Situation Report

Tiger tsunami on the tarmac
Lanka in defence deal with Iran
Marines will stay on as long as Lanka needs them, says US commander

A Pakistani Navy doctor examines a patient at their Field Hospital in Ahangama.

The aftermath of the tsunami catastrophe continues to preoccupy the nation. With the help of a number of governments, a gigantic effort is now under way to reconstruct the colossal damage caused and rehabilitate the areas affected.

Amidst this hectic activity, there was disturbing news this week for those in the upper echelons of the country's defence establishment. Last Wednesday, an Israeli-built Searcher Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) was scouring the skies over Tiger-guerrilla controlled Wanni. Controllers at the Command Centre in Vavuniya were surprised to see an aircraft on the ground. It was on the newly-built airstrip east of the Iranamadu irrigation tank.

The Sunday Times (Situation Report - December 12, 2004) exclusively revealed the existence of this newly built airstrip in Kilinochchi, the heartland of guerrilla territory. A satellite image of this obtained by The Sunday Times and published together with this report came as clear proof that it had been newly built. Air Force aerial reconnaissance had revealed that this new airstrip is 1,250 metres long - good enough even for a Hercules C-130 aircraft to land with a full load of cargo.

The Air Force believes a building North West of the runway is a hangar. Aerial reconnaissance also showed that runway markings had been completed. The runway headings have been given as 23 diagonal 05. Interestingly, this new airstrip is located in close proximity to an old airstrip which the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) was developing several years ago, also in Kilinochchi.

After a land area was cleared, and work went ahead, the Air Force ran a series of sorties to bomb the area. Several craters pockmarked the cleared land stretch. The LTTE had later abandoned it. Senior Defence officials believe a new airstrip took shape during the period of the Ceasefire Agreement between the Government and the LTTE which will be three years old next month.

A play of the video footage obtained by the UAV during Wednesday's sorties shows a single propeller driven aircraft. It is said to resemble a six-seater. If this was disturbing enough, there was more on Thursday night. The Searcher was again on a run over the Wanni skies. Its infrared cameras picked up thermal images of another single propeller driven aircraft on the ground.

The video material had made clear this light aircraft, though similar in size to the previous one, was not the same. There were features that were different. Hence, during this week, for the first time, the Air Force had spotted two light aircraft on ground in guerrilla-held territory.

A foreign military service now engaged in relief and rehabilitation activities has also reported on the presence of aircraft in guerrilla dominated territory.

Thus it became the first time the Ministry of Defence received conclusive evidence of the presence of fixed wing aircraft. Earlier, following the discovery of the airstrip, the Secretary General of the Peace Secretariat, Jayantha Dhanapala, wrote a strong letter of protest to the Norwegian Embassy in Colombo (with copy to the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission). This was to express the Government's displeasure over the construction of the airstrip whilst the ceasefire was in force.

The question baffling defence authorities is whether the two aircraft had been acquired by the LTTE. If not, whom did it belong to and how did they enter Sri Lankan airspace without the knowledge of the Air Traffic Controllers (Colombo Control) or Colombo Radar. Whilst the former's zone covers 60 nautical miles from both Katunayake and Ratmalana airports, the Colombo radar has coverage of over 200 nautical miles. This coverage is monitored from installations atop the Pidurutalagala mountain. Did they take advantage of the increase in air traffic when foreign military teams began using aircraft and helicopters in relief and rehabilitation efforts? Or were these aircraft assembled by the guerrillas?

Finding answers to these and many other baffling questions ahead of a formal Government response has now fallen in the hands of the state intelligence agencies, which went through an overhaul this week. The Army's former Chief of Staff, Major General Chula Seneviratne, who retired last month, was this week appointed as Chief of National Intelligence (CNI).

In this capacity, all state intelligence agencies - the Directorate of Internal Intelligence (DII), the Special Branch and the intelligence arms of the armed forces - will all come under the charge of Maj.Gen. (retd.) Seneviratne.

The news of the presence of aircraft in guerrilla-controlled area comes as the Government readied to enhance the preparedness of the armed forces notwithstanding the tsunami catastrophe. A high-powered military delegation left for the Iranian capital of Teheran to conclude a defence deal, one in which Sri Lanka will procure military hardware and oil on concessionary terms. The deal is said to be worth over US $ 150 million. The broader outlines of such a deal were finalised during a visit to Iran by President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga in November last year.

