Sea Tiger clash, a sequel to EU ban
 

War and Peace - The Defence Diary By Ranga Jayasuriya

If the European Union was encouraged by the remarks of Donald Camp, the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of the State of South and Central Asian affairs who said the Tigers deserved the terrorist tag, the real catalyst of the EU's move to ban the LTTE is of LTTE's own making. That is last week's sea Tiger attempt on the Navy passenger ferry, Pearl Cruiser and the subsequent sea battle.

Of course, a formal listing of the LTTE as a terrorist organisation has long been on the cards of the EU. The EU travel ban on the Tiger leadership announced September last year following the assassination of the former Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar was only the prelude to the formal ban.

But what brought the EU policy makers to their heels was the sea Tiger attack which highlighted not only the movement's disregard to the ceasefire agreement, but also the extent of the threat it could pose to the maritime security. Soon after the attack on the Navy ferry, the EU came out strongly and said that the LTTE have committed gross violations of the ceasefire violations at sea in recent days.

A ban on the LTTE is now under "active consideration" by the 25- nation European Union, as announced by the EU presidency in Sri Lanka, Royal Netherlands Embassy in an official announcement.

If the ban on the LTTE is a diplomatic setback for the Tigers, the sea Tiger attack proved to be fatalistic to the LTTE in casualties, both cadres and collateral. Hence the calm in the Northern seas since the sea battle last week. For the first time in several months, no movement of the sea Tigers were intercepted by the Navy. Even the coastal waters off Mullaitivu, which is the main staging theatre of the sea tigers, whose main bases are believed to be in Chilaw were calm and no notable presence of the sea Tigers were seen.

Such an absence is contrary to rhetoric by the sea Tiger Chief Thillayampalan Sivanesan better known as Soosai who only last week beat war drums that the sea Tigers would not relinquish their "sovereign rights to sea".

However, the understanding of the Naval officers is that the Tigers need some time to patch up the damage - five sea Tiger boats were destroyed in the battle, four by the Dvora gunboats and one by the air force and nearly 50 sea Tigers perished in the Navy retaliation. However, apart from the bravery and courage of the sailors, 17 of them including an army signalman made the ultimate sacrifice to save the passenger carrier with 710 soldiers aboard. What has been highlighted by the abortive sea Tiger attack was the inadequacies of the Navy's weapon systems. One such long-felt requirement is fitting the Navy FACs with 30 mm long range guns. This need has been highlighted since 2000, but, it had been delayed and the irregularities of the tender has forced the Navy commander Vice Admiral Wasantha Karannagoda to call for new tenders for procurement of 30 mm guns.

Former Navy Chief Admiral Daya Sandagiri who is at present the Chief of Defence Staff faces a Presidential inquiry into the alleged tender to purchase 20-year-old- guns, which are to be removed by Royal Navy declaring them as brand new and making an initial payment running into millions of dollars. It was former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga who once famously stated, had the Navy done its duty, the LTTE would have been starved of weapons.

But, she like most other politicians did not comprehend that the Navy as well as the other branches of the security forces function with limited resources. Given the extent of waters it has to patrol, the Navy requires 10-12 Offshore Patrol Craft (OPC) and its fleet of Dvora FAC need to be increased, according to Naval officers. But, the number of OPC in the Navy fleet is extremely limited.

Investment on the security forces is an investment on the national security. The question however is to avoid crocked officials, both civil and military pilfering millions from transactions related to defence purchases.

Meanwhile, truce monitors have now forwarded to the government and the LTTE two letters outlining safety requirements of the naval monitors if they are to resume sea monitoring activities. The requirements the government has been asked to fulfill are mainly of the nature of the technical arrangements related to the safety of the truce monitors. Sources close to the handling of the peace process said the government had no problem with taking additional safety measures for the naval monitors.

However, the brunt of the issue lies with the LTTE. The Tigers had been asked to guarantee the security of the naval monitors aboard the Navy gunboats. The Tigers are tight-lipped over the issue.

The naval monitors of the Sri Lankan Monitoring Mission met the Head of the Mission, Gen Ulf Henricsson early this week to discuss modalities to resume sea monitoring activities. This came in the wake of the suspension of sea monitoring last week after the third and final warning was issued to the SLMM by the LTTE against going aboard Navy patrol craft.

