“The 05 File,” a self-biography of the life of Kagusthan Ariaratnam, co-written with award-winning journalist Michael Bramadat-Willcock, is an intimate look into the inner workings of the LTTE intelligence wing and the Directorate of Military Intelligence in Sri Lanka. It recounts the harrowing details of the recruitment of Mr. Ariaratnam as a child soldier into the LTTE and how he was later blackmailed into working as an informant for Indian, Sri Lankan, and Canadian intelligence services at different points in his life. The book was self-published in 2024 and made accessible to all audiences in both electronic and print formats, available for purchase on Amazon.
Kagusthan, named after one of Lord Rama’s avatars, was his birth name, and he later came to be known by different aliases such as Bobby by the Students Organization of Liberation Tigers; Oppilamani, 0-869, 23, and Oppilan by the Tamil Tigers; and Major Babu, 05, and Murali by the Sri Lankan security services. When he was just 17 years old, he was recruited into the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam against his will, under duress that his eldest sister and three younger brothers would suffer if the family did not contribute a son to the LTTE cause. The Tigers wanted a separate self-governed homeland for the Tamil minority of Sri Lanka. For three decades, until May 2009, the war dragged on, resulting in countless casualties on both sides of the conflict — those supporting the Sinhalese-majority government of Sri Lanka and the Tigers. What followed was not peace, but a fragmented society and a raucous, estranged Tamil diaspora disgruntled over the tens of thousands of Tamils who were killed in what many describe as a genocide.
Murali, aka 05, played a dangerous game, as recounted in this tale beautifully written with the assistance of Mr. Willcock. This story brings to light how child soldiers recruited from Tamil schools were trained and brainwashed to die and carry out suicide attacks on behalf of the LTTE for the desperate cause of creating a Tamil homeland. Murali was no ordinary teenager, but a brilliant youngster with razor-sharp wit and immense talent who could have become an engineer had he lived a normal life. Instead, his talents for observation and analytical rigor were discovered by his LTTE handlers and used in the LTTE intelligence wing. His education was unconventional, grounded in war strategy, guerrilla warfare, asymmetric warfare, and the use of arms, ammunition, and weapons. Murali recounts his sophisticated training with the LTTE under Kuman Master, who had been sent to be trained by the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) through the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) [i]. Kuman Master introduced the young cadres to LTTE ideology, which stemmed from Tamil nationalism, Marxist-Leninist philosophy, and was influenced by the strategic thought of Sun Tzu, Che Guevara, Mao Tse Tung, Vo Nguyen Giap, Napoleon Bonaparte, and Subhas Chandra Bose (pg. 18) [ii]. One of Murali’s greatest feats was his ability to study different types of ships through defense magazines such as Janes, gain expertise in naval warfare through training, and send Sea Tigers on suicide missions to attack Sri Lankan military assets (pg. 59). By reporting to Tiger higher-ups such as Sasikumar and Thinesh Master, he gathered intelligence to assist the Sea Tigers Reconnaissance Team, taking credit for how his information assisted in the assassination of Admiral Clancy Fernando of the Sri Lankan Navy (pg. 60).
What is absolutely fascinating about this memoir are the insider revelations of the specialized wings of the LTTE and their work, such as the National Intelligence Detention Centre, Sea Tigers Maritime School and Academy, Sea Tigers Reconnaissance Team, and Exclusive Economic Zone Maritime Logistics Support Team. The latter conducted seaborne suicide operations against the Sri Lankan Navy and Coast Guard while securing the Tigers’ supply chains through international waters. His love affair with Nala became the plot twist in his LTTE career and was used against him as blackmail by Srinivasan, a RAW mole within the LTTE. The LTTE had banned love affairs among cadres by imposing a strict code of conduct. This blackmail later set him on a path toward freedom in Canada, as he had secured an audio cassette in which Prabhakaran and Pottu Amman admitted to plotting the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi. He hid this audio cassette and other incriminating documents in the backyard of his family’s house before surrendering to the Sri Lankan military (pg. 106). This “defection” did not materialize until July 1995, when he confessed the blackmail by Srinivasan to Thinesh Master, who, as “punishment,” sent him to infiltrate the Sri Lankan military and work as an insider spy, as claimed.
Kagusthan’s biography provides astute details on some of the key LTTE victories, acquisitions, and modernization of LTTE forces. An example was the capture of Commander Ajith Boyagoda, who became an LTTE prisoner of war (POW) when the SLNS Sagarawardena was attacked by the Underwater Demolition Team and Suicide Boat Squadron. It provides crucial testimony on how the Tigers deliberately stalled and sabotaged the 1994–1995 peace talks to continue terrorist activities aimed at establishing a Tamil homeland, using this period to enhance their capabilities. The Tigers became a lethal force, acquiring submarines, medium landing craft, utility landing craft, surface-to-air missiles (SAMs), and Stinger missiles obtained from Cambodia and the Afghan Mujahideen. It became evident that the government had little choice but to enter a second set of peace talks in 2001, as the Tigers had the upper hand with a Sea Fleet equipped with Mirage-class gunboats and anti-aircraft capabilities. The Sri Lankan Navy had to join forces with the Indian Navy to cut off LTTE logistical supplies.
