International

Weapons seized from three LTTE boats

By Nirupama Subramanian

COLOMBO APRIL 25 . Rocket-launchers, machine guns and grenades were among the arms and ammunition found in three LTTE boats apprehended by the Sri Lankan Navy off the eastern coast of Trincomalee on Wednesday. The Government, which has complained that the movement of these boats and their cargo constituted a ceasefire violation by the LTTE, is awaiting a verdict on the incident from the Norwegian-led Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), officials said.

One of the three boats was a logistics or supply boat, while the other two were attack craft. The boats were found carrying rocket-propelled grenades, machine guns, assault rifles, grenades, sniper weapons, mortars and several boxes of ammunition concealed under plastic sheeting. There were 40 LTTE cadres in the three boats including the leader of the LTTE sea wing, Thikkam. They offered no resistance to the Sri Lankan Navy, which stopped them eight nautical miles south of Trincomalee.

The incident, which took place as the ceasefire entered its third month, was the first time the February truce accord was tested at sea. When the agreement was being drafted, in the light of the LTTE's continued weapons acquisition activities, the Government had wanted a specific clause that would give its Navy the right to intercept LTTE boats. Such a clause did not find place in the final agreement, but the Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, gave an assurance that the Sri Lankan armed forces retained the right to protect the country's territorial integrity and the right to intercept illegal movement of arms by land or sea. As the first close call for the ceasefire was being played out in the high seas, Navy officials on the scene were in constant touch with the high command in Colombo and Defence Ministry officials throughout the two hours that it lasted. Later, the Navy handed over the boats, the passengers and the cargo to the ceasefire monitors based in Trincomalee. It is learnt that the SLMM arranged for the safe passage of the LTTE cadres to a point on the Batticaloa coast, further south. Officials said they were expecting a ruling by the SLMM on the incident on Friday.

Meanwhile, pressure is growing on the monitoring mission to act on civilian complaints against the LTTE, especially in the eastern districts of Batticaloa and Ampara. The SLMM recently said it had received only one complaint that could be deemed a ceasefire violation. But a newly formed group, calling itself the Batticaloa-Ampara Civil Liberties Association (BACLA), has written to the SLMM and to the Norwegian Ambassador in Sri Lanka complaining that the LTTE was continuing its extortion activities unabated in the region. "The LTTE says that the Tamil people who have not paid any money for several years because they were living in Government areas in the past must now pay their dues with penalties for not paying earlier," the complaint, which was reproduced in the daily Island today, said. According to BACLA, the LTTE, which earlier sent extortion notes from areas in Batticaloa controlled by it, was now sending its cadres directly to people's homes in Government areas to threaten them or issue summons.

Under the ceasefire agreement, the LTTE has been allowed to open a political office in the Government-controlled areas of Batticaloa and Ampara. According to BACLA, this has enabled LTTE cadres to move about freely and spread dread among civilians across the two districts. Unable to fight, people are striking deals with it to pay up. Those who refuse are abducted and held till their family members pay the ransom demanded.

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