International LTTE network behind Sri Lanka prison unrest - government

The recent unrest in the Vavuniya Prison in Northern Sri Lanka is a well-planned conspiracy of the international Tamil Tiger network, the Sri Lankan government says. Prisons and Rehabilitation Minister, Chandrasiri Gajadeera told media today that the recent uproar by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) suspects at the Vavuniya Prison had been orchestrated by the international LTTE network.
The Minister has noted that the LTTE suspects at the prison have had in their possession satellite mobile phones and various communication equipment and added that some of the suspects transferred to Colombo following the incident were prepared to confess to that effect. Trouble erupted at the Vavuniya Prison when police tried to take a suspect, who is a former LTTE leader, away under a court order to hand over to the Terrorism Investigation Department and the inmates started protesting. In the ensuing disturbance the former LTTE suspects took three prison officials hostage and held them until a combined police, army and Special Task Force (STF) operation them a day later. The authorities have transferred the entire prison population involved in the hostage taking to the Anuradhapura prison. During search operations conducted after the transfer, the police found the communication equipment including the satellite phones. The Commanding Officer of the STF Deputy Inspector General of Police Chandrasiri Ranawaka has told the state-run radio that in the search operations carried out in the prison after the incident, 54 satellite mobile phones, additional batteries, sim cards and various other communication equipment were discovered. Ranawaka revealed that about 28 LTTE prisoners, detained in the Vavuniya prison, had satellite phones to pass information to the Tamil Diaspora abroad. "We also recovered Rs 23,047, iron bars, knives and four radios. They also had large stock of food items, including biscuits, chocolates and noodles," a senior police official has told The Island newspaper. Meanwhile, Vavuniya police last Friday have arrested three persons, two men and a woman, who the police believe are LTTE spies. They were alleged of passing information on STF movements to the LTTE suspects detained in the Vavuniya prison. The government has repeatedly warned that overseas pro-LTTE groups remain active as ever despite the vanquishing of the organization in the county. Sri Lanka's Defense Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa earlier this year observed that the LTTE, although defeated in the country, is still active overseas and groups sympathetic to the LTTE cause are attempting to revitalize their movement at international level. The overseas members of LTTE continued to procure weapons while the LTTE diaspora continued to support the organization financially, a report released by the United States Department of State last year said. It said that despite its military defeat in Sri Lanka at the hands of government forces in May 2009, the LTTE's international network of financial support persists.