by Ramani Kangaraarachchi

The Naval vessel 'Sayura' was on a routine patrol in the high seas of Mullaitivu on March 10.when the drama began around 3.00 a.m. The crew had observed a suspicious vessel, 185 nautical miles off Mullaitivu, since the vessel did not carry a flag or name, the Navy had tried to communicate with the ship through the international maritime communications channel, but the responses received had been misleading and vague.

The Navy had then ordered the vessel to stop in order to satisfy itself that there was no serious threat to national security. However, the suspicious vessel had ignored the naval command and attempted to escape, violating the Maritime Law.

At this stage the Navy had fired a warning shot at the vessel, receiving return fire that caused damage to its bridge and four crew members. Then the navy, retaliating in self defence, had opened fire at the approaching vessel causing it to go up in flames taking the lives of 11 crew members. Several small boats had appeared on the radar believing that the Sri Lanka Navy was to unload cargo from the burning vessel. The navy, it was later revealed had fired at the vessel, purely on suspicion, unaware that it belonged to the LTTE. The SLMM confirmed that the LTTE had admitted it was an LTTE merchant vessel, Naval sources claimed.

The drama was over by 10.30 a.m. and the matter was brought to the notice of the high command, where investigations began.

The LTTE had expressed serious concern that the ship had been sunk in international waters. This was denied by the Navy.

The head of monitoring mission Triggve Teleffsen met the Navy Commander on board the 'Sayura on Friday and had a lengthy discussion on matters not covered originally in the MoU relevant to sea operations. The Navy Chief, Vice Admiral, Ananda Sandagiri expressed his concern about the role of the Navy and the Sovereignty and integrity of the country at this meeting. The SLMM team also had discussion with the Captain and the crew of the ship.

Meanwhile, reliable intelligence sources revealed, that the last embarkation port of the LTTE vessel was Indonesia, and that it had carried a large stock of arms and ammunition, collected from all over the world. It also added that the ship was constructed in Cambodia, weighed 660 tonnes and was 70 metre in length, and that it was a LTTE registered vessel. The LTTE has so far not declared the names of their cadres killed in the attack other than that of the Captain of the vessel "Vijeyan.

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LTTE condemns sinking of merchant vessel

The leadership of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam condemned the sinking by the Sri Lanka Navy of an LTTE merchant vessel in international waters, 220 nautical miles off Trincomalee, today. In a letter to the Sri Lankan Defence Minister Tilak Marapana, the head of the LTTE's Political Wing, S. P. Tamilselvan, condemned the attack in which eleven LTTE cadres were killed as "a grave violation of the ceasefire agreement", a press release stated.

Tamilselvan further stated "We wish to emphasize that this grave incident will have far reaching implications for the peace process," and asked the Defence Minister to convey the LTTE's "deep displeasure" to the Sri Lanka Government, the release added. Extracts of the letter:

"We consider the incident a grave violation of the ceasefire agreement as our vessel was not involved in any illegal action. Furthermore, the incident occurred in international waters beyond the jurisdiction of the Sri Lanka Navy. Our merchant vessel was intercepted and attacked without provocation. We contacted the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) when the incident began and registered a complaint. The head of the SLMM, Maj. Gen. Tryggve Tellefsen, observed that the authority of the Sri Lanka Navy does not extend into the international waters where the incident was taking place and assured us that he would use his good offices to prevent any confrontation.".

"Eleven of our cadres, including the ship's captain, were killed when the vessel caught fire and sank after being attacked by the Sri Lanka Navy. We wish to emphasize that this grave incident will have far reaching implications for the peace process.

We also wish to point out that, despite the ceasefire agreement, the Sri Lanka Navy has been involved in several deliberate and provocative acts against the LTTE for some time. Please convey our deep displeasure over these matters to your government, it stated.

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SLMM report today

by Ananth Palakidnar

The Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission which has conducted its own investigations into the incident in Mullaitivu will release its report today SLMM media spokesman Teitur Torkelsson said .

Elaborating on the incident, Tokelsson said: " The Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission was first informed by the Director of the Peace Secretariat in Colombo , Bernard Gunatilleke, Monday around 10 am. Soon after information was received we contacted the LTTE office in Kilinochchi. But they were not aware of the incident. Later around 12 pm on the same day the LTTE contacted us and confirmed the attack on their ship.

When the incident took place the, Naval vessel SLN `Sayura' which engaged in the attack was not carrying any SLMM representative aboard . The SLMM has two naval monitoring units, one is in Trincomalee and the other in Jaffna. We believe that the navy should have contacted us when they first spotted the LTTE vessel. But we were informed about the whole thing when the attack was over.

The SLMM chief Major General Tryggve Tellefsen along with other senior officials of the mission visited the LTTE office in Kilinochchi on Wednesday and met the theoretician of the organisation Dr. Anton Balasingam and its political wing leader S.P. Tamilselvan and obtained their views on the LTTE vessel. They claimed that it was a cargo vessel but they were not clear about its movements.

On Friday the SLMM chief in Colombo and viewed a Navy video film of the attack on the LTTE vessel. The tape which was of a 12 minute duration showed the LTTE vessel and the attack, but not the name of the ship or the flag which should have been carried. Therefore we have requested the navy to provide the SLMM with a video filming of the entire scenario which began with the spotting of the vessel.

The Navy Commander Admiral, Daya Sandagiri has submitted the report of the navy on the incident to the SLMM chief and it is currently being studied .

The SLMM also inspected the naval vessel SLN `Sayura' which is anchored at the naval harbour in Colombo. The marks of the gun shots fired at SLN Sayura from the LTTE vessel were also found and the weapons would have been most probably the lighter ones," Torkelsson said.

The SLMM report on the incident, which according to Tokelsson is expected contain suggestions on preventing any major incident of ceasefire violations in the future.