990, when the LTTE fired chlorine gas cylinders into a besieged military camp near Batticaloa on the east coast.19 In 2001, Tamil rebels attacked the Bandaranaike International Airport and military base with mortars. The first wave of attacks, launched at 3:30 a.m., targeted industrial and fuel facilities at the airport to create a fire and smoke diversion, while a second wave of mortars was aimed at both commercial and military aircraft. The resulting damage claimed 12 aircraft, costing millions of dollars, and closed the airport for a day.20
19See Agence France-Presse, November 25, 1995, accessed from FBIS-FTS- 19951125000450.
20See “Tamil Rebels Raid Sri Lankan Airport,” Washington Post, July 25, 2001, p. 14.
LTTE Sea and Land Attacks
The Tamil Sea Tigers (LTTE)35 have used smoke and vapors both to create casualties and to cause deception, sometimes through elaborately staged or sophisticated means. In September 2001, the Tamil Sea Tigers attacked Bandaranaike Airport, destroying half of the Sri Lankan air fleet and causing millions of dollars of damage. Included was an attack on the airport’s fuel depot that was aimed at spreading smoke and vapors.36 The attack was intended to produce—and indeed resulted in—a spectacular mess that destroyed the fuel depot while also causing confusion and eventual military operations. One month later, in October 2001, a suicide squad from the LTTE sea forces attacked the MV Silk Pride at sundown as the ship approached the Haffna peninsula. The oil tanker, carrying 225 tons of low-sulfur diesel, 160 tones of kerosene oil, and 275 tons of auto diesel, caught on fire.37 LTTE fighters later participated in yet another toxic attack in an effort to interrupt Sri Lanka’s economy.38
35The Tamil Sea Tigers is the oceangoing version of the Tamil Tigers.
36See Rohan Gunaratna, “Intelligence Failures Exposed by Tamil Tigers Airport Attack,” Jane’s Intelligence Review, September 2001, pp. 14–17.
37See “Further on Tamil Tigers Attacking Oil Tanker in Sri Lanka,” Agence France-Presse, October 30, 2001, accessed from FBIS-SAP-20011030000111.
38See “Guerrilla Suicide Boat Hits Sri Lankan Oil Tanker,” Reuters, October 30, 2001.
Excerpt for “Die and Let Die: Exploring Links between Suicide Terrorism and Terrorist Use of Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear Weapons” by Adam Dolnik
LTTE has a history of involvement with chemical agents on several levels. In 1986, the group claimed to have poisoned Sri Lankan Tea with potassium cyanide, but no evidence of contamination was found.62During 1990, the group was suspected of using poison on several occasions, among them an armed assault with knives soaked in a liquid containing cyanide poison,63 and the use of landmines equipped with cyanide capsules.64During the same year, the group did in fact use a chemical weapon, when large amounts of chlorine gas were deliberately disseminated by wind in an assault on a besieged military camp at Kiran.65The number of casualties of this attack is unknown. Evidence suggests that during 1990 the LTTE was facing a great shortage of conventional arms, forcing them to use improvised weapons. Because all allegations of the group’s involvement with CBRN agents fall into this time frame, it appears that the LTTE tried to use chemicals to substitute for limited conventional capability, as opposed to escalating their struggle in terms of the number of casualties.
62. Sri Lanka, Tea Tested After Poison Threats. Facts on File World Digest [CD-ROM], 24 January 1986.
63. “Tamil Rebels Kill 144 in Sri Lanka Raids,” The Toronto Star, 13 August 1990.
64. “Tamil Rebel Camp Smashed by Sri Lankan Security Forces,” Xinhua Overseas New Service, 18 June 1990.
65. Bruce Hoffman, The Debate Over Future Terrorist Use of Chemical Biological, Nuclear and Radiological Weapons (RAND
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