“India is constantly being urged, both by the Sri Lankan Government and the LTTE, to mediate in the enduring conflict in Sri Lanka. While addressing a Press Conference in Tiruchi in Tamil Nadu on June 9, 2008, Sri Lankan Minister for Community Development and Social Inequity Eradication, P. Chandrasekaran, said that India should play the role of a mediator to end the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka.”
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by Ajit Kumar Singh
(July 07, New Delhi, Sri Lanka Guardian) The international pressure which has clogged the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam's (LTTE) attempt to replenish its depleted military equipments has undermined the rebel’s capacities to thwart the military offensive by the Sri Lankan Government troops. With their capacities progressively diminished, the LTTE has suffered severe losses. These developments are now impacting on India’s southern States, especially Tamil Nadu, as the LTTE attempts to source its war materials from these Indian Sates.
According to reports emanating from various sources, regular seizures of huge quantities of explosives and other war like materials meant for the LTTE have occurred in Tamil Nadu since the resumption of the war in Sri Lanka in January 2006. The recoveries also include large volumes of ball bearings that are used as shrapnel (significantly, the sale of ballbearings is restricted and closely monitored in Sri Lanka), aluminium bars, both ordinary and electronic detonators, boat building equipment, walkie-talkies, batteries and petroleum Chemicals, including sulphuric acid, high-speed outboard engines for boats, cycle spares, tyres for cycles and motorcycles, power generators, medical supplies and surgical equipment have also been recovered in transit or in caches awaiting transportation. Most of these recoveries have been reported from the coastal District of Ramnad, which overlooks the Mannar District in Sri Lanka. Police sources also disclose that the LTTE has attempted to build a huge vessel in Kerala and tried to procure mortars from Tamil Nadu.
Some of the major recoveries and arrests in India relating to the LTTE in 2008 include:
June 14: A suspected LTTE sympathiser was arrested along with 25 bundles, including 18,000 batteries, uniforms and medicines from a high speed boat in the sea off Devipattinam in Rameswaram. The seized material was worth INR one million.
June 13: The Tamil Nadu Police arrested a Sri Lankan and seized 18,000 pen torches and 25 bundles of plain cloth meant to be smuggled to Sri Lanka.
June 8: About 40 kilograms of ammunition was recovered from the campus of the State Industries Promotion Corporation of Tamil Nadu Ltd. at Gummidipoondi in Thiruvallur District. Police said the ammunition, kept in gunny bags, was found near a well in the campus. Police had searched the area following a minor explosion on June 7, in which two Sri Lankan Tamil refugees sustained minor injuries.
June 5: The Police arrested two persons, including a Sri Lankan, and seized 2000 batteries. The Sri Lankan was an inmate of a refugee camp in Coimbatore District in Tamil Nadu.
May 18: The ‘Q’ Branch Police in Madurai arrested two Sri Lankan nationals allegedly supplying explosives and electronic gadgets to the LTTE. The duo had sent unspecified large quantities of explosives to the LTTE through agents along the Rameswaram coast. At the time of arrest, they were in possession of 44 walkie-talkie sets and INR 459,000 in cash. K. Senthil of Madurai, who provided logistic support to the two, was also arrested.
April 27: The police arrested five persons and seized eight cans of unidentified chemicals, a country boat and a mini van.
April 17: The Police arrested two Sri Lankan Tamils, Nandharuban and Sivakumar, while they were trying to smuggle tractor tyres, which are used in army trucks and jeeps, meant for the LTTE.
April 9: Tamil Nadu State Intelligence sleuths seized 16 cans of highly inflammable chemical solution, suspected to be used for manufacturing powerful explosives, meant for smuggling to the LTTE in Sri Lanka. The Police also arrested a Sri Lankan Tamil Refugee, Navaneetha Krishnan, from the Samathuvapuram locality near Sakki Mangalam.
April 1: The Coastal Security Group (CSG) Police neutralised a network involved in supplying uniforms to the LTTE. It came to light when a CSG team raided a boat near the fishing harbour in Rameswaram. Five persons were also arrested.
March 27: Police arrested three persons who were involved in smuggling activities for the LTTE, under the National Security Act.
February 11: Police arrested an alleged supplier of explosives to the LTTE and seized 100 detonators, 83 gelatin sticks and 10 meters of fuse wire. The man had been shuttling between Tiruchirapalli and Pudukottai to procure the explosive substances, including gelatin sticks.
