‘Render
unto the Forces what is theirs’
by K. Godage
Former Ambassador
Courtesy The Island 25-09-2007
"I would not, however, be surprised if inter-service rivalry would
seek to play down the significance of the Naval victory (in this country
and in this country alone envy rules), perhaps stating that they had
good intelligence and all they had to do was to sail out and sink the
ships, as if the LTTE’s cargo vessels were just sitting out there
waiting to be taken out by the Navy. As it is, they have gone out 1,400
nautical miles to seek out and destroy these vessels in the mighty Indian
ocean, no small achievement this is by any standards..."
I write to congratulate you on your editorial captioned Render unto
the Forces what is theirs. There is a pithy Sinhala saying that the
elephants who draw the timber for the ‘perahera’ do not get
the opportunity to parade in the perahera. It appears, as you so rightly
pointed out, politicians seek every possibility to claim credit most
often for things that they actually have had only a remote involvement
in; at the same time they also seek to detract the credit owed to others,
who have in fact accomplished the task. Your reference to Ranil Wickremasinghe
claiming that it was during his watch that the Navy acquired its blue
water operational capability is a case in point, whilst it is indeed
true that the then Minister of Economic Reform Milinda Moragoda negotiated
and obtained the Coastguard Cutter Courageous, the armed forces including
the Navy was run down deliberately as a part of their precious peace
process. And again, as you so correctly state, the Navy (the ‘neglected’
force when it should have received the highest priority, considering
our circumstances) "evolved under several regimes,,,,," and
to claim that it acquired a blue water capability only during his watch
is an exaggeration and contradicts what certain circles in the Navy
itself claim; they state that whilst it is the true that Moragoda was
able to obtain the Coastguard Cutter during the administration of Mr.
Wickremasinghe, they claim that the Services were deliberately let down
during the period of their administration. It was also stated that the
former Navy Commander Sandagiri would bear witness to the fact that
he was pulled up for sinking an LTTE arms ship and endangering the precious
CFA.
As stated earlier the Coast Guard Cutter was brought down from the
USA during the UNF peace process and former Economic Reforms Minister
Milinda Moragoda ran into hot water with the LTTE as he was also seen
receiving the acquired vessel in the US at a simple ceremony. Symbolically,
it was exactly two years after the LTTE pulled out of talks on April
21, 2003 that the 210 feet long P 621 was commissioned as SLNS Samudura
— on April 21, 2005 — one year after the UNF government was
defeated at a general election.
The LTTE lost four other merchant vessels during Eelam War III (MV
Horizon off Nayaru on February 14, 1996, the Comes Joux also in 1996,
the MV Fratzescom off Mullaitivu on November 2, 1997 and MV Mariamman
off Andaman Islands on March 11, 1998. During Eelam War II, the Indian
Navy destroyed the famous MV Ahat off Point Pedro on January 16, 1993,
with a key Tiger leader, Kittu on board.
In September 2006, the LTTE attempted to bring in a ship carrying artillery
rounds as well as surface to air missiles to take down aircraft. of
particular importance to them. The operation was to be carried out when
the government was too busy and distracted with other priorities.
In fact, the ill-fated ship had been hovering around in international
waters for a while and then entered the Sri Lankan exclusive economic
territory on the island’s eastern flank where it was spotted by
the Sri Lanka Navy at 7:30 a.m. on a Sunday morning. The Tigers had
expected the Navy to have dropped its guard at this time after an all-night
patrol. The Navy’s night operations are said to be better than
the night operations of the ground troops and the Air Force, and the
Tigers are alive to this fact. But unknown to the Tigers, foreign intelligence
had tipped off the Sri Lankan defence establishment which was on the
look out for the suspicious ship.
