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The Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) in its report on the Mullaitivu incident said yesterday that it could not make a ruling on the incident since its monitors were not at the scene when the incident took place.

"The SLMM has no proof if the cargo of the LTTE vessel was warlike material like the Government of Sri Lanka has stated, or diesel as the LTTE has stated," the report said.

"If the SLMM had been involved in this incident as an impartial monitor, it would no doubt be in a better position to make a ruling on the behaviour of the Parties and what took place," it added.

The SLMM said its rulings are based on first-hand verification of its monitors and non-contradictory information given by both Parties.

It said the outcome of the incident would have been different, if the monitors had been involved earlier.

"With all this in mind, ruling only one of the Parties to be responsible for this specific incident is not possible," the report said.

The SLMM said its inquiry team had contacted both the Navy and the LTTE for their versions of the event.

"The SLN claims that the information from the LTTE crew on the ship's cargo, registration and crew was characterised by discrepancies," the report said pointing to the Navy version of the incident.

The Navy had also told the SLMM that the vessel did not have a national flag or a visible name on the ship and because it did not follow the SLN orders to stop; The SLN vessel fired warning shots over the bow of the LTTE ship, and subsequently received fire from the LTTE merchant ship.

In interviews with SLMM, LTTE had stated that the ship was a merchant tanker of approximately 700 tons, 8 meters wide and 61 meters long.

The ship was operated by an independent shipping company supporting the LTTE financially.

The ship had a legal cargo of diesel and was sailing in the direction of India, according to the LTTE.

The SLMM said its inquiry team had found around 30 fresh bullet marks on the superstructure and the bridge of the SLN's Sayura involved in the incident.

The SLMM said the video taken by the Navy vessel cannot be considered an "entirely impartial evidence as it was produced by one party to the conflict."

"However, on that video, the front and back of the hull of the LTTE merchant ship can be seen quite clearly. At the time of filming, no flag or name is visible and the same applies to the front of the bridge and the mast of the ship," the report added. The report said the Navy had received intelligence reports confirming the ill- fated LTTE vessel as MV Koimar.

When the SLMM asked why it was not informed of the incident at its outset, the Navy Commander, members of the Eastern Naval Command and the Captain of SLN Sayura had stated that they did not know it was an LTTE vessel but were only informed about a "suspicious gun-running vessel", the report said.

The SLMM however said that this is contradictory to the initial press release from the Defence Ministry and the Navy report on the incident stating that "the SLN received credible information on 09th March that an LTTE vessel carrying warlike material was approaching the Mullaitivu coast".

The SLMM however said "both parties had enough time to inform it and to request it to take immediate actions on this matter before the situation escalated and the actual confrontation took place".

"Regrettably neither party took action to inform the SLMM," the report said adding that it is "disappointing".

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