January 20: The Tamil Nadu police arrested two persons in connection with the smuggling of ball bearings to Sri Lanka. Following the trail of cell phone contacts of Nathan alias Suruli, arrested along with seven others at Madipakkam on January 17 in the same case, ‘Q’ Branch Police, on January 20, intercepted Selvaraj, working in a sweet stall in Mumbai for the last 25 years, and seized small packets of ball bearings he had bought as samples.
January 8: The ‘Q’ Branch of the Tamil Nadu Police intercepted a consignment of explosives bound for Sri Lanka in Madurai and took six persons into custody, who admitted that they were meant for use by the LTTE. S. Sivakrishnan alias Nandan of Sri Lanka and S. Muthuramalingam of Kamuthi were found to be in possession of 5,000 detonators concealed in a travel bag.
In addition to amassing materials for war, the LTTE is also looking for new recruits from the State. The LTTE has asked its agents in Tamil Nadu to recruit cadres from the Sri Lankan Tamil refugee population, according to a May 27 report posted on the Sri Lanka Ministry of Defence Website. The LTTE has issued instructions to its operatives in Tamil Nadu to get Tamils who had recently fled from North Sri Lanka to come back and join its ranks, the report added. An estimated 70,000 Sri Lankan Tamils are living in about 130 refugee camps across Tamil Nadu. According to a June 23 report citing an unnamed senior Police official, "The LTTE is keeping a close watch on the refugee camps. They identify the refugees who were earlier associated with them and use them in India for smuggling essentials for them." Many of these LTTE sympathizers are also involved in crimes like forgery and cheating in their efforts to raise funds for supplies.
It is significant that the LTTE had established an elaborate network of criminal operations in coastal Tamil Nadu in the early 1980s, and this was given free rein for several years, till it was ruthlessly uprooted in the wake of the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991, by an LTTE suicide bomber. At this stage, LTTE cadres masquerading as refugees had taken to criminal and subversive activities along the coastal belt in the Thanjavur, Pudukottai and Ramanathapuram Districts, and had established a widespread network of extortion, smuggling and organized criminal activities . The revived movement of LTTE cadres and sympathizers is a concern, not only for Tamil Nadu but for the rest of India as well. Unsurprisingly, the Union Government, while extending the ban on the LTTE as an unlawful association by two years May 14, 2008, declared in its notification that the LTTE had ‘sympathizers, supporters and agents on Indian soil’, and that the group’s objective for a separate homeland for all Tamils threatened the sovereignty and territorial integrity of India. The notification further stated that the LTTE continued to be an "extremely potent, most lethal and well organised terrorist force in Sri Lanka and has strong connections in Tamil Nadu and certain other pockets of southern India." Further, the LTTE continued to use Tamil Nadu as the base for carrying out smuggling of essential items like petrol, diesel and drugs to Sri Lanka. The notification observed that the LTTE would continue to remain a "strong terrorist movement and stimulate the secessionist sentiment to enhance the support base of the LTTE in Tamil Nadu as long as Sri Lanka continues to remain in a state of ethnic strife, torn by the demand for Tamil Eelam which finds strong echo in Tamil Nadu due to the linguistic, cultural, ethnic and historical affinity between the Sri Lankan Tamils and the Indian Tamils in Sri Lanka."
Earlier, on March 17, 2008, the National Security Adviser M.K. Narayanan had stated that the Union Government had received intelligence reports that some sympathisers of the LTTE in certain ‘small’ pockets of Kerala and Tamil Nadu were extending support to the outfit in various forms. Emphasizing the need for strong measures to contain these trends, Defence Minister A. K. Antony stated on May 1, 2008, "We will not allow the LTTE to function in Tamil Nadu. Indian soil will not be allowed to be used as base by any terrorist organization… We are giving high priority to coastal security. This will be done in three levels with the involvement of the Navy, the Coast Guard and the Coastal Police of the states concerned (Tamil Nadu and Kerala)."
India is constantly being urged, both by the Sri Lankan Government and the LTTE, to mediate in the enduring conflict in Sri Lanka. While addressing a Press Conference in Tiruchi in Tamil Nadu on June 9, 2008, Sri Lankan Minister for Community Development and Social Inequity Eradication, P. Chandrasekaran, said that India should play the role of a mediator to end the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka. Similarly, the pro-LTTE Tamil National Alliance, on June 21, 2008, sought India's intervention to protect the interests of the Sri Lankan Tamils. As LTTE subversion on Indian soil augments, it will become increasingly difficult for New Delhi to continue with its posture of detachment, and pressures for a more direct involvement in Sri Lanka will clearly mount. With memories of the disastrous intervention in 1987 still raw, however, it is far from clear how the mandarins of South Block will respond.