The Navy, which had not suffered any casualties believes that all on
board the LTTE unnamed ship numbering around a dozen crew members would
have perished when they went down with the ship. Given the depth of
some 3000 metres, there was no question of divers inspecting the wreckage;
the military subsequently released video footage of the attack filmed
from a reconnaissance aircraft. The pictures clearly showed the ship
on fire amid a series of secondary explosions further corroborating
the intelligence reports of it carrying artillery rounds.
Once again in the forefront of the battle that sank the three LTTE
arms (cargo) ships described as floating warehouses was SLNS Samudura
(the former US Coast Guard Cutter Courageous P 621), and it is more
than relevant to recall what the JVP said at the time---- they called
it a useless ‘Yakadagoda’; We wonder what they have to say
now considering the role played by the Coastguard Cutter in this exercise
alone?
Procuring arms and ammunition has been going on during both war and
peace time and even during the internationally supported peace talks.
In November 2002, even as the government and LTTE teams had gone overseas
and were sitting at the negotiating table, a weapons laden Tiger craft
was exploded by the LTTE with consent from the hierarchy, when it was
confronted by a naval FAC. The monitors were not given an opportunity
to inspect it. But this unnamed merchant vessel was the third to be
destroyed during the four year shaky ceasefire. On March 10, 2003 even
before the Tigers pulled out of talks, when the incumbent Navy Commander
Vice Admiral Wasantha Karannagoda was Eastern Commander, MV Koimer was
destroyed off Mullaitivu. The second ship MV Shoshin was also destroyed
at a similar location on June 14, 2003, a couple of days after the LTTE
boycotted the Tokyo Donor Conference.
Despite the so-called Ceasefire Agreement, the Sea Tigers were busy
in the high seas trying to penetrate the Government’s Exclusive
Economic Zone to a point from where Tiger craft could unload the weapons
and ammunition. It would be recalled that the SLMM came up with proposal
to legitimise their ‘presence’ in the sea!
In recent times, operations by the LTTE Sea Tiger wing led by Soosai
have been unsuccessful given the Navy’s surveillance as well as
its fighting spirit. The May 11 attack on the Pearl Cruiser carrying
troops in Trincomalee and the August 1 attack on Jet Liner again in
Trinco transporting service personnel, were all successfully repulsed
damaging many Tiger craft and killing several Sea Tigers. The failed
attempts by the Sea Tigers in the Mandativu and Kayts islands during
simultaneous attacks on the northern FDLs were also repulsed. In the
September 1 attack at Point Pedro, eight Tiger boats exploded and another
eight were sunk. The Navy has gone the extra nautical mile to protect
the country’s territorial integrity and has been doing an exceptional
job in escorting ships carrying food and medicine and passengers, not
to mention the security forces.
This success could not have been achieved without good intelligence,
but here too we should recall how the wily LTTE planted ‘intelligence’
and trapped us at Pallai; therefore, in this instance too the possibility
that the LTTE had planned to draw out our entire Navy (all our ships
were involved in this) for a major op of their own would not have been
ruled out; yes the Naval high command would not have lost sight of this
possibility so it does appear that they would have meticulously checked
out the information they received and also very professionally planned
the operation.
I would not however be surprised if inter-service rivalry would seek
to play down the significance of the Naval victory (in this country
and in this country alone envy rules) perhaps stating that they had
good intelligence and all they had to do was to sail out and sink the
ships as if the LTTE’s cargo vessels were just sitting out there
waiting to be taken out by the Navy. As it is, they have gone out 1,400
nautical miles to seek out and destroy these vessels in the mighty Indian
ocean, no small achievement this by any standards.
The fact of the matter is that had the LTTE been able to transfer their
deadly cargo into trawlers and bring the arms into the country, as they
have done many times before, thousands of our soldiers would have died
and even our planes would have been knocked off the skies, as did happen
in 1995. Considering all factors I do hope the country would hail the
victory of the Navy, as it did the victory of the ground forces at Thoppigala.
I also hope the government would enrich the meagre resources of the
Navy and enhance its capability to enable them to protect this island
nation and its 200 mile exclusive economic zone.
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