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The mystery weapons ship in the high seas

If increasing hopes of peace added to the relief of a tension free holiday season, alarm bells rang in a section of the country's defence establishment on Friday night.

That was after a VVIP, out on an official visit to a provincial capital, is said to have urgently telephoned a Service Chief to ascertain whether the Indian Navy had surrounded a shipload of weapons in international waters. He is learnt to have denied any knowledge of such a development.

However, his subsequent interaction with his own chain of command and other unfolding events that night has laid bare a million-dollar puzzle.

Was the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) bringing in a ship-load of weaponry to international waters south east of Sri Lanka and attempting to unload them into smaller barges to be smuggled inland ? Was the Indian Navy trailing such a ship in international waters ? Was the Sri Lanka Navy aware of the move and had it been planning to intercept the ship when it entered the country's territorial waters ?

These are among several questions to which all the answers will not be known. The LTTE, and even the Government that is ready to react in their defence, may deny there was any such move.

Even the Navy may say they made no close contact with any suspected ship on Friday night or the preceding nights.

The Sunday Times learnt from well-informed diplomatic channels that the Indian Navy in international waters had, in fact, located a ship suspected of carrying weaponry and fuel over 100 nautical miles north east of Mullaitivu.

They had, however, not intercepted the vessel thus keeping to international law. According to one source, they had, however, established the identity of the vessel as one operated by the LTTE though this could not be confirmed.

The same source claimed that fuel and some cargo, suspected to be ammunition, had been dumped overboard after the ship's crew suspected they were being tailed. It is not clear whether some cargo had earlier been unloaded to barges.

Thereafter the ship in question is said to have travelled deeper into international waters in an easterly direction. This too, however, cannot be independently confirmed.

The Indian Navy or Coast Guard operating in the seas off India have been increasingly reticent to board or intercept suspected vessels in international waters, particularly after an incident in the Indian Ocean on January 16, 1993. On this occasion, an Indian Coast Guard ship intercepted the LTTE vessel M.V. Ahat (original name M.V. Yahat and changed to Ahat with the obliteration of the letter Y during the voyage) suspected of carrying a load of weapons.

In a gun battle that ensued after the ship had refused to obey orders of the Coast Guard, one time LTTE "Commander" for Jaffna peninsula, Sathasivam Krishnakumar alias Kittu, a close confidante of guerrilla leader Velupillai Prabhakaran and colleagues were killed. The captain and remaining crew members were taken into custody.

In a long drawn legal battle that followed after the Captain and crew were charged, the Indian Supreme Court held that the Coast Guard interception of the vessel was illegal since it had been carried out in international waters. The Court ordered that the Captain and crew be released.

Sri Lanka Navy Headquarters in Colombo also received news of the mystery vessel loaded with weaponry from their Indian counterparts on Thursday night. They swung into action.

They sought the help of the Sri Lanka Air Force. The SLAF deployed their radar equipped Beechcraft surveillance aircraft to scour the seas. Following a mission to the seas off the south coast, once regarded as a smuggling route for Tiger guerrillas, they spotted a vessel. Later, the Western Naval Area headquarters in Colombo (located adjacent to the Colombo Port) tasked SLNS Suranimala, the one time Israeli Fast Missile Vessel (FMV) on a reconnaissance mission to the south. They later reported that the vessel spotted was a merchant ship.

The Eastern Naval Area Headquarters in Trincomalee deployed 12 Dvora Fast Attack Craft to scour the north-eastern seas off Point Pedro in the north to Vakarai in the east.

The FACs reported encountering several merchant vessels but there was no trace of the suspected weapons ship, they told Eastern Naval Area Headquarters. It was dawn when the search operation was called off.

The mystery behind the latest weapons ship may not unravel itself in full. But the dangers such suspected vessels portend to national security interests was amply highlighted by Friday night's episode. The message was clear - the Sri Lanka Navy is not geared anymore to cope with threats posed by vessels that may smuggle weapons into the country.

And none other than its Commander, Vice Admiral Daya Sandagiri, has been reflecting this problem to the Ministry of Defence regularly. But top bureaucrats at the Ministry, including its Secretary Austin Fernando, are fully pre-occupied with the peace process. Hence, the Navy's requirements for urgently needed spares for its fleet, new equipment and material are not longer items of priority placed on the fast track.

The operational capability of the Sri Lanka Navy, The Sunday Times learnt, is far below fifty per cent. Most of the fleet are said to be non-operational due to either non-availability of spares or because the equipment on board had become antiquated. Financial allocations for replacements have been slow in view of the ongoing peace process with arguments adduced that operational requirements were not urgent now.

With a limited deep-sea capability, the Navy has recently examined the possibility of purchasing two vessels from the US Coast Guard. The Navy's Director of Operations, Vasantha Karannagoda and Commander, Western Naval Area Rear Admiral Daya Dharmapriya, during a visit to the US.

Besides operational problems, factional in-fighting has also been a severe constraint to Naval efficiency in the past many months. Commendably Defence Minister Tilak Marapana, has personally intervened to resolve matters.

One of the knotty problems he had been forced to sort out is a blunder by his own Ministry Secretary Austin Fernando. A Sunday newspaper ran a story that Navy Chief Vice Admiral Sandagiri had complained of allegations of corruption against his own deputy, Chief of Staff Vice Admiral Mohan Wijewickrema and three other senior officers. When the latter group made representations on the matter to Mr. Fernando, he had asked them to go to the same newspaper and counter the allegations - an action which they carried out.

Mr. Fernando's official response raised an important question - whether Navy officers were answerable to the Defence Ministry and through it to a Government or a newspaper. The response by the officers led to a controversy that is now being fought in the Court of Appeal.

The Sunday Times reliably learns that Minister Marapana has moved in to settle matters. The move may see changes in postings of senior Navy officers including those who were considered as the major irritants who were responsible for the in-fighting. On his part, Vice Admiral Sandagiri is said to be willing to forget the past and turn a new leaf with his men.

With these good tidings during a season of cheer, he will still need the goods. Until the UNF leaders appreciate the urgency, the anxiety of Vice Admiral Sandagiri and his men will remain.

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