The high-powered military delegation is led by Army Commander Lt. Gen. Shantha Kottegoda and comprises Chief of Staff of the Navy, Rear Admiral Mohan Wijewickrema and Director, Aeronautical Engineering of the Air Force. Air Vice Marshal Lal Perera. Other members of the delegation are: Army - Brigadier Nimal Jayasuriya, a one time Director (Operations) and now officiating General Officer Commanding (GOC) of 52 Division in Jaffna (Thenmaratchchi). Navy: Director, Naval Engineering Commodore D.N. Dharmaweera, Director, Naval Electrical and Electronics Commodore J.C. Hettigama and Commanding Officer, SLNS Uttara base in Kankesanthurai, Captain K.D. Nanayakkara. Also in the delegation is D.L. Wimalasena, Accountant in the Ministry of Defence.

Air Force: Group captain Rohan Pathirage Commanding Offcer, Air Force Electronic and Engineering Wing, Ratmalana. The delegation is to take a look at the wide variety of military hardware available. The Army has identified its requirements after a delegation visited Iran earlier. The Navy and the Air Force will check on requirements. Thereafter the tri services procurements are to be incorporated in an agreement.

This is the first time the Government is turning to Iran for procuring a broader variety of military hardware on a government-to-government basis. A similar deal was finalised last month with China.

Moves to enhance military preparedness comes at a time when several foreign governments have sent in military teams to help in the relief and rehabilitation efforts. The Sri Lanka map on this page gives an idea of their deployment throughout the country.

Last Tuesday, I joined the Pakistan Navy's air arm on a tour of tsunami-ravaged areas in the South. The first wave of men, material and relief from Pakistan arrived at the Colombo Port in two vessels. PNS Moawin, a fleet auxiliary ship was loaded with medical supplies and was escorted by PNS Khaiber, a guided missile destroyer.

Take off was in a Sea King (Anti Submarine Warfare) helicopter from the deck of PNS Moawin. I was in the company of Commodore Ehsan Saeed, Mission Commander and Col. Wajid Choudhury, Defence Attache for Pakistan in Sri Lanka.

Forty-five minutes later, we were at the Sariputta Maha Vidyalaya in Ahangama. Thirty-eight Pakistan Marines and Navy personnel are running a 50-bed field hospital on the school grounds. Men from the Pakistan Navy's Medical Corps had pitched rows of tents. Each housed a ward, like for example for surgery and childcare. There was also an operating theatre and a pathology lab.

Residents in the area had formed queues outside these wards. Inside, seated on school benches and desks, doctors were prescribing medicine. Dost Mohamed Huduz, the Squadron Commander says that an average of 800 to 900 patients were being treated daily. Although there were 50 beds in two wards, there had been only three admissions. He says most patients were being treated for chest ailments, fever, hypertension and skin diseases. In addition, there were also children with complaints of various types of infection.

Three minor operations were carried out in the well-equipped operation theatre inside a tent. Besides this medical team, a Pakistan Army 50-man engineering unit is due to start relief work in Hambantota.

Squadron Commander Dost said Pakistan offered a team of divers but their services were not required. He said the local population "was extremely supportive" and operations in Ahangama would end in "two to three days." Thereafter, the medical team will travel to Aceh, Indonesia.

But one of the biggest foreign military relief and rehabilitation operations is being carried out by the United States. The nerve centre for their activity is some upper floor rooms at the Galadari Hotel in Colombo, a popular venue for the media covering the disaster.

There, the senior-most officer responsible, Brigadier General Frank A. Panter of the US Marine Corps explained the multifarious tasks carried out by his men. He is Commanding General of the 3D Force Service Support Group. His men are located in Katunayake, Galle and Colombo.

This week, USS Diluth, part of the US Navy's Expeditionary Strike Group - Five, was anchored in the southern seas off the Air Force Koggala airstrip. A landing craft, capable of carrying 180 tons of equipment, was bringing in heavy machinery to US troops who had pitched camp near one end of the runway. Last Thursday CH-46E Sea Knight helicopters flew out from the ship to carry 20 tons of vegetables from Dambulla to Ampara. Later USS Diluth moved to the eastern waters off Ampara to carry out relief work there before moving out to the Maldives. More US vessels and aircraft are due bringing in urgently needed supplies.

