LTTE desperately in need of morale booster

The LTTE is desperately in need of a morale booster. The events unfolded during the past one and half years were unbearable for the outfit which has a ruthless terror record over the past three decades with a huge international network unbelievable to international giants who launched a massive war against terrorism.

The 9/11 event was an eye opener to the globe as it hit the heart of world giant Uncle Sam by terror outfit Al Quaeda led by Ossama Bin Laden though the global community ignored the LTTE attack on Katunayake international airport on July 24, 2001.

The entire globe was not aware that Al Quaeda too were the followers of the LTTE which has been categorised as the most ruthless terror outfit in the world.

Though there are no specific and categorical evidence to say that there is direct link between the LTTE and the Al Quaeda, there is ample evidence to prove that the LTTE was spreading their terror tactics to the entire globe.

Recently, renowned international defence magazine, the Jane's Defence Intelligence Review revealed that the LTTE funds its bloody terrorist war against Sri Lanka with a sophisticated fundraising mechanism that earns "some USD 200 to 300 million a year".

Fund-raising

The magazine described the LTTE as one of the most sophisticated insurgencies in the world" mainly due to its "complex global network of financial resources and weapons," that are being used to strengthen its campaign against Sri Lanka.

Therefore, it clearly describes the complexity this small nation is facing in its efforts of countering the terror activities of the LTTE, that has become a cancerous menace not only to this small nation but also to the entire globe.

The Jane's Defence Intelligence Review also highlights that the main motivation for the LTTE in its fundraising campaign is to procure an anti- aircraft arsenal.

The rationale behind the LTTE thinking can be understood with the threat posed to the LTTE in the North and East by the Sri Lankan Air Force during the past one and half years.

Therefore, it is obvious that the crack down of Tiger terror activities in the North and East and also in the South is not enough to stop the terror activities of the Tiger outfit. There should be a global campaign against the LTTE terror activities if the country needs to bring fruitful results to counter LTTE terror campaign.

The ground troops, during the past one and half years did a tremendous job in cracking down the LTTE terror activities in the country.

The capture of the entire Eastern province was the climax of their efforts in the Eastern theatre. Now they have shifted their focus towards Wanni not to launch massive military operations but to neutralise the LTTE capability to launch terror activities against the Security Forces and the civilians.

Even in the South the Security Forces and the Police achieved tremendous progress in securing the South especially Colombo from terror attacks after breaking the Tiger cells in Colombo and other parts of the country.

This has been praised by the Indian government when the Sri Lankan delegation had in-depth discussions with the Indian authorities regarding the security in the region, specially connected to the LTTE terrorism.

Adding more weight to the efforts taken by defence authorities the Sri Lanka Navy recorded yet another victory this week against the LTTE arms smuggling.

SLN biggest achievement

That goes down in the history of the Sri Lanka Navy as the biggest achievement they made in its history having destroyed 3 LTTE arms smuggling vessels 24 hours apart after a massive deep sea operation in the South Eastern international seas.

The for Off Shore Patrol Vessels, Sayura, Suranimala, Samudura and Shakthi along with the two non commissioned logistic careers A-520 and A -521 is due to arrive in Trincomalee harbour on Monday morning after completing their mission in the deep seas more than 1200 Kilo Metres away from Dondra Head. The Navy is due to have a traditional Ceremonial Reception of Men of War by according a salute to the Naval officers and sailors on board the six vessels as they enter the harbour.

In fact, it is not a ceremony to be organised only by the Sri Lanka Navy but also by the entire nation to express its deep gratitude towards these heroic sailors who triumphed far away from Sri Lankan soil, against LTTE terrorism.

Though the sailors are little distanced from the common masses compared to the ground troops, they too are doing an exemplary service to the nations effort to crack down terrorism not only on the Sri Lankan soil but also in other parts of the world too.

It was not an easy task to go such along way in the international waters to detect and destroy LTTE vessels. A single mistake would definitely be a disaster for the entire nation as it would completely change the reputation of the Navy.

But the Navy this time got definite information about the Tiger warehouses floating in the deep seas. Otherwise, this won't be a successful operation. The Navy did deep analysis of the Tiger sea movements for nearly two years prior to the launch of this type of risky operation in international waters, though they have the mandate to operate in international waters in search of LTTE logistic vessels.

Though at the initial stages the LTTE used to bring in their arms smuggling vessels to the territorial waters of Sri Lanka to be unloaded on to small boats, they had to abandon this method with Navy action to patrol the Eastern seas to nab suspicious arms smuggling vessels. With the sinking of few vessels in the Eastern seas especially close to Mullaitivu, the LTTE shifted their activities to the Southern seas and unloaded arms and ammunitions into small fishing trawlers and then to small boats to be transported to uncleared areas.

To facilitate these movements the LTTE even shifted their Sea Tiger communication centre to Silavatura, in the South of Mannar which was liberated two weeks back by the ground troops.

However, the Navy was able to apprehend and destroy many of the fishing trawlers which were transporting arms and ammunition to the LTTE held areas after they were unloaded to Fibre Glass Dinghies. During the year 2006 alone the Navy was able to destroy 10 such fishing trawlers depriving more than 10,000 artillery rounds to the LTTE as they were sunk by the Navy in Naval fire. Then the LTTE changed their tactics as they were aware that it was detrimental for them to transport arms and ammunition in their own fishing trawlers and used to hijack Indian fishing trawlers to be used for their activities.

Hijack fishing trawler

This situation led to a stormy period for Sri Lanka Navy, as the Tamil Nadu politicians pointed accusing finger at the Sri Lanka Navy for killing Indian fishermen.