The most harrowing account of Murali’s life was his surrender to the Sri Lankan military forces, where he was tortured, beaten nightly by the Sri Lankan military police, and injected with a truth serum, which had direct impacts on his mental health. It provides a contradictory account of the treatment of POWs by the LTTE and the Sri Lankan government. Kagusthan was not captured by the Sri Lankan forces, unlike Ajith Boyagoda, whom 05 claims was treated humanely, in contrast to how he himself was treated despite his voluntary surrender. He worked with the Sri Lankan security services, including the Directorate of Military Intelligence, becoming a crucial asset in efforts to destroy the LTTE. Without the crucial information provided by 05 to the Sri Lankan military, they might not have gained an edge over the LTTE to recapture the Jaffna Peninsula through Operation Riviresa between 1995–1996. During this period, numerous atrocities were committed by Sri Lankan soldiers, including the brutal gang rape and murder of Tamil schoolgirl Krishanthy Kumaraswamy and massacres of the civilian population in Chemmani, Kaithady, and Navatkuli (pg. 161–162).
September 1997 marked Murali’s escape from the hellish life he had lived in Sri Lanka after being forced to work with the enemies of his enemies. By this time, he had suffered severe mental trauma through numerous threats to his life, degrading treatment by the Sri Lankan forces, and being forced to identify the dead bodies of former comrades. The incriminating evidence of Rajiv Gandhi’s murder eventually reached Shri B. Raman, then an Additional Secretary of the Cabinet Secretariat of the Government of India and head of the counterterrorism division of the RAW, who aided Murali’s escape to Canada. Throughout his youth, he lived in fear for his family, who were threatened with being taken hostage by the LTTE and subsequently by Sri Lankan security forces. Everything he had done until then had been driven by love and filial piety. Upon arriving in Montreal, he served as an informant to the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) to help proscribe the LTTE and its foreign elements, such as the World Tamil Movement (WTM), from importing violence into Canada. Certain elements within Sri Lankan intelligence still exerted control over his life, compelling him to spy on the Tamil diaspora against his conscience. He reflected that his own path to freedom from both the LTTE and state persecution was only possible by escaping to live safely in Canada. This prompted him to support the refugees who arrived on the MV Ocean Lady and MV Sun Sea in 2009 and 2010. Murali did his part to atone for the crimes in which he had been complicit against Tamils. He joined forces with David Poopalapillai of the Canadian Tamil Congress and Toronto based immigration lawyer Barbara Jackman to file an affidavit against a “professor” hired by the CBSA as an expert witness. A 106-page report of this expert’s cross-examination subsequently led to the CBSA losing its case against the Tamil boat people, who were allowed to stay in Canada (pg. 186).
Kagusthan’s story is not yet over, as he is determined to continue working toward the justice he seeks for his people who suffered throughout the civil war. He appeals for the ban on the publication of this report to be lifted so that the Canadian Centre for International Justice can carry out a detailed investigation into the 700 people indiscriminately murdered between 1996–1997 in Kankesanthurai, Sri Lanka.
Nathasha Fernando is a junior fellow of the South Asia Democratic Forum. She recommends this book as a valuable source for military schools, training establishments of security forces and security practitioners worldwide due to its insider accounts of both non-state and state security operations.
[i] The Palestinian Liberation Organization was a national liberation movement that emerged in the 1960s for self-determination of the Palestine. They have engaged in acts of terrorism including suicide attacks which the LTTE drew inspiration from. The RAW is the Indian intelligence wing which had a lengthy and controversial involvement with the LTTE and the Sri Lankan government throughout the civil war. India was among the first countries to officially recognize the authority of PLO in 1974. Ariaratnam’s account testifies that the RAW initiated a link between PLO and Tigers upon the request of LTTE leader Prabhakaran to train Tiger cadres in guerilla warfare.
[ii] Sun Tzu was a Chinese military strategist who wrote “The Art of War”. Che Guevara was a Cuban revolutionary leader who supported Fidel Castro to overthrow Batista in 1959 through a guerilla war. Mao Tse Tung was the Chinese communist leader who founded the People’s Republic of China in1949. Vo Nguyen Giap was the commander of the Vietnam People’s Army and was leading the Viet Minh resistance during the Japanese occupation of Vietnam. Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military general and strategist who fought the Napoleonic Wars between 1803 – 1815. Subhash Chandra Bose was an Indian freedom fighter who led the Indian National Army during the Independence struggle. Ariaratnam in his book also explains the sophisticated training received at the LTTE’s Gaddafi base where Thinesh Master encouraged the Military Intelligence Wing to read books such as “By Way of Deception” by Claire Hoy and Victor Ostrovsky and “The Eye of the Needle” by Ken Follett. Through Mathavan Master, the LTTE trainees learned about Gestapo which was Nazi Germany’s military police that gathered intelligence to exterminate Jews, the Shin Bet intelligence wing of Israel which focused on counterintelligence and internal security, and the SDECE of France. The Service de Documentation Extérieure et de Contre-Espionnage operated from 1944 to 1982 which specialized in guerilla intelligence gathering.
Natasha Fernando
Nathasha Fernando is currently a PhD candidate in études du religieux contemporain (contemporary religious studies) at Université de Sherbrooke (University of Sherbrooke) in Quebec Canada. She is based in Montreal city undertaking a study on the evolution of the discourse of terrorism, victimhood and reconciliation in Sri Lanka and among its diaspora in Canada. Her current PhD research focus is on the intersection of memory politics and mass incidents of violence. Her research interests span terrorism and political violence with an emphasis on religio-political discourse. Her academic objectives are to develop area studies expertise focused on South Asia. She has full professional proficiency in English, Sinhala and French. Her articles are catalogued at MuckRuck (https://muckrack.com/nathasha-fernando-1) and ORCID (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0606-7893).