KAMALIKA PIERIS

KP was solely responsible for purchase of new ships for the LTTE. Five or six small freighters were added to the fleet, working under several dummy companies with offices in Bangladesh, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong. These were officially to carry timber and grain  KP together with a UK based activists then purchased 11 merchant vessels.  By 2000, there were 11 well equipped ships, capable of transoceanic long distance sailing, for smuggling  LTTE had 13 ships in 2003.

There were many merchant navy officers, sailors and engineers from Valvettiturai   and elsewhere in the north east of Sri Lanka, available to the LTTE .Some of them had done training at the Lal Bahadur Shastri Nautical Engineering College in Mumbai.

Rohan Gunaratne said that the LTTE shipping and procurement staffers were highly skilled. They are masters in clandestine and compartmentalized operations. He said a double accountant, living in US, mostly purchased ships out of Japan. The ships were handled by R, living in Canada who had studied navigation. (Sunday Observer 6.12.09 p 9.)

In an interview to Colombo Page on May 22, 2017, KP provided some new information. He said that former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MG Ramachandran, known as MGR, provided the money to buy the ships and weapons. He said it was not difficult to acquire the ships at the time. “Anyone can open a shipping company. Anyone can operate ships, so it is a normal operation,” he said adding that there were many markets all over the world to buy weapons. The weapons shipments went to Jaffna via India. “Sometimes we would send a container to India and former Chief Minister would clear the container and hand over to us,” The containers were then taken by boat to Valvettiturai.

KP had also built a fleet of commercial boats, the only separatist group to be so equipped. 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. KP is at present running a boat manufacturing plant in an East Asian country, complained Sri Lanka in its aide memoir of 2009. 

In June 2000 Thai police had stumbled on a half built submersible in a Phuket shipyard.  The ship yard was owned by C.R. Lawrence a Jaffna born Tamil with a Norwegian passport. He had been arrested in an operation against oil smugglers. The authorities found instead of oil, sophisticated equipment meant for LTTE, such as radar and sonar.  They searched his shipyard and found the boat.  An American and a Thai had been co-owners of this yard.

The tourist operation of Lawrence was a cover up for smuggling arms via the Andaman Islands to the LTTE. He was convicted by Thai authorities but mysteriously disappeared from Thailand after an intervention by a woman posing as a representative of Amnesty International who had apparently got the Thai authorities to deport him to Norway.

The government of Sri Lanka succeeded in sinking most if not all of the LTTE ships, both hired and owned by LTTE. They started with MV Ahat (Yahata) on January 16, 1993. Having intercepted the LTTE vessel, on January 13, 1993, far from the Indian coast, Coast Guard Ship Vivek, backed by INS Kirpan, had forced the LTTE crew to bring it to a point, eight nautical miles off Egmore, and north of Madras, to facilitate an inspection. The LTTE blew up the vessel to avoid capture of top LTTE cadres, Kittu and Kuttisri.

MV Horizon, was sunk off Nayaru, on Feb. 14, 1996 ,MV Fratzescom, sunk off Mullaitivu, on Nov 2, 1997MV Mariamma, sunk 190 nm west of Nocobar, on March 11, 1998,MV Koimer, sunk off Mullaitivu, on March 10, 2003 and MV Shoshin, sunk off Mullaitivu, on June 14, 2003.

A vessel, without a name, was destroyed 120 nautical miles off Kalmunai on Sept 17, 2006. The SLAF carried out an attack in support of the Navy.MV Kiyoi was destroyed 365 nautical miles south of Dondra on Feb 28, 2007. MV Seiyoo and another unidentified vessel were destroyed 825 nautical miles south east of Arugam bay on March 18, 2007. MV Manyoshi and MV Seishin were destroyed 2200 km south east of Dondra on Sept 10, 2007. MV Koshia was destroyed south east of Dondra on Sept 11, 2007. MV Matsushima was destroyed 2600 south east of Dondra on Oct 7, 2007. An unknown vessel north east of Mullaitivu on Dec 20, 2008.

The LTTE had four remaining merchant vessels, under the two companies registered in Panama and Bahamas. They were run by cadres known as Nehru Jee in UK and Raja Ananda in Philippines.

