Secretive, lethal rebel 'navy' a big factor in Sri Lanka conflict
By Ian Timberlake / AFP
TRINCOMALEE, Sri Lanka - Sri Lanka's Tamil Tigers are increasingly taking their fight to the sea thanks to a secretive and lethal rebel "navy", a rarity among the world's guerrilla forces, observers say.
Founded in the early 1990s, the "Sea Tigers" claim to have sunk dozens of naval vessels over the years and, despite a ceasefire, have more frequently taken to the waters of the island nation since December, Scandinavian truce monitors and the military say.
"A lot of the serious incidents have occurred at sea," said Helen Olafsdottir, spokeswoman for the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) overseeing the four-year-old truce which is tenuously holding despite mounting violence.
"They were not so active last year, the Sea Tigers," she said. "I think it just goes with the escalation of violence on the ground."
The Sea Tigers -- including an elite Black Sea Tiger suicide unit -- are the marine arm of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), the rebel movement founded in 1972 as a land-based guerrilla force to fight for an independent homeland for minority Tamils.
"It's maybe a little bit unique that they have a sea arm," Olafsdottir said.
Defence ministry spokesman Prasad Samarasinghe agreed that, in facing seaborne rebels, the Sri Lankan military is confronting a force rarely seen among guerrilla movements.
He said the Sea Tigers have stepped up activity "because they want to provoke the navy" and have sunk two navy Dvora fast-attack boats this year, with the loss of 23 sailors.
The rebels say they do not know what happened to the Dvoras.
Neither the Sri Lankan military nor the SLMM could say how many Sea Tigers there are, or how many vessels they have.
"We are not allowed into the Sea Tiger bases," Olafsdottir said.
N. Manoharan, senior fellow with the New Delhi-based Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies, wrote in a research paper that there are as many as 6,000 Sea Tigers in various units.
"The LTTE craft vary from heavily armed gunboats, troop carriers to ocean-going supply vessels," he wrote.
In an interview in rebel-held territory near a Sea Tiger base at Sampur in Trincomalee district on Sri Lanka's northeast coast, the Tigers' district political officer, S. Elilan, declined to let AFP visit the Sea Tigers.
Neither would he specify how many rebel sailors or vessels the Tigers have.
"A lot," said Elilan, 38, a former guerrilla who wears a moustache in the style of LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran, whose portrait hung on the wall beside him.
Elilan said the Sea Tigers are the LTTE's most important force for attacking both naval and army targets in the area from Jaffna in the north down to Batticaloa in the east, a coastal stretch of about 300 kilometres (185 miles).
In recent years they have carried out some audacious attacks: blowing up key naval vessels, attacking naval bases and in at least one case, stealing a navy patrol craft.
"The Sea Tigers have become a vital part of the LTTE's combat capability," Manoharan wrote.
The rebels and government reached a ceasefire in 2002 but violence began to worsen last December. Last month was the most deadly since the truce was signed, with 191 deaths, mostly civilian, the SLMM said.
After a suspected Tiger suicide bomber killed 11 people including herself in Colombo on April 25, the government retaliated with limited air strikes against Sea Tiger bases in Sampur.
Elilan said 15 civilians died in the strikes but the Sea Tigers escaped unscathed.
"The sea is a huge issue," Olafsdottir said, noting that any time Sea Tigers enter the water, they are violating the truce.
SLMM's monitors are deployed on land but also aboard naval vessels including troop transports.
It can be dangerous work. Monitors have faced gunfire and explosions.
Samarasinghe said the Tigers try to move arms, equipment and personnel by sea but the navy's biggest challenge comes from Sea Tiger suicide attacks, some of which are launched by rebel sailors posing as fishermen.
With more than 25,000 personnel, the navy says it operates a fleet of more than 50 combat craft, support ships and inshore patrol vessels.
"The navy has been strengthened," Samarasinghe said.
Sri Lanka's acting defence minister Anuruddha Ratwatte complained in 1997 that the separatist war would not have dragged on had the navy been powerful.
"Any effort to defeat the LTTE military would fail without weakening the Sea Tigers," Manoharan said.
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