The attack on the Pearl Cruiser which had a naval monitor aboard one of the four Dvora in the escort that had another monitor came just hours after the final warning of the LTTE, which threatened the monitors could continue sea monitoring at their own peril. The sea battle and the LTTE threats on the lives of the truce monitors has made the second round of Geneva meeting a distant possibility at this point. Despite initial optimism that the government's offer of a seaplane would end the impasse over the transport of the LTTE Eastern commanders to the Wanni, the Tigers remain tight-lipped over the offer.

The Tigers have also turned down a request by a technical evaluation team of the Srilankan AirLines to visit the Wanni to identify possible landing sites. An evaluation of the landing site by a technical team is a requirement under civil aviation regulation.

As signals from the Wanni indicate the Tigers are likely to add more demands to be met if they are to go to Geneva. Among them are the withdrawal of the troops from schools and churches, dismantling of the high security zones and end to "civilian killings".

Though the sea remained calm at least in the time being, the low intensity war on the ground continues unabated. The LTTE attacked the Nagar Kovil Forward Defence Line of the security forces yesterday morning for the third day within a week.

The LTTE cadres attacked the FDL for an hour from 8 to 9 using Rocket Propel Grenades, Tombo guns and mortars. The security forces retaliated with small arms fire and heavy artillery. No casualties occurred to the army and the casualties of the LTTE are not known. This is the third attack on the Nagar Kovil FDL within a week. The Tigers first attacked the FDL on Tuesday with RPGs and mortars. When the security forces retaliated with heavy artillery, the Tigers sent a message to the army that the attack was a mistake on the LTTE's part and requested an end to the security force's bombardment. 55 division commander, Major General Sanath Karunaratne who was a one-time military spokesman, the former Director Operations of the peace secretariat, decided to cease the artillery barrage for five minutes to see the LTTE response. The Tigers halted fire and the battle which lasted for 15 minutes ended.

Four soldiers were injured in the incident. Initial LTTE transmissions said four Tiger cadres were injured. Later the LTTE said one female cadre was killed in the attack. On Thursday, another brief exchange of fire took place on the same FDL.

The Nagar Kovil FDL remains to be one thorny issue since the ceasefire agreement. The distance between the FDLs of the security forces and the LTTE in other parts of the North is at least 800 meters. This measurement is based on the effective range of Type 56 (T 56) assault rife, which is the standard weapon of both parties. But the security forces and the LTTE were so close to each other in Nagar Kovil when the truce agreement signed, that the parties, due to practical reasons agreed to maintain the distance of 600 meters. Since then there are allegations that the Tigers have gradually been encroaching the no mans land, by systematically building bunkers beyond its FDL. The truce monitors once suggested a mutual pull back by both parties to make sure a distance of 800 meters, which was rejected by the then Defence Secretary Cyril Herath, who demanded unilateral pull back of the LTTE to its original location.

On the other end of the security forces FDL in Muhamalai, two special forces commandos, including a lieutenant were shot dead in an ambush by the LTTE on Friday morning in Kalmadu. In another attack on a bunker on the night of the previous day, one soldier of the Gemunu Regiment was killed. Pro-LTTE Tamilnet has, however, described these attacks on the FDL bunkers as Tiger retaliations to the security force's attacks on LTTE bunkers on its side of the FDL.

Meanwhile, intelligence sources have confirmed that a light aircraft has been seen in the air above Iranamadu for 30 minutes. However, the aircraft was not intercepted by the radars of the Air Force. The LTTE is believed to have two or three two seater micro light aircraft, which can be used in a suicide mission against military or economic target.

Meanwhile, the Air Force is planning to purchase four MIG 27 fighter jets for its MIG Squadron to replace four fighter jets which are to be sent to Ukraine for overhaul repairs.

Incorrect reporting is bound to cause mental trauma for parties affected by it. Last week, some media reports said an employee of the military hospital is believed to have helped the female suicide cadre to enter the Army Head quarters premises. However, the said employee was also killed in the blast, they added.

Though it did not name the official, that information was enough to identify him among the circles who knew him. But, according to CID investigations, the said employee who is an army corporal was innocent and indeed was another victim of the suicide blast. But, damage caused to his reputation, even after his death was devastating and his wife, still railing over the death of her husband had one more blow. She complained to the CID officers who are conducting the investigation. She suspected the CID officers had leaked wrong information. But the officers could only tell her they were innocent too and they did not know anything about it. One even suggested her to go to the Press Complaints Commission. We, however, are not certain whether she had done that.