War-time Navy Chief Admiral Wasantha Karannagoda yesterday strongly rebutted accusations that there had been a secret detention facility within the Trincomalee naval base during the eelam war IV.
He said that during the war renegade LTTE cadres had been accommodated at the Trinco facility which some interested parties now wanted to portray as a torture chamber. “We didn’t operate torture chambers at the Trinco base or any other command. There was no requirement to do so.”
A substantial number of LTTE dissidents had thrown their weight behind the combined military campaign directed at the LTTE, Karannagoda said, adding that the Navy had no option but to accommodate them in a previously unused building. “We used British-time air raid shelters,” the naval veteran said, alleging that a despicable attempt was being made to bring the war winning military into disrepute.