By our Military Analyst
The detection and destruction of an LTTE ship - coded Sea Bird - off the coast of Mullaitivu by the Sri Lanka Air Force reduced the LTTE fleet of six ships by one.
This is the second LTTE ship to be destroyed since MV Ahat carrying a former Jaffna commander Satasivam Krishnakumar alias Colonel Kittu (highest ranking LTTE leader to be killed) was confronted by the Indian navy bordering the Indian territorial waters four years ago.
Although the Indians as well as the LTTE made the details of the crew and the cadres on board known, the details of the cargo of Ahat that blew up remains a secret. The cargo of the "Sea Bird" destroyed off Mullaitivu will continue to remain a secret. The names of the rank and file will be announced shortly.
The ocean going ships of the LTTE are not a part of the LTTE Sea Tigers under the command of Soosai, the one time Vadamarachchi leader and bodyguard of Prabhakaran. They are under the command of Kumaran Padmanathan alias K.P. who is also in charge of procurement for the LTTE. Until the "Sea Bird" was destroyed, the LTTE had six ships. Most of them were registered in the flag giver countries known as "pan-ho-lib", Panama, Liberia and Honduras are some of them. To register in these countries, it is relatively inexpensive than registering in Britain, France or Germany.
Until about early last year the LTTE ships travelled in Europe, Africa and Asia but they did not have the ability to reach the Americas, either through the Pacific or Atlantic. But recent reports indicate that the LTTE ships are now cruising in the waters of Latin America.
After the LTTE lost its vital base in India, it has shifted its main operational base to Twante, an island off Myanmar (Burma). Although Myanmar is a part of South East Asia, the LTTE regards the base in Myanmar as its main South Asian headquarters for deep sea operations. The LTTE made the contacts with some corrupt officers of the Myanmar junta just before the induction of the IPKF in July 1987. In 1988 itself, the Indian intelligence spotted an LTTE ship by the name of Illiyana in the Rangoon Harbour. Despite strict instructions to monitor and destroy the vessel, Indian surveillance vessels lost Illiyana a few miles away from the Rangoon harbour.
Subsequently, it was known that while the IPKF was fighting the LTTE, Illiyana had unloaded weapons to LTTE boats off the coast of Mullaitivu, sometime in late 1988.
Although, it is difficult for any organisation to operate deep sea going vessels without detection, the LTTE has gained tremendous experience of maintaining a fully fledged fleet with the latest equipment, from satellite phones to echosounders. The LTTE gained its fight insight to sea vessels in 1984, when Prabhakaran, who was based in Madras ordered Shankar to build a ship.
V. Soranalingam alias Shankar is an aircraft and marine engineer. This double engineer, qualified in Canada, is a native of Vavuniya, but had schooled and lived in Colombo until the riots of July 1983. Shankar, built the first LTTE vessel called "Kadalpura."
The LTTE had even before that transported weapons from foreign countries to India, where it had its logistics and operational bases until early 1987. But it had chartered vessels. There were difficulties of continuing to charter vessels and by 1985, the LTTE made the first move to purchase a vessel. As it was not a big vessel, Kadalpura had only the "shore scratching" capability.
By 1990, the LTTE fleet's finest vessel was Yahata. When Yahata was nearing the Indian waters, the first and the last letter of Yahata was painted off, primarily to deceive any agency monitoring the movement of vessels. With the 'Y' and the 'A' painted off, the vessel was known as Ahat.
Soon after Ahat was destroyed, the LTTE bought another vessel, but began to develop its Air Force once again under the direction of Shankar in Sri Lanka and KP overseas. This was primarily to beat the demoralization that that had set in.
The LTTE ships are difficult to keep track of because they continue to change the names of the vessels. The past names used by the LTTE are - Golden Bird, Yelicia, Sweene and Pethiya. The vessel Golden Bird once detected and detained by the Malaysian authorities.
The owning company of the LTTE ships is referred to as the Point Pedro Shipping Corporation.
The LTTE ships transport not only weapons but also general cargo ranging from fertilizer, cement, sugar, flour and timber.
Timber transport is mostly out of Myanmar. Most of the time the LTTE ships are used for transporting general cargo.
The LTTE uses both civilian and LTTE crew. While the civilian crew receive payment, the LTTE crew renders its services free of charge like any other LTTE cadre.
It is also known that the LTTE employs foreigners to work on board LTTE ships. They include some Western as well as African nationals. However, the vessels that engage in transporting armaments restrict their crew and passengers to Sri Lankan Tamil cadres of the LTTE.
An LTTE shipment that received some publicity was the shipment of 50 tons of TNT and 10 tons of RDX from Ukraine on board Sweene. It is believed that it was these explosives that was used to blow up the Central Bank and also to arm the lorry that was recently discovered parked in the premises of a Buddhist temple.
The detection and destruction of the "Sea Bird" off Mullativu is a blow to the LTTE but a blow from which it can recover. It is like the destruction of Sri Lankan naval vessels from time to time.
The fact that international waters continue to be used by LTTE type organisations calls for the international community to call for the mooting of an international naval police. Sri Lanka can take the initiative in this regard.