Mamoona Ali Kazmi

In the midst of the seemingly unending violence in Sri Lanka the LTTE’s newly acquired air prowess has added a perilous dimension to the ethnic strife plaguing Sri Lanka. In a recent incident two micro-light aircraft of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) dropped three bombs at Sri Lanka defence lines in Welioya. This is not the first time that such an event occurred. In the past on 25 March 2007 the Tamil Tigers targeted the main military base of Sri Lanka Air Force on the outskirts of the capital Colombo, killing three Air Force personnel and injuring 16 others. The attack was also executed by a micro-light aircraft carrying two bombs. The Tamil Tigers have threatened more such aerial attacks.

The credit for formation of air wing of LTTE is the handi work of Shankar alias Vythialingam Sornalignam. An aeronautical engineer by profession, he holds an engineering degree in aeronautics from Hindustan Engineering College in Tamil Nadu. According to the technique developed by the Indian agent, the micro-light aircraft can be turned into lethal flying bomb, carrying up to 20 kg of explosives and can easily cover a distance of 500 km. Once a micro-light aircraft takes off, its engine can be switched off to save fuel. It becomes like a glider and floats in the air using favorable wind currents and its fiberglass body enables it to cover longer distance.

The Indian supplied Indra radars to the Sri Lankan Air Force for the detection of low level air crafts failed to detect the two micro-light aircraft of the LTTE. India’s neighbours, through experience, have learnt to live in the shadow of India’s hegemonic designs. Her favoured inclination has been to seek instability through promotion of insurgencies by supporting the destabilizing forces. Nowhere is it evident than in Sri Lanka where feared LTTE are engaged in a bloody insurgency that has brought the Sri Lankan Government to its knees. For their war effort they need resources for which India is more than willing to oblige. At the same time India is not willing to provide offensive weaponry to Sri Lanka.

Ever since the Sri Lankan Government proposed and accepted the 13th amendment to Sri Lanka’s constitution as a means to devolve power within a unitary state, India’s interference in the affairs of its southern neighbour is becoming increasingly clear. India has a role in the ethnic crisis of Sri Lanka. It was India which in 1980s trained, armed and financed several Tamil militant groups to fight the Sri Lankan Government. Again it was India which came to the rescue of the LTTE and other militant groups when the Sri Lankan security forces were about to capture the Tamil Tiger stronghold of Vadamarachchi in 1987. India imposed on the 13th amendment to the Sri Lanka constitution following a 1987 treaty. Even after Rajiv Gandhi, the former Indian Prime Minister, who browbeat Sri Lanka into accepting the 13th amendment was killed in a Tamil Tiger suicide attack, India continued to play its role of running with the hare and hunting with the hounds and maintained covert links with the LTTE.

LTTE movement enjoys tremendous support and sympathy in Tamil Nadu. There are a lot of cultural and ethnic similarities between the Tamils in Sri Lanka and Tamil Nadu. These similarities create a strong bond between people in both countries. In the early 80s when LTTE started its operations and was establishing itself as the sole Tamil voice, the then Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu M.G.Ramachandran provided the LTTE with logistical support, and this continued till Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination. After his assassination the political parties in Tamil Nadu have not actively supported the LTTE but they even then allowed LTTE to use Tamil Nadu as a logistical base. Similarly, the LTTE issue is linked to the issue of Tamil nationalism. Tamilians in Eelam are fighting to assert their independence from the Sinhalese majority, similar to Tamilians in India, who also demand their independence from the Hindi majority, establishing a common cause with the LTTE and demanding an independent Tamil homeland.

Tamil Nadu is a major source from which LTTE procure arms and ammunition. Since the collapse of the Norwegian sponsored ceasefire in January 2006, the Sri Lankan Navy had destroyed nine trawlers and some smaller fiber boats, carrying explosives all coming from Tamil Nadu coast in the Gulf of Mannar region. So it is clear that LTTE is now buying raw materials for its explosives factory from the Indian market. A Sri Lankan government spokesman said, “ We now have credible evidence that (fishing) trawlers registered in India are being used by the Tigers and that the government has formally asked India to take steps to stop arms smuggling”.

Materials for making explosives are taken to Sri Lanka from Tamil Nadu. These explosives are taken to the Tamil Nadu by boats from several landing points along the Ramanathapuram coast. These goods came from Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra to Tamil Nadu. Tamil Tigers have acquired high speed boats from India so that they could easily reach Tamil Nadu coast in short time to get arms. Smuggling assignments are undertaken with boats from Indian side in exchange for cash and liquor from Sri Lankan Tamil operators. Thousands of Indian boats still enter the sea unchecked and cross the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL) freely across the Palk Strait and Gulf of Mannar.

Most of the smuggling is either for the LTTE or with its transshipment to Western countries. They smuggle every thing that can aid a war effort such as medicines, fuel, arms, ammunition and components for making explosives, electric detonators, gelatins, ball bearings and metal bars. As the LTTE is under pressure with depleting financial resources and increasing war expenditure, so India offers the only easy access to essential supplies. Indian smugglers employed the Tamil refugees in the Ramanathapuram district of Tamil Nadu as couriers for transporting certain goods for easy money. India’s predominantly Tamil state, Tamil Nadu, provided bases and supplies for the Sri Lankan Tamil guerrillas. But the Indian side despite checking the illegal arms trade from Tamil Nadu to Sri Lanka accused Thailand as the main source of weapons to Tamil Tigers. So far no seizures had been made to prove that LTTE was procuring arms from Thailand.

India, in its well known way is double crossing Sri Lanka. In this context it has become the major arms supplier to the LTTE. Tamil Nadu has turned into a conduit for illegal arms and ammunition. The LTTE had long been procuring arms and ammunition with the help of smugglers by sea from Tamil Nadu and the Indian Government is keeping its eyes wide shut. At the other hand, India is supplying arms to Sri Lankan Security Forces to be used against LTTE. It is interesting that India is supplying more sophisticated weapons to LTTE than to Sri Lankan government and rebuked Sri Lanka for expressing a desire to procure sophisticated equipment from Pakistan and China. M.K. Narayanan, India’s National Security Advisor said, “We will not give such strong deterrents and arms to Sri Lanka that will ensure superiority of the Sri Lankan Armed Forces over the Tamil guerrillas”. It means India wants to continue Sri Lanka’s war with the Tamils so that it can sell arms to both parties.