ELITE COMMANDOS OF THE POLICE SPECIAL TASK FORCE OVER RUN CHILD SOLDIER TRAINING BASE OF THE TAMIL TIGERS

By Walter Jayawardhana

The elite commando unit of the Sri Lanka Police , the Special Task Force, (STF) in its twenty-first victory inside the dense jungles of Kanjikudichchi Aru successfully over ran a training base of Child soldiers after some resistance from the rebels of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), Thursday February 1.

Military spokesman said the abominable camp, named Jeevananda Base was a military garrison, where the LTTE kidnapped and hid hundreds of Eastern Province teenagers secretly, giving them a crash military course before sending them to battle fields.

There are reports that some of the child combatants were sometimes physically abused and also rarely sexually exploited by their trainers, regardless strict moral codes had been imposed on them. Attempts to escape from the camp had been sometimes punished with death.

“unlike in the previous occasions,” said military sources, “the STF had to confront with some resistance from the terrorists. However, after a brief confrontation the terrorists had taken to their heels leaving the camp to the STF.”

In a continued military campaign to flush out terrorists from the thick Kanjikudichchi Aru Jungle aimed to put a complete stop to the terrorist attacks on nearby Sinhala Tamil and Mulim communities and especially to put an end to the child kidnappings from the nearby Tamil communities the commando unit has been fighting since the beginning of January, the STF said. These jungles camps contributed to violence in nearby Ampara, Thirukkovil, Akkaraipaththuwa, and Bakmitiyawa area civilian settlements , the sources said.

Code named Niyatha Jaya or Definite Victory, in the campaign the police commando unit was able to over run many camps with no resistance but not this one. STF sources said radio communications overheard suggested that they had suffered 16 injured LTTE cadres before they retreated inside the jungle, after a brief confrontation..

Among the abandoned military gear by the Tamil Tigers were one machine gun (GPMG), 24 hand grenades, 300 ammunitions, communication equipment and two heavy earth moving equipment.
A large stock of rice, flour, sugar and dhal was also found in their store rooms.

In the attack immediately before this two camps containing a medical center were over run by the STF in the same jungles January 29. A large number of vehicles and generators were also captured then.

The STF sources said the offensive to rid the jungles of terrorists will continue until all camps are captured and destroyed.