“We were welded by the LTTE and drained our blood for them” by a former 5 year POW P.M. Nandana Samansiri

A story of a Police Officer who became a prisoner of the LTTE while serving with the Mankulam Police Station in 1991 while the then President, H.E. Ranasinghe Premadasa held direct peace talks with the representatives of the LTTE headed by Anton Balasingham,  Adele Balasingham and others in Colombo.  He had been subjected to torture and appalling conditions while being held as a prisoner.  He was lucky to have been released by the LTTE in 1994 through the intervention of the ICRC during the time that H.E. Madam Chandrika Kumaratunga sought to reach a peace deal with the LTTE in 1993/4. Out of the 44 police personnel taken prisoner, only 18 survived the gruesome treatment by the LTTE at the time of his release.

He went back to serve the Police Department, rose in his rank through diligent service rising to the position of a Sub-Inspector and thereafter as an O.I.C. of a station only to be transferred from Pillar to Post by the last Yahapalana regime within short intervals.  He then went before a medical board and obtained a release from service on grounds of ill health. He has regained his health and is willing to serve the balance time up to retirement age provided his case is reviewed and due status is restored to him.  He has suffered immensely, and is a case that should be reviewed on an urgent basis and justice meted out to him.

This is a case that can be included in the charges against the LTTE for inhumane treatment and war crimes against unarmed security service personnel taken prisoner by them during the hostilities. Our NGO friends seem to think that war crimes, violations of IHL were not carried out by the LTTE due to their super salary and benefits packages given to them through the sponsorship of their foreign financiers whose agendas they tend to carry out to the detriment of their motherland of Sri Lanka.

Mahinda Gunasekera

Full video here: