Uncovered: How Israeli Mossad, British MI6, Indian RAW, and Russian KGB silently shaped the course of Sri Lanka’s deadly JVP insurrections. From covert intelligence hubs in Colombo to lethal foreign-funded training camps, this is the story of how global spy networks manipulated a nation’s darkest conflict.
During the second Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) uprising, a covert network of international intelligence agencies embedded themselves deep within Sri Lanka’s internal conflict. By early 1989, the Israeli Mossad began offering military advisory support to help the Sri Lankan state crush the growing rebellion. Mossad’s team reportedly included three individuals, among them a colonel from the Israeli Security Advisory Committee operating locally.
As tensions escalated, other foreign spy outfits joined the fray. The CIA, British MI6, India’s Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), and even the Soviet KGB were active directly or indirectly on Sri Lankan soil. Some even mingled openly with local journalists at embassy events and annual receptions, gathering intelligence under diplomatic cover.
Following the June 7, 1987 JVP-led assaults on Katunayake Air Force Base and Kotelawala Defence College, foreign agencies began ramping up their surveillance and influence. Among them, Mossad had long maintained a presence in Sri Lanka. In the early 1980s, its regional base was the 9th floor of the Oberoi Hotel, Colombo, under the leadership of an agent named Mataniya. Although a Tamil Tiger bombing attempt there in 1984 failed, a civilian hotel maid lost her life.
Mossad later moved its office to Liberty Plaza in Kollupitiya. During the height of the second insurrection, this operation was run by a female operative codenamed “Monica.” The head of Mossad’s advisory unit in Sri Lanka, Colonel “Carlos Levi,” oversaw coordination with local security units.
The explosive revelations of Victor Ostrovsky and Claire Hoy in their book By Way of Deception add more weight. The Israeli agency, they said, didn’t just train Sri Lankan government forces, it also trained Tamil separatist factions like the LTTE and EPRLF. Separated by internal boundaries in training camps, the dual support allowed Mossad to shape both sides of the war, playing a dangerous double game that kept the conflict alive while claiming neutrality.
British involvement wasn’t any less controversial. Journalist Phil Miller’s 2015 research showed that MI6 had also trained Sri Lankan security forces during the JVP’s April 1971 uprising. Israeli intelligence, for its part, secretly provided elite counterinsurgency instruction to high-level Sri Lankan officials, intensifying military suppression during the 1989 rebellion.
By early 1989, Mossad was offering Sri Lankan forces specialized training in guerrilla tactics, interrogation techniques, propaganda deployment, and psychological warfare. These tactics ruthless, systematic, and brutal were used to extract intelligence and dismantle the JVP’s operations. Key leaders were arrested, disappeared, or sent to black-site detention centres under this arrangement.
As international players continued influencing local dynamics, on October 2, 1989, U.S. President George H.W. Bush appointed George V. Creekmore Jr. as his new ambassador to Sri Lanka. Creekmore claimed that while North Korea had allegedly provided documents to the JVP in 1971, no foreign government was backing them in 1989. He also praised President Premadasa’s decision to expel Indian troops from Sri Lanka a bold move that earned mixed reactions from both local and foreign observers.
The Russians were watching too. On July 15, 1989, a delegation led by Moscow journalist Yuri Kulichok toured southern and central provinces. Meeting with JVP leaders like H. B. Herath, military commanders, and local government officials, they probed the JVP’s revolutionary potential. Herath warned that without the party, there was no path to socialism. These discussions were later broadcast by Moscow Radio on August 5, 1989.
Then came the smoking gun from Parliament. On September 21, 1989, UNP MP H.R. Piyarsiri claimed that U.S. Embassy Second Secretary “Meholt” was secretly paying JVP lawyers $5,000 each to represent rebels in legal cases. Meholt had allegedly used diplomatic privileges to escort lawyer Prince Gunasekara from Katunayake Airport in a U.S. embassy vehicle. Gunasekara, later exiled to the UK, became a noted human rights advocate until his death in 2018 at age 94.
British High Commissioner David Gladstone wasn’t spared. After aiding activists like Gunasekara during and after the JVP crackdown, he was accused by President Premadasa of undermining Sri Lankan sovereignty. Gladstone was expelled in 1991, only to later confirm to BBC Sinhala that he acted under UK government orders to protect human rights.
Meanwhile, India’s RAW had its own plans. Its covert operations in Sri Lanka throughout the late ’80s aimed to safeguard Indian interests whenever Sri Lankan decisions diverged. Agents like Gurujit Singh and Hardeep Puri directly handled JVP contacts, meeting frequently with figures such as D.M. Ananda, Somawansa Amarasinghe, and H. B. Herath—coordinated by journalist Richard de Zoysa. The Indian High Commission in Kandy became a hotspot for political maneuvering.
In 1988, RAW allegedly funneled nearly LKR 160 million to political parties and rebel groups. The Sri Lanka Mahajana Party received LKR 80 million, the Muslim Congress LKR 20 million, and the LTTE was paid LKR 52 million—although it later boycotted provincial elections. On May 14, 1989, the JVP retaliated by launching a boycott of Indian goods, demanding Indian businessmen exit Sri Lanka. A landmine explosion on May 12 in Kantalai, blamed on the JVP, killed 13 Indian soldiers.
By September, RAW and the JVP had even negotiated secret arms deals nine tractors full of weapons were to be flown by Indian aircraft to Trincomalee. However, the deal was cancelled after it was exposed on November 9, 1989, by Defence Secretary Sepala Attygalle.
The Hindustan Times later reported that JVP activity waned after Premadasa expelled the Indian army. The newspaper quoted an Indian official stating the Indian army had not operated in Sinhalese-majority areas lending credence to fears that India had indeed aided the JVP’s insurgency in covert fashion.
Meanwhile, internal divisions continued to paralyze the JVP. In October 1989, JVP military commander Saman Piyasiri Fernando met with a Muslim businessman in Maradana to discuss buying arms from the Eastern EPRLF. The talks collapsed due to infighting within the JVP Politburo.
Despite numerous attempts to build foreign alliances during the second uprising, the JVP largely failed. International Marxist organizations viewed the JVP as a Sinhala nationalist movement, not a revolutionary force. Outreach to countries like Cuba, Algeria, and Tunisia bore little fruit. Even Palestinian support failed to materialize.
Nevertheless, in 1985, H.B. Herath and another leader trained in Lebanon under the PLO. Two other JVP groups trained in the Philippines during 1989 and 1995. Notably, the JVP also trained at an LTTE bomb-disposal camp in Kunjikulam, where 16 rebels received specialized instruction reportedly fully paid for by the JVP.
SOURCE :- SRI LANKA GUARDIAN
