And now, an LTTE plot to attack Trincomalee Port is bared

Yet, his amateurish conduct was in marked contrast to the rough and tumble life of a hard core guerrilla. In early October this year, Sivakaran walked into a house at Sea View Road in the Trincomalee town area. He thrust a letter on a Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) letterhead before Rajanathan Nagarajah and demanded Rs. 10,000.

Naval craft at a jetty in the Naval HQ in Trincomalee

Mr. Nagarajah, Principal of Vigneswara College in Trincomalee, pleaded he did not have that much money. But Sivakaran insisted on a contribution. He was forced to part with Rs. 5,000, the only money that was left for living expenses. The episode should have ended there.

But, in an act totally uncharacteristic of a senior LTTE cadre, Sivakaran went to the same household again on October 23. This time, he demanded the Nagarajah household come up with another Rs. 5,000 thus making up the Rs. 10,000 he had demanded on behalf of the LTTE. Whilst Mr. Nagarajah kept chatting with the Sea Tiger cadre, a member of the household slipped out unobtrusively and telephoned the Police.

Sivakaran was caught by surprise when a posse of policemen swooped down on the house. Before they could bundle him into a jeep for a ride to the Police Station, a body check revealed a pistol and a cyanide capsule, both trade marks of cadres who infiltrate and operate in areas under Government control.

But detailed interrogation at the police station showed Sivakaran was no ordinary Sea Tiger cadre, on a clumsy spree to extort money from the public. Even if his stupidity gave him away, he was on an important mission for the LTTE.

Eastern Naval Area Headquarters in Trincomalee

Having successfully carried out an attack on the Sri Lanka Air Force base and the adjoining Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) at Katunayake, they were now making plans for a devastating attack on the Trincomalee Port, or the Dockyard, home for the Sri Lanka Navy's Eastern Naval Area headquarters.

If the SLAF base at Katunayake is the largest in the country from where aerial attacks on guerrilla targets are being carried out, the international airport has remained the only one in the country that serves as Sri Lanka's link to the outside world. Similarly, the Trincomalee Port has remained extremely vital, both for military and civilian purposes, since the Government regained control of the Jaffna peninsula in December 1995.

Barring a small percentage of Police, military personnel and supplies that are transported to the peninsula by air, the bulk of troops and logistical requirements are moved from the Trincomalee Port to Kankesanturai Port in the Jaffna peninsula. In addition, civilian movements including those under the aegis of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), as well as all essential cargo for civilians in Jaffna, are moved out from Trincomalee.

The Government was forced to depend increasingly on the Trincomalee Port after security forces efforts to open a land based supply route to Jaffna failed. Beginning May 1997, troops launched "Operation Jaya Sikurui," (Victory Assured) to secure a stretch of land not under its control between Nochchimodai (Vavuniya) and Kilinochchi. The 34 month long offensive, the worst in the history of the 18 year long separatist war, was called off in view of the colossal losses of men and material suffered.

Though with hesitance, Sivakaran has been telling his Police interrogators details of how he has been conducting surveillance inside the high security Naval installation at the Dockyard. He had obtained video footage and sent them to his boss, Sea Tiger Leader Soosai and to LTTE intelligence wing leader Pottu Amman. This was easy since a serving Navy officer helped him.

Men from the Police Department's intelligence arm, the Special Branch, under directions from DIG (East-Trincomalee) C.L. Ratnayake, are yet to unravel the fuller details. But the picture they have been able to piece together so far, firstly from interrogating Sivakaran, and later others taken into custody, brings out some startling disclosures.

Sivakaran had befriended the brother-in-law of a leading Tamil businessman in Trincomalee. His construction firm had been carrying out some building work for the Navy in the Dockyard.

Commander of the Navy Vice Admiral Daya Sandagiri says this construction firm turned out to be the lowest bidder when tenders were called for civil construction works in the Naval Dockyard. Hence, the award was made to it.

Whilst work was being carried out, Sivakaran had obtained an introduction to Ponnaraja Ramanarajah, Project Engineer of the construction firm. Using forged identity papers, he is alleged to have travelled not only to the work sites but also to security sensitive areas.

Helping him in this task has been Chief Petty Officer Charles Thambiraja Satkunarajah, a retired Navy officer who has been re-employed at the Eastern Naval Area Headquarters on a pay and pension basis. Police have found that CPO Satkunarajah had provided information on security procedures including location of sentry points and how change of guards are carried out. He has also given fuller details of where the Navy's fleet of Fast Attack Craft and other vessels are located. He had given them the distance from the main gate to such areas. The Navy officer is now in Police custody.

Another key figure in the plot, an LTTE cadre described as Kannan, had gone missing after Sivakaran's arrest. It has now been confirmed that he was killed in a confrontation in the seas off Foul Point between a Navy team and a guerrilla group transporting goods.