Tomorrow, US Deputy Secretary of Defence, Paul A. Wolfowitz arrives in Colombo to see for himself the efforts under way by his military personnel. Brigadier General Panter had just returned after his daily visit to oversee the work of his men last Thursday evening when I met him. He sat down for a brief interview with The Sunday Times. See box story for excerpts.

Brig. Gen. Panter says the US troops will remain as long as the people of Sri Lanka need them. He said it was difficult to put down a time frame. This was in marked contrast to Indoneisa, the country that recorded the highest death toll and damage from tsunami catastrophe. The Government there has insisted that all foreign aid workers in the Aceh Province register and all foreign troops leave by March 26 - exactly three months after the Boxing Day disaster. The response of the Government is said to be because of Indonesia's sensitiveness to the impression that it was relying too heavily on outside military forces.

The Sunday Times learnt that consideration is now being given at the highest levels of the Government whether the presence of foreign troops on Sri Lankan soil, including United States, should be open ended or not. A policy decision on the matter is likely soon.

Though focused entirely on relief and rehabilitation activity, the varied operations indulged in by the militaries from a number of countries seems to have transformed them into an "international safety net" for the Government. In this respect the role of both India and the United States become significant.

India, the friendly neighbour, was the first to respond magnanimously with both financial and material support. However, the vacuum caused by New Delhi's reluctance to sign the proposed Defence Co-operation Agreement (DCA) seems to have given the United States much greater flexibility in assisting Sri Lanka. In a sense they have overtaken India in this direction.

I asked Brig. Gen. Panter for his response on comments made to a US media outlet by a member of his team, Colonel Thomas Collins, Director of Operations of the US Combined Support Group in Sri Lanka. Col. Collins told the Bloomberg news service "We have to minimize the footprints (in Sri Lanka) because we don't want this to appear to be a military operation."

"There is no need for security forces, we are only a humanitarian mission," he was quoted as saying. In addition Col. Collins had said, "every time we fly in this country we need to have authority from the Sri Lanka Government." He had added that "we will help clear the debris, the roads, distribute food and medicine so they can get back to normal lives.

Brig. Gen. Panter did not agree with the view. "We are controlling the force flow. We don't want to overflow our forces,” he said. He said "we tailored the package" after he and the US Ambassador Jeffrey Lunstead received Government concurrence for "a large concept."

As for air movements, he said, there were no doubt there was air space limitations. "Sri Lankan aviators fly their missions. It's a safety precaution. Our aviators are talking to your aviators. There is a very good bond between them," he pointed out.

Another larger effort is being carried out by Indian troops who are in Galle, Trincomalee, Embilipitiya, Batticaloa, Trincomalee, Ampara, Tangalle and Hikkaduwa. A transformation of the landscape obliterated by the tsunamis has begun. There is a long, long way to go.

Hard to give a time frame, says US Marine Corp chief
US troops will remain as long as the people of Sri Lanka need us, Brigadier General Frank A. Panter of the US Marine Corps told The Sunday Times. He said it was hard to put down a time frame.

Commanding General 3D Force Service Suport Group, Brig. Gen. Panter, is the senior most US officer over seeing his country's military relief and rehabilitation operations.

"It's been amazing. Re-assessment of the situation is being made daily," he said as his troops continued with a variety of relief and rehabilitation programmes. He was shocked to see how much damage had been caused by nature's fury.

He said the US efforts began after a 12-person assessment team, engineers, medical, engineering personnel among them, conducted a full study. Strategic airlifts began thereafter. As it continued, engineering capabilities were enhanced with the arrival of USS Diluth. Two Hercules C-130 helicopters from the US Coast Guard arrived this week with more supplies. There ware 20 to 25 medical projects under way.

Tomorrow a medical team will move to Point Pedro Teaching Hospital in the Jaffna peninsula. They will work with the medical staff there. He praised the Sri Lankan armed forces for the co-operation they were extending to his troops. "We take guidance and direction from the Sri Lanka Government," he said. "It is fascinating to see the spirit of the Sri Lankan people. They are happy something positive is coming out, he added.

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