(The Writer is a Research Associate, Institute for Conflict Management.)
- Sri Lanka Guardian
__________________
by Ajit Kumar Singh
(July 07, New Delhi, Sri Lanka Guardian) The international pressure which has clogged the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam's (LTTE) attempt to replenish its depleted military equipments has undermined the rebel’s capacities to thwart the military offensive by the Sri Lankan Government troops. With their capacities progressively diminished, the LTTE has suffered severe losses. These developments are now impacting on India’s southern States, especially Tamil Nadu, as the LTTE attempts to source its war materials from these Indian Sates.
According to reports emanating from various sources, regular seizures of huge quantities of explosives and other war like materials meant for the LTTE have occurred in Tamil Nadu since the resumption of the war in Sri Lanka in January 2006. The recoveries also include large volumes of ball bearings that are used as shrapnel (significantly, the sale of ballbearings is restricted and closely monitored in Sri Lanka), aluminium bars, both ordinary and electronic detonators, boat building equipment, walkie-talkies, batteries and petroleum Chemicals, including sulphuric acid, high-speed outboard engines for boats, cycle spares, tyres for cycles and motorcycles, power generators, medical supplies and surgical equipment have also been recovered in transit or in caches awaiting transportation. Most of these recoveries have been reported from the coastal District of Ramnad, which overlooks the Mannar District in Sri Lanka. Police sources also disclose that the LTTE has attempted to build a huge vessel in Kerala and tried to procure mortars from Tamil Nadu.
Some of the major recoveries and arrests in India relating to the LTTE in 2008 include:
June 14: A suspected LTTE sympathiser was arrested along with 25 bundles, including 18,000 batteries, uniforms and medicines from a high speed boat in the sea off Devipattinam in Rameswaram. The seized material was worth INR one million.
June 13: The Tamil Nadu Police arrested a Sri Lankan and seized 18,000 pen torches and 25 bundles of plain cloth meant to be smuggled to Sri Lanka.
June 8: About 40 kilograms of ammunition was recovered from the campus of the State Industries Promotion Corporation of Tamil Nadu Ltd. at Gummidipoondi in Thiruvallur District. Police said the ammunition, kept in gunny bags, was found near a well in the campus. Police had searched the area following a minor explosion on June 7, in which two Sri Lankan Tamil refugees sustained minor injuries.
June 5: The Police arrested two persons, including a Sri Lankan, and seized 2000 batteries. The Sri Lankan was an inmate of a refugee camp in Coimbatore District in Tamil Nadu.
May 18: The ‘Q’ Branch Police in Madurai arrested two Sri Lankan nationals allegedly supplying explosives and electronic gadgets to the LTTE. The duo had sent unspecified large quantities of explosives to the LTTE through agents along the Rameswaram coast. At the time of arrest, they were in possession of 44 walkie-talkie sets and INR 459,000 in cash. K. Senthil of Madurai, who provided logistic support to the two, was also arrested.
April 27: The police arrested five persons and seized eight cans of unidentified chemicals, a country boat and a mini van.
April 17: The Police arrested two Sri Lankan Tamils, Nandharuban and Sivakumar, while they were trying to smuggle tractor tyres, which are used in army trucks and jeeps, meant for the LTTE.
April 9: Tamil Nadu State Intelligence sleuths seized 16 cans of highly inflammable chemical solution, suspected to be used for manufacturing powerful explosives, meant for smuggling to the LTTE in Sri Lanka. The Police also arrested a Sri Lankan Tamil Refugee, Navaneetha Krishnan, from the Samathuvapuram locality near Sakki Mangalam.
April 1: The Coastal Security Group (CSG) Police neutralised a network involved in supplying uniforms to the LTTE. It came to light when a CSG team raided a boat near the fishing harbour in Rameswaram. Five persons were also arrested.
March 27: Police arrested three persons who were involved in smuggling activities for the LTTE, under the National Security Act.
February 11: Police arrested an alleged supplier of explosives to the LTTE and seized 100 detonators, 83 gelatin sticks and 10 meters of fuse wire. The man had been shuttling between Tiruchirapalli and Pudukottai to procure the explosive substances, including gelatin sticks.
January 20: The Tamil Nadu police arrested two persons in connection with the smuggling of ball bearings to Sri Lanka. Following the trail of cell phone contacts of Nathan alias Suruli, arrested along with seven others at Madipakkam on January 17 in the same case, ‘Q’ Branch Police, on January 20, intercepted Selvaraj, working in a sweet stall in Mumbai for the last 25 years, and seized small packets of ball bearings he had bought as samples.
