SEA TIGERS LOOT THE 14,000 TONS OF RICE AND ALL OTHER REMOVABLE EQUIPMENT FROM FARAH 111 SHIP IN MULATHIVU

By Walter Jayawardhana

The owning company of the cargo ship Farah 111 has complained that suspected Sea Tigers have have stripped their ship of every thing that could be removed including electrict lights, power generators and the 14,000 tons of rice that was in its cargo bay.

Sayed Sulaiman, the chairman of the ship's owners, Salam International Trading Company, of Jordan told the Tamil Service of the BBC, Thamilosai, “I don't know anyone else to blame except the Tamil Tigers for this incident. We hear from the parties who are concerned with the ship, the insurance company etc, that... everything that could be taken - like the rice, lights, generators - has been taken from the ship….The ship is now bare."

The ship ran aground near the Mulativu coast since the Sea Tigers removed its anchor for the ship to drift towards the territory held by them.

Earlier this year the Sri Lankan security forces alleged that the Sea Tigers , the marine wing of the LTTE allowed that the ship to be moved to the Mulathivu coast so that its contents could be easily looted.

The government on security reasons did not allow permission to the insurance company and surveyors to visit the vessel as it was in a place out of control of the Sri Lanka government forces.
In December 2006 the Jordanian ship Farah 111 had engine trouble and was awaiting rescue from Colombo when pirates of the terrorist group of the LTTE’s Sea Tiger unit entered the ship and abducted the crew and its captain to Mulathivu. Later they were released to the International Red Cross.

The 150 meter cargo ship with a crew of 25 of Jordanians and Egyptians capatained by an Iraqi was carrying a load of 14,000 tons of rice rom India’s Andra Pradesh to South Africa when it developed mechanical trouble. The captain pushed the distress buttons indicating it was under the attack of the sea pirates when Sea Tigers entered the ship without any permission. The distress signal was received by the the Maritime Rescue Coordinating Centre in Falmouth UK.

Holding a press conference in Colombo the crew said later that even on the first day every removable communication equipment in the ship and the crew’s personal effects were looted by the Sea Tigers.

Later the Sri Lanka Navy obtained satellite photographs of how the Sea Tigers were removing its cargo and various equipment from the ship.