Lanka won’t accept Indians on SLN vessels

Reiterates call for co-ordinated patrols in Palk Straits
Growing evidence of LTTE-Tamil Nadu fishermen’s link

by Shamindra Ferdinando Courtesy The Island 14-03-2007

Sri Lanka will not consent to the deployment of Indian navy or Coast Guard personnel on board her vessels, hunting for LTTE craft in the Gulf of Mannar and the high seas, official sources said yesterday contradicting an Indian claim that Sri Lanka’s Chennai based Deputy High Commissioner Hamza had conveyed readiness to allow Indian personnel onboard SLN vessels at talks with a high level DMK delegation on alleged attacks on Tamil Nadu fishermen.

Subsequent to Monday’s meeting in Chennai, Indian news agencies quoted Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi as saying that Sri Lanka agreed to let Indian naval personnel board their ships during patrolling in the Palk Straits to prevent possible recurrence of attacks on Indian fishermen.

This was conveyed by the Sri Lankan Deputy High Commissioner , Karunanidhi added.

Authoritative officials dismissed the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister’s assertion. "There is absolutely no truth in this," a senior official said. Dismissing accusations that the SLN had recently attacked Tamil Nadu fishermen in Indian waters, the official pointed out that the Indian fishing fleet operates freely in Sri Lankan waters. "In fact, we are turning a blind eye to their growing presence in our waters," the official said.

The DMK delegation to Monday’s talks was led by State Electricity Minister N. Veerasamy. The meeting took place in the backdrop of a protest rally, in Chennai, against attacks on fishermen. Karunanidhi’s son M. K. Stalin had been a key participant at the rally.

Sri Lanka has reiterated her willingness to work out modalities for co-ordinated patrolling of the Palk Straits to prevent any untoward incidents.

In the event of such an eventuality, Indian authorities would be forced to curb Indian trawlers poaching in Sri Lankan waters.

Co-ordinated or joint patrolling did not mean Indian navy or Coast Guard personnel coming onboard SLN Offshore Patrol Craft (OPVs) and Fast Attack Craft (FACs), a senior official said. Referring to the attack on an Indian trawler south west of Kachchativu Island on March 10, he stressed that SLN units did not enter the Indian side of the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL). "There is absolutely no truth in claims that SLN units violated IMBL on three previous occasions recently," he said.

The Sri Lankan military said that the LTTE was using the Indian fishing fleet, sometimes forcibly. A confrontation between SLN units and an Indian trawler commandeered by Sea Tigers in the Gulf of Mannar last November revealed this link.

An Indian fisherman captured by the SLN after the destruction of the trawler carrying armaments believed to be mortars, claimed that Tamil Nadu fishermen were regularly forced by the LTTE to engage in arms smuggling. He said several of his colleagues had been seized along with their fishing craft by Sea Tigers operating in Indian waters.

The seizure of an Indian Dhow carrying over 60,000 electrical detonators off Kachchativu on January 26 last year revealed the extent of the growing link between the LTTE and Tamil Nadu fishing community. Sri Lanka released the five-man Tamil Nadu crew along with their trawler, the military said adding that even the fisherman captured last November did not face charges. He too was released, the sources said.

But nothing could be as incriminating as last month’s seizure of an LTTE craft off the South coast of India. The Indian Coast Guard arrested five persons-three Sri Lankan Tamils and two Indians. Although Coast Guard Regional Commander Rajendra Singh initially declared that the boat was heading towards the Tamil Nadu coast, India subsequently claimed that the explosives-laden craft was on its way to mount a suicide attack on Kankesanturai harbour. Claiming that it posed a security threat, India blasted the craft but is yet to respond positively to Sri Lanka’s request for access to the five suspects to facilitate the ongoing investigations into LTTE activity. The sources pointed out that the hotly disputed Indian claim of 15 explosives-laden LTTE craft waiting to attack Sri Lankan targets including the Colombo harbour was made in the backdrop of the unprecedented controlled destruction of a captured LTTE vessel.