Decoding LTTE's supply chain

(August 16, Chennai, Sri Lanka Guardian) India is fast becoming a focal point for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to fund its war against Sri Lanka. The recent arrest of some of LTTE's top procurement agents in Tamil Nadu has hit the headlines and at a time when the Tamil Nadu police claims to have cracked the LTTE's smuggling racket,

The Indian based TIMES NOW travelled to Rameshwaram to decode the outfits supply chain and to expose the nexus between the Tamil fishermen and LTTE operatives.

The investigations led us to a fisherman, who has close links with the smuggling ring, and act as agent for LTTE. The man who told us the ease with which smuggling still goes on despite repeated crackdowns.

"In this trade there are agents. They live here amongst us and they are the ones who identify the fishermen and it's through them that goods are transported from India to Sri Lanka. Once in 15 days or once in a month goods are carried across. There are about 15 people who do this and they all carry it at different times of the month."

The supply chain starts with the LTTE agents, who control procurement modules. They are mainly Sri Lankan refugees at Mandapam refugee camp in Rameshwaram and even some Indians. These agents after finalising the ferry, smuggle goods to fishing villages, from where they are taken to various points of Sri Lanka.

"They take it out at night without the officials' knowledge and load it onto the boats even the Indian Navy doesn't find out. They pretend they're carrying the goods for their own use, and then go across the ocean and give it. What the LTTE needs mainly are explosives and medicines and of course Diesel,” says the agent.

The temple town of Rameshwaram is just 20 nautical miles away from Thalai Mannar, the LTTE's nodal transit point in Sri Lanka. The short distance and calm waters make it easier to evade detection by Indian Navy patrols.

With India and Sri Lankan Navy manning these waters, smuggling is not an easy task but the lure of money is irresistible. The agent told us that in many cases even the authorities end up being part to these activities. "For taking the goods across once we get Rs 50,000 to Rs 1 lakh in cash. Taking the goods across the Ocean is a big risk. And they look beyond their safety when they do this."

The smuggling nexus that was narrated to us is something that even the police are not denying. Says K P Jain, DGP Tamil Nadu, "We have booked some of the smugglers who were supplying goods to militants in Sri Lanka. Some of them have been booked under the NSA this year. We are maintaining vigil. But it is a fact that they have been more active this year than last year. We are seized with a problem and will take action."

While some of these fishermen, engaging in this trade is a means of making some quick money, for most others it's a question of risking their lives to support a cause they believe in. - Sri Lanka Guardian