KAMALIKA PIERIS

Since LTTE was not a lawful army, the weapons had to be smuggled in by sea. LTTE smuggled in weapons, including heavy items,    and other equipment such as power generators, by carrying out mid sea transfers, 200 nautical miles off Sri Lanka. They used special semi submersible submarines, capable of carrying 10 tons of equipment. The goods were then transferred to small ships and subsequently into small fast boats.

In this manner, 130 mm and 152 mm artillery guns were    transported to Sri Lanka by ship and were unloaded mid sea onto barges and brought ashore. The Defence Ministry refused to believe this saying it was impossible; the items were too heavy, reported Kamal Gunaratne.   

An Indian fishing trawler, Sri Krishna, was moving a sizeable consignment of 120 mm heavy mortars, from a ship anchored on the high seas when .it was intercepted by Maldives coastguard and sunk in a confrontation in 2007. An embassy in Colombo is believed to have tried to help the vessel to escape.

The LTTE used Tamilnadu fishing boat fleets, both as cover and a means to smuggle in weapons to Sri Lanka.  They were used as a human shield as well. At one point there was a significant increase in the number of poaching Indian vessels.  To prevent the navy from obstructing the operation India persistently alleged that the Sri Lanka navy was targeting Tamilnadu fish poachers.

 In November 2007a large cluster of Indian trawlers moved almost 10 nautical miles close to LTTE held territory at Vettilaikerni. The navy detained 17 trawlers. President Rajapakse ordered them released after New Delhi intervened.

In 2009, when the war was drawing to a close, the authorities observed that new shipments of military hardware were continuing to reach the LTTE. LTTE had used surface to air missiles against army helicopters. These are new acquisitions, observed the military. A raid inVavuniya in 2009 yielded a stock of brand new grenades, which seemed to have come from a recent shipment.

The LTTE also resorted to trickery to obtain weapons. LTTE had acquired 32400 rounds of mortar bombs from Zimbabwe Defense Industries in 1997 by tricking the ZDI to loading the consignment to one of its vessels, pretending they represented the Sri Lanka government.

LTTE fighting power lay not in military strategy but in its artillery and explosives.  LTTE had at least 30   pieces of heavy artillery including 152 mm, 130mm 122 mm 85 mm and one 120mm mortar. They also had a range of anti aircraft weapons, such as surface to air missiles and mobile antiaircraft guns (peddle guns).

The army found nine mortar launchers of different calibres and improvised multi barrel rocket launchers. LTTE also had battle tanks, armored personnel carriers. LTTE had assault rifles, self loading rifles, light machine guns, sub- machine guns and rocket propelled grenades.

Raja Gooneratne had pointed out in a paper presented to the Board of the Open University that the LTTE had got water scooters, and he got a text message on his mobile threatening him. .some academics had objected to his giving the talk at all.   

Troops have unearthed huge caches of buried arms. A separate LTTE group was appointed to hide things, while another lot did the fighting. Large hauls of arms was   recovered from Mullaitivu, Vakarai, Vishvamadu, Wellamulliwaikal beach, Panichchankerni jungle and Alanchipotha. Forces also recovered over 11,000 T56 assault rifles, 25 artillery guns, main battle tanks and other sophisticated weaponry of the LTTE.

Arms cache was found in Alanchipotha, Welikanda. It was buried by fleeing LTTE cadres inside a sanctuary located 15 km away from Mahaweli River. Assault rifles, T 56, mortar bombs, mortar weapons, RPG bombs, pressure mines, drums, walkie  talkies chargers , walkie talkie parts, remote control device, anti aircraft ammunition, claymore mine and more.

Army recovered an arms cache in Kumana national park, detonators, outboard motor, oil cans, and outboard motor RPG rounds. Also found arms and weapons in Adampan, Alampil, Vishvamadu and Oddusudan areas.

A massive arms cache of sophisticated military hardware was found at Puthumathalan. It contained an improvised armour plated six wheel truck, earth moving backhoe, water scooter and anti aircraft guns.  Two of the guns were mounted on jeeps. One gun was booby trapped with a detonating cord connected to a several feet deep bunker laden with explosives. 

SLAF recovered t w caches of arms from Pudukuduirippu  with the assistance of LTTE cadres, they included ammunition, mortar bombs, mortar smoke bombs, air craft bombs, RPG bombs, hand grenades, fuses, mortars, pressure witches, pressure releases, instantiation fuses, explosives,  claymore mines, anti tank mines, smoke  bombs,  rocket bombs, gunpowder.

Ammunition was found in three kovils in Kayts and Kokkkadicholai. 175 artillery rounds were found buried at Kanagarayankulam.

These unending recoveries by the military indicate the magnitude of the LTTE operation. Each and every square km in Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu district had been turned into armouries. The total amount of weapons is unbelievable. Much still remains to be recovered. These could not have been only for Sri Lanka. 

LTTE also depended heavily on explosives, including improvised ones. STF unearthed large quantity of explosive in Iranamadu. Claymore mines and 87 other varieties of bombs and ammo. Caches of antipersonnel mines were also found. One contained 18,000–20,000 mines.. A cache of 1093 mines was found at Govipal Aru area in Ampara.   Troops found six boats laden with 996 kilos of explosives at Puthukkudiyiruppu,  1004 kilograms of C4 plastic explosives   at Mollikulam,  over 80 varieties of bombs at Iranamadu  and two other stocks of explosives, elsewhere, weighing 2500 kilos and   3900 kilos. 

LTTE also manufactured ammunition. They had set up factories to produce a range of these, including 60 mm, 81 mm, 120 mm and an indigenous Samadanam 2005 rocket.  LTTE also manufactured mines, such as claymore mines    creating their own variations. Troops found two LTTEmine manufacturing factories in Mullativu.  A bomb factory, as well as an explosives manufacturing and storage   facility in Puthumathalan. There were hundreds of lathe machines and many fuel dumps. If this manufacturing activity had continued longer, LTTE would have been able to obtain most of its ammunition locally. Pathmanathan had established a state-of-the-art boatyard in Thailand, which manufactured over a dozen different boats, including mini-submarines and suicide boats, said Wikipedia. (Continued)