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| Sunday, 13 June 2004 |
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Navy objects to Tiger sea movement by Ranga Jayasuriya The LTTE yesterday abandoned a scheduled sea movement following intense protest from the Navy with the Naval Commander Vice Admiral Daya Sandagiri ordering his troops to intervene if the Tigers go ahead despite Navy warnings. The Tigers on Friday night requested permission to ferry 90 cadres on Saturday (12) from the LTTE held areas in the North to the East in three vessels and keep the vessels in the East till June 15, when the vessels were to leave for Mulaitivu with 20 cadres on board. The Navy insisted that the boats should leave within 24 hours of the arrival adding that presence of the LTTE cadres and boats for a protracted time could harm the security situation in the East in the backdrop of the on-going factional war between Karuna and Prabhakaran. Earlier in 2002, the Government and the LTTE sealed a deal enabling the LTTE to ferry its cadres between the North and the East on the LTTE boats escorted by Navy gunboats. Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission Deputy head Hagruph Haukland, however, claimed the Navy had acted contrary to the agreement in refusing permission to the LTTE sea movement. The agreement on sea movements of the LTTE cadres requires the LTTE to inform the government's peace secretariat 48 hours prior to the proposed journey. It, however, does not have a limit on the period the LTTE can keep boats in the East, which the Navy has cited as the reason to refuse permission. Haukland said a furious Thamilselvam told the SLMM that "Navy's additional conditions may force the LTTE to do sea business as it was before the signing of the ceasefire agreement". However, a senior Naval commander said the LTTE had no reason to ferry its cadres between the East and the North as the Tigers could use the land routes escorted by the Army and the SLMM. The Navy Commander has ordered the Naval forces to intervene if the Tigers went ahead with the sea movement, pointing to article 1.3 of the Ceasefire Agreement which permits the Security Forces to continue in their task of safeguarding the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the country. SLMM Deputy Chief Haukland said the Tigers later decided to abandon plans for the sea journey. "The sea movement was postponed and they (LTTE) will come up with a new travel plan," he said. |
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