From child soldier to spy: My secret war against the LTTE

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A female soldier of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam walks through an LTTE cemetery in Kilinochchi, in September, 2007. Government soldiers later destroyed the cemetery -Ron Haviv / VII/ newyorker.com/File

By Kagusthan Ariaratnam

My journey through the shadows of the Sri Lankan civil war was not one I chose but one that was thrust upon me. From a 17-year-old student abducted from my classroom in 1991 to an intelligence operative working against the very organization that conscripted me, my life became a complex tapestry of shifting allegiances, all woven with the single thread of survival. While the world saw the dramatic battlefield confrontations that led to the obliteration of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in May 2009, my war was fought off stage in the clandestine world of intelligence where information was the most potent weapon. My key role in the LTTE’s demise was a quiet, protracted and deeply personal one, played out across continents and within the corridors of multiple, often opposing, intelligence agencies.

My story began with my forced recruitment into the LTTE’s military intelligence wing. As the eldest son, I was taken to spare my younger brothers from the same fate. My education, which the LTTE lacked among its cadres, ironically made me valuable to them. I was trained and by 1993, I was appointed the head of Naval Intelligence overseeing operations for the Sea Tigers and the nascent Air Tigers. This position gave me unrestricted access to the LTTE’s strategic plans, operational methodologies and command structures. I was at the heart of the beast, learning its secrets not out of loyalty but out of a desperate need to find a way out.

That way out came through a classic tale of love and betrayal. A forbidden relationship with a fellow cadre, Nala, was discovered by an operative of India’s Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), Srinivasan, who had infiltrated the Sea Tigers. He blackmailed me, threatening to expose us, which would have meant certain death. The price of my silence and Nala’s safety was to become a RAW informant. From 1993 to 1995, I lived a double life feeding critical intelligence to India. I provided RAW with stolen top-secret documents, maps and even an audio cassette of the LTTE leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran, discussing his role in the assassination of Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. My information began to unravel RAW’s extensive covert operation within the LTTE leading to internal purges but more importantly, it marked the beginning of my active role in dismantling the organization from the inside.

When the LTTE’s counterintelligence began closing in on RAW’s network, I faced imminent discovery. In a move of calculated desperation, I confessed my betrayal to my superior in the LTTE’s military intelligence, Thinesh Master. What followed was not the execution I expected but a strategic masterstroke that would redefine my role in the war. Recognizing the value of having an agent inside the enemy camp and knowing the Sri Lankan military was planning a major offensive, Thinesh Master ordered me to surrender to the Sri Lankan government and become a sleeper agent for the LTTE.

In June 1995, I walked into a Sri Lankan army base, a supposed defector. I became an asset codenamed 05 for the Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI) of the government. The intelligence I possessed was a treasure trove for the forces. I provided them with everything: the LTTE’s organizational structure, the locations of their bases, their communication codes and their strategic plans. My most significant contribution was to Operation Riviresa, the massive military operation aimed at recapturing the Jaffna peninsula. I worked directly with the top commanders, including General Rohan Daluwatte and General Sri Lal Weerasooriya, interpreting intercepted LTTE communications and identifying key targets. The information I provided was instrumental in the success of the operation, leading to the fall of Jaffna and crippling the LTTE’s conventional military capabilities. I was, as Thinesh Master had ironically planned, an invaluable asset but not for the cause he intended.

After my release from military custody in 1997, my journey took another turn. I arrived in Canada as a refugee but the shadows of my past followed me. I was now a known entity, a man with a unique and dangerous repository of knowledge. This brought me into the orbit of Western intelligence agencies. I began working as a source and consultant for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). My expertise was no longer just about the LTTE’s military strategy but about the very nature of terrorism.

I was invited to speak at international forums from the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies (IDSS) at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore to the Forum on Islamic Radicalism and Management (FIRM) in France and the IQPC DefenceIQ in London. I provided analyses on terrorist tradecraft, the LTTE’s pioneering use of suicide bombers, their global procurement networks and their methods of radicalization. I explained how the LTTE had become a template for other global terrorist organizations. My insights, born from direct and bitter experience, helped shape the international understanding of the LTTE, not just as a local insurgency but as a sophisticated, transnational threat. This contributed to the global pressure, sanctions and proscription that choked the LTTE’s international support and supply lines, which were critical for their survival.

From 1990 to 2009, I was a reluctant participant in a war I never wanted. Each step I took from coerced recruit to international consultant was a move in a complex game of survival. While I never fired a shot in the final stages of the war, the intelligence I provided, the secrets I revealed and the analyses I shared played a quiet but crucial off-stage role. I helped to dismantle the LTTE from its core, first by betraying its secrets to its enemies, then by guiding the military forces that broke its back and finally by exposing its global machinations to the world. It was a long and treacherous path, but it was the path that led to the obliteration of the LTTE.

My actions, while born from a desperate instinct for self-preservation, were also guided by a flicker of hope for a genuine and lasting peace. My cooperation with the Sri Lankan military was not an endorsement of their methods but a calculated risk based on solemn promises made to me by the highest echelons of their command. Commanders such as General Rohan Daluwatte and General Sri Lal Weerasooriya, along with National Security Advisor Professor Rohan Gunaratna, assured me that the obliteration of the LTTE’s military machinery would pave the way for a meaningful political solution.

This was not a vague assurance. They spoke specifically of implementing the 13th Amendment Plus, an enhanced version of the provincial autonomy guaranteed under the Indo-Sri Lanka Peace Accord of 1987. This accord, signed by Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and President J. R. Jayewardene was meant to be the cornerstone of reconciliation, devolving power to the provinces and addressing the long-standing grievances of the Tamil people. I was led to believe that my assistance in ending the war would be the catalyst for finally realizing this political settlement, creating a future where my people could live with dignity and self-respect within a united Sri Lanka.

Alas, these promises evaporated with the smoke of the final battlefield. The military victory did not usher in an era of reconciliation but one of triumphalism, leaving the root causes of the conflict to fester. To this day, the political solution I was promised has never materialized. The grievances of the Tamil people remain unaddressed, and my own people are still longing for justice, accountability and a genuine peace.

Therefore, my off-stage war did not end in 2009. The rationale that drove me then – the pursuit of a just and equitable peace – still drives me today. My journey through the world of intelligence has taught me that the absence of war is not the same as peace. My pursuit will continue, not with the weapons of espionage, but with the conviction that a peaceful solution acceptable to all Sri Lankan citizens must be accomplished.

–Kagusthan Ariaratnam, forcibly recruited by the LTTE as a child soldier at the age of 17, is a Canada-based defence analyst with over two decades of firsthand experience in the Sri Lankan civil conflict, who has dedicated himself to promoting peace and reconciliation. Kagusthan’s new memoir can be found at Amazon: https://a.co/d/5AKdv1q

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