The LTTE's "police station" at Palugamam, south west of Batticaloa. The name board says "Batticaloa-Amparai' district

Parcels not checked, says Sandagiri
The setting is picturesque. The beach front, surrounded by lush foliage, lay near a firing range. Those lucky enough to swim in the mildly warm waters always want to return. These are only a part of the charm and ambiance that Coral Bay, inside the high security Dockyard in Trincomalee, offers. It is the Headquarters of Sri Lanka Navy's Eastern Naval Area.

The Commander of the Navy, Vice Admiral Daya Sandagiri, the lavish entertainer that he is, laid out the best for Defence Minister Tilak Marapana, that Friday night of November 1. There was a campfire and a barbecue. The music from a Navy calypso band blended harmoniously with the cool dry winds that wafted across. Security men who ringed the Coral Cove area were so relaxed. Some clapped. Others stamped their feet on sea sand. The rhythms were having a soothing effect on them.

It was well past 10 p.m. when news arrived that a Navy patrol operating five nautical miles north west of Foul Point, the promontory that juts into the sea east of Koddiyar Bay - the point where Mahaweli, the country's longest river meets the sea - had apprehended a Tiger guerrilla fibre glass dinghy (FGD).

Vice Admiral Sandagiri, who was told by his officers, conveyed it to Defence Minister Marapana. There was no cause for alarm. There were only some harmless items on board - a generator, an outboard motor and a communication antenna, he explained. Since it was an unauthorised night movement, it was decided to hand over the boat to the Harbour Police and the six Tiger guerrillas on board to the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM). The party continued.

Later Minister Marapana, a guest and Vice Admiral Sandagiri retired to the Navy House - the Navy Commander's official bungalow in the Dockyard, often a holiday rendezvous for Government VIPs. The next morning they had an official engagement - a passing out parade of some 12 Midshipmen who were the 32nd intake. Mr. Marapana was the chief guest.

Whilst the VIP visitors retired to their beds, men at the Operations Room of the Eastern Naval Area headquarters were busy late into the night preparing a signal to Navy Headquarters (NHQ). The detection had been made by Navy patrol craft at approximately 2150 hours (9.50 p.m.) It was a Tiger guerrilla Fibre Glass Dinghy (FGD) and had been "chased and apprehended." At 2.14 a.m. on Saturday (November 2), the signal was despatched to NHQ. Here are excerpts:

"P 187 whilst on routine patrol off Flag Staff with P 164 detected 01 suspicious echo moving towards Foul Point at location 08 degrees 33 Minutes north, 81 degrees 18 Minutes east approximately 2150 hours on 01st November 2002. [Note: the echo is detected on the radar of the Naval craft. It denotes the presence of a vessel or object. Mariners to identify exact locations use degrees and 60 minutes make a degree.]

"Chased, closed up to and stopped the boat. On closing up found 06 personnel on board and the boat was fitted with a 40 HP OBM (out board motor). 01 generator and 01 communication antenna was visible on board. Occupants declared themselves as members of LTTE. SLMM member Mr. Arnstein Hansom informed and transferred to location by P 481. COMNAV (Commander, Navy) and Hon. Minister of Defence presently in station kept informed. Personnel, FGD with OBM and other items handed over to HBR (Harbour) Police for further investigation."

The matter should have ended there but it did not. It was breakfast time on Saturday (November 2) at the Navy House. There was a lavish spread - string hoppers, kiribath, hoppers, fish curry, kiri hodi, katta sambol, pol sambol to mention a few. Minister Marapana, Vice Admiral Sandagiri, Rear Admiral Sarath Ratnakeerthi, Commander Eastern Naval Area, among others, was savouring the delights when a Mess Attendant arrived with a message. There was a telephone call from Colombo for the Hon. Minister of Defence.

Mr. Marapana interrupted his breakfast to answer. It was Defence Secretary Austin Fernando. He told his Minister that the boat detected on Saturday night by the Navy had transported 35 claymore mines - a violation of the February 22 Ceasefire Agreement. Taken completely by surprise over what he had learnt, Mr. Marapana asked Mr. Fernando to check his facts. After all, it was only hours before, during the campfire at Coral Cove, he had been told by the Navy there was nothing incriminating. So how could there be claymore mines now?

Mr. Fernando shot back that it was Police Chief T.E. Anandarajah who had telephoned him to say the Police had detected the claymore mines.

An angry Minister Marapana returned to the breakfast table to ask Vice Admiral Sandagiri to immediately check on the matter. He did not hide his feelings when he remarked that there appeared to be no command and control in the Naval hierarchy. With breakfast over, they moved for the passing out parade.

That is whilst senior Navy officials checked to ascertain what had happened. The Navy handed over the FGD (fibre glass dinghy) with their discovery - a generator, a communication antenna and a 40 horsepower Yamaha outboard motor - to the Harbour Police in Trincomalee. An enterprising policeman did his duty rightly that late hour of the night. He discovered the 35 claymore mines, each capable of blowing up a van, bus or a lorry with its occupants or goods. There were other items too.