The hijack of fishing trawler Maria and some fishing boats and the killing of some Indian fishermen developed into a serious situation since there was no evidence to prove the innocence of the Sri Lanka Navy.

But Indian authorities were aware that the LTTE was responsible for all these incidents and it was proved beyond any doubt with the apprehension of fishing trawler 'Mariya' and another two Vallams with six LTTEers and six Indian fishermen on board on April 11.

However, the Sri Lankan authorities were not a given chance to interrogate any of the LTTE cadres on board the trawler though it was confirmed 150 artillery rounds were inside the trawler when they detected the LTTE cadres.

But, things turned in Sri Lanka's favour when Maldivian Defence Maldivian Coast Guard apprehended and sunk the Indian registered fishing trawler 'Sri Krishna' on March 17 and arrested a few LTTE cadres alive as they tried to escape from the sinking vessel.

The ship was hijacked by the LTTE on April 12 along with Indian fishermen and had used it to smuggle arms and ammunition unloaded from the floating ware houses operating in international waters.

The detection of the fishing trawler helped the Navy not only to clear its name but also to get more information about the LTTE arms smuggling racket in the high seas with the Maldivian authorities giving the nod for the Navy team to interrogate the LTTE cadres captured by the Maldivian Coast Guard.

During this interrogation, Tiger cadres captured alive divulged that they have boarded the vessels in the deep seas to unload weapons to their fishing trawlers.

Through these interrogations Navy could visualize the images of the ships operating in the deep seas with the help of the intelligence reports received from other sources.

They too have stated how they were briefed by Thyagan the fourth in Command of the Sea Tigers at a meeting held in Silavatura early this year. According to intelligence they received there had been 29,000 rounds of artillery inside ships they had visited. They too divulged that a bullet proof vehicle for LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran, two torpedoes for Sea Tigers and speed boat were also on board the vessels.

With such definite information in hand Navy Commander Vice Admiral Wasantha Karannagoda prepared to launch massive operation to apprehend these ships.

Secrecy was maintained at its highest level prior to launching these operations and the OPVs were sent to seas as if they were deployed on normal patrolling in the southern seas. The six vessels were divided into two task forces and were instructed search different areas.

First, they searched within Exclusive Economic Zone and then proceeded into international waters as they saw no clue about any ship.

Though Sri Lanka Navy was not fully equipped with blue water capabilities (capability to operate in international waters as part of their activities on daily basis) the Navy handled the situation to keep the vessels in the international water for weeks by refuelling them whilst they were in international waters.

Picture visualised

The OPV from the Task Force on Monday morning had blips on its radars and further closed in on the suspected vessel after comparing the vessel with the picture visualised by them.

By that time they have gone beyond 600 NM (1,200 Km from the coast) as they tracked the ship Manyoshi and got confirmation that the ship was not flying any flag or having a port of registry.

Navy officials contacted the ship over the International Maritime Frequency Channel 16 in English and Tamil and challenged the ship according to internationally accepted maritime laws since there was no response from the ship. At 7.30 a.m. the ship fired at the Naval vessels and the Navy vessel too returned the fire. Due to Naval fire the vessel started to explode and completely sunk around 11 am.

The first ship 'Manyoshi' was around 45 metres in length and had the capacity to transport 800 to 1,000 metric tonnes.

The parts of the three aircraft in dismantled form were on board this vessel, according to the Tiger cadres who had visited the ship several time.

As the Task Force 1 completed their first mission the vessels from Task Force 2 detected another ship some 40 NM away from the location of the first ship around 5 p.m on the same day. After confirming that it too was a rogue ship which they were searching for, Naval officials contacted the ship through the international maritime frequency to identify it but the ship directed fire at the Navy using small arms.

The Navy fired at the ship at 6.30 p.m. and the ship was sunk around 8 p.m. As the second ship 'Sheishin' sank Task Force 1 which completed their first mission detected the third ship 50 to 60 Nautical Miles away from the second ship around 8 p.m.

Once the Navy contacted the ship, it began to flee and the Navy gave chase for nearly eight hours amidst 120 mm mortar fire directed at the Navy vessel from the fleeing vessel. That was the first time the LTTE fired at a Naval vessel using 120 mm mortar in the high seas.

Last ship escapes

However, the Navy ship could destroy the third vessel identified as 'Koshia' around 3.30 a.m on Tuesday morning.

The third ship was relatively bigger than the other two ships - 75 metres long and it was capable of transporting 1,500 Metric Tonnes at once. The names given to these ships were the original names of the ships according to the Lloyds Registry and the LTTE had changed these names on several occasions.

It was after the Navy destroyed the third ship the news was leaked to the media.

Navy Commander Vice Admiral Wasantha Karannagoda himself attended the press briefing at the Media Centre for National Security to give full details of the Navy operation. However, the Navy believes that the forth and the last ship available with the LTTE escaped from the scene.

With this severe blow on the Sea Tiger wing the LTTE made another desperate attempt on Thursday evening by launching nearly 20 boats to the sea for an unknown mission from Mullaitivu.

According to analysts, in the backdrop of this setback the Tiger leadership would have given instructions to the Sea Tiger cadres to create any form of destruction to the Navy to boost the morale of the LTTE.But fortune was not with them this time too.

The Navy and also the Sri Lanka Air Force got the news in time and launched a retaliatory attack compelling LTTE to abandon their unknown mission and flee towards land.

Many boats were damaged as Kfirs, MiGs and MI 24 helicopters launched massive assault on the fleeing boats along with the Navy bringing their morale boosting operation to a grinding halt.