In 2009, after the war ended, government of Sri Lanka took control of   three of these. In December 2009 it was reported in the media that Sri Lanka has seized three LTTE ships and is in the process of bringing them to Colombo. They were expensive craft, used by the LTTE for transportation of arms, ammunition and human smuggling. Princess Cristina, had been taken over in foreign waters, in Dec 2009. It was seized by the Navy during a clandestine operation.

In 2009 or so, KP left Thailand and returned to Malaysia. There is a rapid buildup of LTTE base in Malaysia as the major gathering point of top tiger operatives. K Pathmanathan known as KP has set up base there after quitting Thailand reported the media in March 2009.

Foreign agencies interested in the Eelam war continued their contact with KP in Malaysia. Norway had kept in touch with KP throughout.  V Nambiar, UN Under Secretary general had phoned KP in Malaysia. KP has also been in touch with Anton Balasingham.

When US saw that the government of Sri Lanka was winning the war, it was keen on getting the LTTE leaders out of Sri Lanka before the war ended. Mark Salter reported that there was a secret meeting in Kuala Lumpur between Norwegian Ambassador Tore Hattrem and chief LTTE representative Kumaran Pathmanathan ‘KP.’ The date is not given. The meeting was attended by Jon Westborg and Tomas Stangeland on the Norwegian side and V. Rudrakumaran and Jay Maheswaran on the LTTE side.”   Pathmanathan was working out a plan to get the LTTE leadership away to another country, possibly Eritrea, South Africa or East Timor. 

Pathmanathan was on Interpol‘s most wanted list for various charges including arms smuggling and criminal conspiracy He is also wanted in connection with the assassination of former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991 and for violation of the Terrorist Act and the Indian Explosive Act.

KP had used several aliases KP has been using more than four passports including one that has been issued from Sri Lanka. All other passports were from UK and India and different names have been used for those documents. He was believed to have had bank accounts in London, Frankfurt, Denmark, Athens and Australia. He could speak Sinhala, Tamil, English and French .

KP was LTTE’s chief international spokesman during the last months of the civil war.   When the LTTE was defeated in Sri Lanka, analysts speculated that KP will focus on taking control of all financial deposits the LTTE keeps in various secret accounts.  And also secure control of the groups most important assets including its shipping operations.

However, the government of Sri Lanka   had other ideas. It was determined to squash the next generation of LTTE leaders. KP was arrested on 5 August 2009 in the Tune Hotel, downtown Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia., by Sri Lanka military in a covert operation with the cooperation of local authorities. He was brought to Colombo, held in a heavily secured secret location,  and questioned. Pathmanathan was released from prison on 17 October 2012, when the complaints against him by Sri Lanka were withdrawn.

Many years later, KP was interviewed by the media.  He has given three interviews, to Colombo Page on May 22, 2017. Daily FT on July 2020   and Lanka Courier in June 2021.

In these interviews KP said that he had changed his position on LTTE after 2003. The world order had drastically changed following the 9/11 attacks of 2001. I could not carry on the procurement process as we had done earlier. Also I saw a change of attitude in the Rajapaksa government. They were confident. They obstructed the LTTE’s supply chains. This was the first sign of the LTTE’s impending downfall.    

From 2003 to 2008, I maintained a very remote communication with Prabhakaran.  After 2003, I urged Prabhakaran to pursue a political solution .I felt that there was no point in continuing the LTTE’s armed struggle anymore. We should opt for a political solution. But the LTTE thought I had changed in my thinking, and was trying to move away from the LTTE’s ideology. Those who were around Prabhakaran wanted the struggle to continue.  It appears that only Anton Balasingham and KP wanted the LTTE to go for a political solution and both were sidelined.

Yes, I have regrets. I am 64 years old and I feel I lost almost 40 years on an unworthy cause, KP said.  When I was arrested 10 years ago, I met Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa.  He asked me to forget the past and told me that they were not the kind of people who would take revenge. He told me I could live comfortably without any worries. We spoke for two hours that day. A friend of mine told me that I was the only one from the LTTE to win him over.

Gotabaya asked me about my future plans. I told him I wanted to do something useful for the rest of my life, particularly for children and elders. He allowed me to visit Kilinochchi and select a place and start a children’s home. The lands were previously occupied by the Army, but when we requested they handed the lands back to us

KP is now taking care of four orphanages in the north,   Sencholai Orphanage and Sencholai Boys Home in Kilinochchi, Barathi Children’s Home and Andrew Children’s Home in Mullaitivu.   (CONTINUED)