The Harbour Police sent Police Headquarters in Colombo the list of items discovered. That was in addition to what the Navy found. It was copied to Navy Headquarters too. This is what the list contained:

"35 Claymore mines, 12 VHF communication sets, one amplifier, four transceivers, two outboard motor fuel leads, nine man-portable handsets (communications equipment), four metres striped camouflage material for uniforms, two sauce pans (enough to cook meals for over 250 persons ), six plastic cans and a photo album."

Six Tiger guerrillas were on board, two of them wearing cyanide capsules tied to cords around their necks. The men were identified as Selvanayagam Sukumar (Mutur), Ehambaram Nava (Mutur), Muthulingam Ramaha Kannan (Kilinochchi), Shanmugam Halawaran (Mutur), Kandasamy Kirubakaran (Mutur) and Arganan Thevan (Mulliyawalai, Wanni). Two of them wore cyanide capsules. The six were produced before a Magistrate who remanded them. The case comes up on November 15.

Two of the men on the FGD have been identified as Black Tiger cadres, the commando equivalent among the guerrillas. In a photo album that was found on the dinghy, a photograph featured one of them, Kirubakaran with LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran.

The dinghy with an outboard motor itself, it has come to light, was one that was seized by the Navy (with three persons and three communications sets) after they rounded up a Sea Tiger flotilla on April 24. This was during an incident that featured a seaplane with Tiger guerrilla Chief Negotiator Anton Balasingham over-flying the area. (Situation Report - May 5) The Navy had kept the dinghy in custody at the town pier in Trincomalee.

Two fishermen had made representations, supported by the Tiger guerrillas that the dinghy belonged to them. When it was decided to hand over the dinghy, the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) in Trincomalee had appealed to the Navy, as a humanitarian gesture, to take it to Sampur and hand it over to the fishermen. This had been done on August 28 in the presence of some guerrillas.

The news of the discovery of claymore mines spread worldwide the following day, Sunday, as Government and Tiger guerrilla leaders sat down for their last round of discussions in Thailand's Rose Garden resort in Nakorn Pathom. Dr. Balasingham declared that action should be taken against the men according to the law. This is the first time the LTTE has taken up such a position since the ceasefire.

At the National Security Council meeting on Tuesday, President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga asked Defence Secretary Austin Fernando whether the claymore mines detected in Trincomalee were meant for Defence Minister Marapana. He said they were not.

Intercepts of radio communications between a Tiger guerrilla base in the North and one in Trincomalee showed the degree of concern the incident drew. The caller from the North asked the latter whether the Navy detection was made "in their waters" or "in our waters." The reply "it was in their waters." The Northern base also sought the identities of the six. When the last name, Arganan Thevan, was mentioned, the caller from the Northern base remarked "that can cause problems." It turned out that Thevan was 16 years old and thus a child soldier.

Vice Admiral Sandagiri, who is already at the eye of a storm that has sharply divided the Navy, appointed a three member Court of Inquiry to find out the events that occurred and why he was not informed. Consequently even the Defence Minister had been kept in the dark. The team headed by Captain G.M. Gunasekera comprised Commander S.S. Ranasinghe and Lt. Cmdr. K.T.D.P.C. Jayapala.

Vice Admiral Sandagiri was embarrassed when questions were raised at Thursday's weekly meeting of service commanders at the Joint Operations Headquarters (JOH). Defence Secretary Austin Fernando, who is the "overlooking" Chief of Defence Staff chaired it. Vice Admiral Sandagiri said the claymore mines and other items had been concealed in two parcels and had therefore missed the attention of his men. This is a serious matter indeed for the question arises whether parcels are not checked. As a result, what had to be detected at sea by the Navy was only detected on land by the Police.

In an apparent bid to mitigate criticism, a senior Navy officer in Trincomalee told The Sunday Times by telephone "it is we who tracked down the boat and made the arrest. We were also there when the Police made the discovery…." He, however, could not explain why the Navy's own patrols had failed to make the detection of claymore mines.

Two days after their appointment, the three-member Court of Inquiry has come up with its report. But that has triggered off another problem. The Committee addressed its report to Rear Admiral Daya Sandagiri and not by his proper rank, Vice Admiral.

Quite understandably, Vice Admiral Sandagiri was infuriated. Even if he did not appoint another Court of Inquiry to court martial, or demote his own officers, who did not address him by his correct rank, he admonished them. Needless to say such action was less harsh compared to punishment meted out by other foreign Navies in similar situations.

That is the state of affairs and the state of preparedness of the Sri Lanka Navy, once a coveted security arm of the state. And the Minister of Defence Tilak Marapana, who was in Trincomalee for a ceremonial passing out parade, as one Navy wag in Trincomalee remarked sardonically, nearly "passed out" when he personally learnt of the sorry state. Last week, the Police helped them out. They were lucky because it came during a ceasefire.

What if it came during war? Like many in the UNF political hierarchy, the Navy top rungs too do not seem to believe there will be one. Hence, there appears to be no concern over the need to be prepared or so it seems !! Not even when Sea Tigers, now a strong naval arm of the LTTE, are reported to be carrying out live firing practices in the north-eastern high seas.