January 8: The ‘Q’ Branch of the Tamil Nadu Police intercepted a consignment of explosives bound for Sri Lanka in Madurai and took six persons into custody, who admitted that they were meant for use by the LTTE. S. Sivakrishnan alias Nandan of Sri Lanka and S. Muthuramalingam of Kamuthi were found to be in possession of 5,000 detonators concealed in a travel bag.
In addition to amassing materials for war, the LTTE is also looking for new recruits from the State. The LTTE has asked its agents in Tamil Nadu to recruit cadres from the Sri Lankan Tamil refugee population, according to a May 27 report posted on the Sri Lanka Ministry of Defence Website. The LTTE has issued instructions to its operatives in Tamil Nadu to get Tamils who had recently fled from North Sri Lanka to come back and join its ranks, the report added. An estimated 70,000 Sri Lankan Tamils are living in about 130 refugee camps across Tamil Nadu. According to a June 23 report citing an unnamed senior Police official, "The LTTE is keeping a close watch on the refugee camps. They identify the refugees who were earlier associated with them and use them in India for smuggling essentials for them." Many of these LTTE sympathizers are also involved in crimes like forgery and cheating in their efforts to raise funds for supplies.
It is significant that the LTTE had established an elaborate network of criminal operations in coastal Tamil Nadu in the early 1980s, and this was given free rein for several years, till it was ruthlessly uprooted in the wake of the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991, by an LTTE suicide bomber. At this stage, LTTE cadres masquerading as refugees had taken to criminal and subversive activities along the coastal belt in the Thanjavur, Pudukottai and Ramanathapuram Districts, and had established a widespread network of extortion, smuggling and organized criminal activities . The revived movement of LTTE cadres and sympathizers is a concern, not only for Tamil Nadu but for the rest of India as well. Unsurprisingly, the Union Government, while extending the ban on the LTTE as an unlawful association by two years May 14, 2008, declared in its notification that the LTTE had ‘sympathizers, supporters and agents on Indian soil’, and that the group’s objective for a separate homeland for all Tamils threatened the sovereignty and territorial integrity of India. The notification further stated that the LTTE continued to be an "extremely potent, most lethal and well organised terrorist force in Sri Lanka and has strong connections in Tamil Nadu and certain other pockets of southern India." Further, the LTTE continued to use Tamil Nadu as the base for carrying out smuggling of essential items like petrol, diesel and drugs to Sri Lanka. The notification observed that the LTTE would continue to remain a "strong terrorist movement and stimulate the secessionist sentiment to enhance the support base of the LTTE in Tamil Nadu as long as Sri Lanka continues to remain in a state of ethnic strife, torn by the demand for Tamil Eelam which finds strong echo in Tamil Nadu due to the linguistic, cultural, ethnic and historical affinity between the Sri Lankan Tamils and the Indian Tamils in Sri Lanka."
Earlier, on March 17, 2008, the National Security Adviser M.K. Narayanan had stated that the Union Government had received intelligence reports that some sympathisers of the LTTE in certain ‘small’ pockets of Kerala and Tamil Nadu were extending support to the outfit in various forms. Emphasizing the need for strong measures to contain these trends, Defence Minister A. K. Antony stated on May 1, 2008, "We will not allow the LTTE to function in Tamil Nadu. Indian soil will not be allowed to be used as base by any terrorist organization… We are giving high priority to coastal security. This will be done in three levels with the involvement of the Navy, the Coast Guard and the Coastal Police of the states concerned (Tamil Nadu and Kerala)."
India is constantly being urged, both by the Sri Lankan Government and the LTTE, to mediate in the enduring conflict in Sri Lanka. While addressing a Press Conference in Tiruchi in Tamil Nadu on June 9, 2008, Sri Lankan Minister for Community Development and Social Inequity Eradication, P. Chandrasekaran, said that India should play the role of a mediator to end the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka. Similarly, the pro-LTTE Tamil National Alliance, on June 21, 2008, sought India's intervention to protect the interests of the Sri Lankan Tamils. As LTTE subversion on Indian soil augments, it will become increasingly difficult for New Delhi to continue with its posture of detachment, and pressures for a more direct involvement in Sri Lanka will clearly mount. With memories of the disastrous intervention in 1987 still raw, however, it is far from clear how the mandarins of South Block will respond.
(The Writer is a Research Associate, Institute for Conflict Management.)
- Sri Lanka Guardian
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