Kannan is said to have introduced Paramajothi Parameswaran, the owner of a communications centre and pharmacy in Trincomalee. Parameswaran is alleged to have played a pivotal role collecting information from CPO Satkunarajah using facilities at the communications centre. He is said to be thereafter passing down the information to Sivakaran. After Parameswaran's arrest, Police officials at Trincomalee say, there had been calls from Navy officials who had tried to secure his release.

In addition to the Navy Officer, the pharmacist-cum-communications centre operator and Project Engineer of the construction firm, two others are also in Police custody. They are a Grama Niladhari who allegedly issued some forged documents and another who had helped Sivakaran with a forged birth certificate to obtain an identity card.

The attack on the Eastern Naval Area Headquarters was to be carried out by first exploding an explosive laden Hi-ace van, similar to one used by the Navy, before the main guard room at the entrance. The explosives were to be packed like cartons of biscuits and brought to the area. This was to obviate any checks that may be conducted en route to the main entrance from a secret location on the outskirts of the town.

With the explosion, three to four truck loads of guerrillas wearing Navy uniforms were to enter through the main gate and go for targets assigned to them. For this purpose, the guerrillas had obtained trucks and had converted them to look like Navy vehicles. Simultaneously, 20 boats carrying Sea Tiger cadres including suicide groups were to attack several positions. This was to include jetties where Naval vessels were berthed. Plans had also been afoot to seize Dvora attack craft and take them away

and to seize Powder Island, a small island outside the Trincomalee Port, and use it as a staging area to fire mortars towards Naval positions.

After officers from Navy Headquarters interviewed the suspects, immediate counter measures have been brought into effect. Last Tuesday, Navy Commander Vice Admiral Sandagiri told a conference of area commanders and directors held at the Navy Headquarters, that threats to the Trincomalee Port were so real that several urgent measures were necessary to prevent any attempts by guerrillas.

Since Wednesday, for four consecutive days, Eastern Area Naval Headquarters in Trincomalee, has been on a high level of alert. The move followed intelligence reports that the guerrillas were bent on attacking Naval targets including the Dockyard in Trincomalee. This was notwithstanding the fact that the LTTE was observing "Heroes Week" since last Tuesday (November 20). In the past, the guerrillas have refrained from carrying out attacks during the week.

But Navy officials say Sea Tiger cadres made attempts to draw them into a confrontation near Kalpitiya (western area) on Wednesday. A group of more than 40 cadres had been spotted hiding in a land area. Ahead of them in the sea, a floating dinghy had given the impression that some fishermen were in distress. When three fishing craft went closer to the dinghy, they were fired at. One fisherman was killed. By the time the Naval craft moved into the area, the guerrillas had withdrawn. The Naval unit at Kalpitiya too has been placed on high alert.

The LTTE has observed "Heroes Week" since 1982, when its first guerrilla cadre, "Lt. Shanker," died from injuries he suffered due to Army gunfire following a round up in the Jaffna peninsula. In LTTE dominated areas, the occasion is marked with religious observances and other events.

Next Tuesday's "Heroes Week" speech by Mr. Prabhakaran comes after his 47th birthday.

Last year, in his address, he declared that his organisation is prepared for "unconditional peace talks with the Government" but insisted on a "process of de-escalation of war and the creation of a conducive climate of goodwill and normalcy in the Tamil homeland to facilitate the talks."

Pointing out that the Norwegian Government had "suggested positive proposals as confidence building goodwill measures to be mutually reciprocated by the parties in conflict that would facilitate the process of de-escalation leading to cessation of hostilities."

The Norwegian initiatives remain stalemated, since early this year, though the Government has suspended major offensive military operations including aerial attacks on land based targets.

In this backdrop, what Mr. Prabhakaran would say becomes a crucial question.

If one is to hazard a guess, he would undoubtedly place the blame on President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga and her People's Alliance for the break down of the peace process. More so with President Kumaratunga's pronouncement at an election rally in Hanguranketa early this week that she would fight the LTTE to a finish.

But a subject which is of much more concern for Mr. Prabhakaran would be the reactions of the international community to the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York and the Pentagon in Washington - events that have hardened the US resolve to fight terrorism and forced other countries to follow suit. It was only two weeks ago that Canada followed suit in banning the LTTE.

Mr. Prabhakaran will no doubt take great pains to appeal to the international community not to treat "liberation movements like the LTTE" as terrorist organisations.

If his "Heroes Week" address on Tuesday will spell out the LTTE's latest position in the 18 year long separatist war, voters who go to the polls on December 5 would also grant a fresh mandate to a Government that would have to continue to talk peace and wage war. If one does not succeed, the other would have to logically follow.