LTTE in the doldrums after Navy blasts weapons ships

One of four pillars sustaining Tigers crumbling:

HEAVY BLOW TO LTTE: The existence of the LTTE, according to analysts, depends on four major pillars supported by financial, arms procurement, propaganda, diplomatic and political networks maintained by the Tiger hierarchy.

The collapse of any of these pillars puts them in an unbalanced situation, thus heralding the disintegration of the organisation. If any effort made to banish the LTTE, considered to be the most ruthless terror organisation, there should be direct focus on these four pillars that ensures on its existence.

If any nation or any organisation is willing to see an end to the terror activities of the LTTE, there should be a compulsion on their part to remove these pillars.

That was the appeal the Sri Lankan State made to the international community over the past few years to eliminate those pillars that strongly supported the LTTE to continue their unlimited terror acts.

One of the main pillars, the international arms procurement network of the LTTE run by Kumaran Pathmanathan (KP), faced severe blows at the hands of the Sri Lankan Navy for the past few months, specially within last 18 months.

The arrest of the second in command of the KP Department of the LTTE in Indonesia last year and the exposure of the LTTE arms smuggling network by the FBI were some of the major breakthroughs.

Dealing a severe blow to the KP Department of the LTTE, the Navy recorded its biggest victory in its 56 year history on March 18, having succeeded in their months long effort to track down Tiger ships smuggling arms to the country.

Never in its history had the Navy been able to destroy two enemy ships within one day and three ships within three weeks.

According to Navy Commander Wasantha Karannagoda it was due to their commitment and dedication to collect intelligence on the LTTE arms smuggling network that resulted in these successes.

The intelligence reports indicated that two ships were heading towards Sri Lankan territorial waters with huge stocks of arms and ammunition. The Navy was determined to track the unknown ships.

The Navy made use of its maximum resources to gain the upper hand, using four Offshore Petrol Vessels, Sagara, Suranimala, Samudura and Sayura.

Two of these OPVs left the Colombo Port on March 15, three days before the incident and entered the high seas in the Eastern coast in the sea off Kalmunai and kept alert on any suspicious craft heading towards Sri Lanka.

The other two OPVs also left Colombo on March 16 and headed in the same direction in search of the suspicious ships heading towards Sri Lanka.

The two OPVs that left Colombo on March 16 had the first clue about the suspicious LTTE ship as the echo was traced in the radars of the ship around 2.30 am on March 17.

Navy Commander Vice Admiral Karannagoda, Director General (Operations) Commodore Susith Weerasekera and Director Naval Operations Captain S.S. Ranasinghe gathered at the Operations Room of the Navy Headquarters in Colombo as they got information about the suspicious ship.

The Operations Room gave clear instructions to the ship Captains to keep an eye on the ship till first light the next day until they get a clear view of the ship so that they can make sure they have not got the wrong target.

As the sun cast its rays on the ships on March 18 morning the Operations room instructed the ship Captains to communicate with the ship through channel 16, since it was not carrying any flag.

They talked to the ship through the International Maritime Radio Communication Channel (Channel 16) around 7 a.m.

The Navy asked the IMO registration number (International Maritime Organization registration number), the last port of call, next port of call and details of the crew members of the ship.

It took only a few minutes for the officials at the Operations Room to find that the information given by the suspicious ship was not true as they did not tally with the Lloyds Registry.

As Navy got confirmation that they have tracked the LTTE ship correctly the ship started to move towards the Western coast and the Navy fired warning shots across the bow and challenged the ship.

As the ship started fleeing without heeding the Navy orders, the Navy fired over the bow of the ship as they got confirmation that it was the exact ship they were looking for as the length of the ship and its colour corresponded with the intelligence reports.

The Navy came to this conclusion, not because they were suspicious of the ship but they could verify they were attacking the exact ship transporting arms to the LTTE through the intelligence gathered throughout the past six months.

As the ship came under Navy fire, there was a big explosion within the ship and it sank in the 4,000 meters deep sea 195 nautical miles South East of Arugam Bay without leaving any clue.

While the drama was unfolding in the Exclusive Economic Zone in the South East of Arugam Bay, the other two ships that left Colombo on March 15 detected another ship around 20 Kilometres west of the first ship around 6.30 am.

The Operations Room of the Navy Headquarters was alerted about this ship too. The Navy talked to the ship through Channel 16. As the details given by the ship were proved wrong the Navy engaged the ship with their guns and the ship was sunk around 12.45 pm with short explosions inside the ship.

It has now been revealed that the first ship had transported parts of three light aircraft, surface to air missiles, torpedoes, radars, night vision equipment, GPS units and outboard motors to be delivered to Wanni.

The Navy believe that the two ships have come from Indonesia carrying war like items to be moved towards the Southern coast of Sri Lanka mingling with the ships sailing on the international shipping route that runs close to the Southern coast of the country.

Instead of their earlier practice of unloading these ships close to the coast of Mullaitivu, the LTTE has opted to unload the shiploads of arms and ammunition to fishing trawlers or small ships after stationing the mother ship in international waters close to the Southern part of the country.

They then transfer the arms and ammunition to small boats so that they could afford to lose one or two boats once they are detected by the Navy in the Sri Lankan territorial waters.

The Navy had these successes as they dared to go into the deep sea and trace these suspicious ships rather than waiting to detect boats transporting smaller consignments of arms and ammunition.

According to information, the Navy destroyed arms and ammunition valued at US$ 25 million as the two ships were transporting nearly 2,500 metric tonnes of such items.

The LTTE which is already undergoing severe shortage of ammunition will see the consequences of the loss of these two ships in the coming weeks in face of the military operations carry out in the East.