Millennium City incident

The Millennium City incident refers to a critical security-related incident that took place within the Millennium City housing scheme, Athurugiriya, Sri Lanka on 2 January 2002, leading to a national security crisis. Widespread media coverage and miscommunication between the Directorate of Military Intelligence and the Sri Lanka Police resulted in the exposure of the Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol unit of the Sri Lanka Army. A hitherto top sercret covert operations military unit, the secrecy of the identities of its members was critical in the execution of its duties &mdash; these identities only known to a few high-ranking military officers and the President of Sri Lanka.

Incident
On 2 January 2002, a special team of Sri Lanka Police led by Superintendent of Police (Special Operations, Kandy district), Kulasiri Udugampola, broke into a safe house maintained by the Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI) of the Sri Lanka Army at Millennium City housing scheme: No. 844, Kaduwela road, Athurugiriya. The police team arrested five Army soldiers, including a Captain (Captain Shahul Hameed Nilam, Commanding Officer of the LRRP) and one paramilitary member, a former cadre of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (which made up for the lack of a court order or warrant). They also recovered a cache of military equipment including land mines, light anti-tank weapons (LAW), assault rifles, thermobaric weapons and 66 LTTE uniforms. SP Udugampola immediately invited local media and presented the police findings.

This incident occurred immediately after the Parliamentary election of December 2001, in which United National Front came into power, defeating the incumbent People's Alliance government. The safe house was presented to the public as a hideout from which the army purportedly planned to assassinate high-level leaders of the United National Party, including then Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. The allegation was first made by UNP chairman Charitha Ratwatte and vice chairman Daya Pelpola, in November 2001, before the election. They alleged that thermobaric weapons had been brought from the Army's operational areas in the North to the Panaluwa Army testing range, in-order to use them at a UNP election meeting. This allegation was later proved to be false.

Efforts to avoid the situation
Soon after the raid, the Sri Lanka Army Commander Lionel Balagalle, dispatched Director of the Directorate of Military Intelligence, Brigadier Kapila Hendavithana, to the scene of the raid in order to explain the situation to the police and avoid a crisis situation for the Army. He also contacted the Inspector General of Police (IGP) Lucky Kodituwakku. Brigadier Hendavithana too then called the IGP, asking for SP Udugampola to be called off the investigation. Subsequently, the Inspector General contacted SP Udugampola and asked him to take into consideration what the Army's intelligence chief was saying. SP Udugampola then contacted Minister of Internal Affairs, John Amaratunga to brief him the situation. The Minister in turn dispatched DIG Lal Ratnayake to the scene. Notwithstanding the Army's protests and the request made by his superiors, SP Udugampola, for reasons not made clear, took the soldiers into custody, seized the stock of weapons and drove to the Military Police Headquarters in Narahenpita.

Reactions
Reactions to this incident were mixed. Initially, there was a public outcry in light of the allegations made that the military was planning to assassinate UNP leaders. However, after details about the unit were revealed, the police was accused of compromising a State secret. The country's military leadership was also blamed for being unable to prevent a "serious breach of national security". The LRRP team had initially been housed at the Kohuwala Army Camp, but was relocated to Athurugiriya in December 2001. Army commander Lionel Balagalla was compelled to issue a public statement revealing the true nature of this unit. President Chandrika Kumaratunga appointed a commission headed by D. Jayawickrema, a retired Judge of the Court of Appeal to inquire into and report on the raid. The report, released in December 2003, labelled Udugampola's action "illegal and immoral". He was demoted to the rank of ASP. A Supreme Court judgement delivered in January 2004 stated that the fundamental rights of the soldiers had been violated and ordered ASP Udugampola to pay a sum of Rs. 50,000 LKR each to five of the LRRP operatives, S. H. Nilam, P. Ananda Udalagama, H. M. Nissanka Herath, I. Edirisinghe Jayamanne and H. Mohamed Hilmy. The State was ordered to pay Rs. 750,000 each to them as well. A number of Sri Lanka Army officers who failed to perform their duty were taken action against, with the most senior officer among them, Major General Ivan Dassanayake, being ordered to retire from service. Reports further stated that the raid was a "total betrayal and absolute treachery to the nation". In March 2005, ASP Udugampola was interdicted and arrested.

Aftermath
Immediately after the incident, through the Criminal Investigation Department and other channels, it was revealed that the safe house was none other than a top secret military establishment. By then, however, vital details regarding the LRRP had been leaked to the media. It was not until 9 January, on the orders of Defence Minister Tilak Marapana, the operatives of the LRRP who were held at the Katugastota Police Station were released. The arrested LTTE cadre was released only on the 11th. All of them had been interrogated.

Soon afterwards, the LTTE began a campaign to eliminate the members of the LRRP, and those who were suspected of assisting them. The LTTE Intelligence chief, Shanmugalingam Sivashankar alias Pottu Amman personally traveled to Batticaloa to oversee the "elimination" of the "traitors". The government did not take any significant measures to stop this, and requests made by the state intelligence agencies were quietly subdued on the basis that it would affect the ceasefire.

LRRP operatives in the aftermath
Following the incident, Captain S. H. Nilam, the commanding officer of the LRRP, and his family was reported as missing. Later, it was revealed that they were sent to the Sri Lankan Embassy in Indonesia for their safety. In 2007, he and his family disappeared from Indonesia too.

The LTTE has, since then, assassinated more than 80 Tamil informants and Intelligence officers of Sri Lanka Army, whose identity had been compromised. The Sunday Times defence columnist Iqbal Athas, in February 2004 revealed the names of 24 Tamil informants who had fallen victim to the LTTE's scourge. V. Vidyarnthan alias Vidya alias Nidhi alias Mike was the most important of them, having been abducted on 16 January 2002, and killed after being subjected to torture and intense interrogation for four days. He dealt directly with Captain Nilam before the incident. Mike in turn liaised with a network of operatives as well as informants, including one time guerrilla cadres, in the Batticaloa and Ampara districts. The most senior officer to be killed since then was Lieutenant Colonel Tuan Nizam Muthaliff. He was the Commanding Officer of the 1st Battalion, Military Intelligence Corps, serving as the second-in-comman under Captain Nilam, when the incident occurred. Kandiah Yogarasa alias PLOTE Mohan, another key informant, was shot dead by the LTTE in July 2004.