WASHINGTON’S SRI LANKA ENVOY SPEAKS ABOUT THE STRANGE HUMANITARIAN CRISIS CREATED TO PROTEST ABOUT

By Walter Jayawardhana

Sri Lanka’s Ambassador in Washington DC said the action of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) who are clamoring purportedly for humanitarian concerns and food scarcities exposed themselves badly by attacking a Merchant Vessel transporting food to Tamil civilians by ramming it by suicide boats.

Colombo’s US envoy Bernard Goonetilleke said , “The Tamil Tigers are always making representations to the international community about the plight of Tamil civilians in the midst of a humanitarian situation, while doing everything within their means to create such a situation to achieve their political agenda.”

Making a special statement to the US public the ambassador said the LTTE also known as Tamil Tigers while protesting about humanitarian situations are also creating such situations for them to protest about.

Commenting about the suicide boat ramming against freight ship , ‘MV City of Liverpool Goonetilleke said “The ‘MV City of Liverpool,’ a private merchant vessel operated by foreign crew and chartered by a Sri Lankan company to carry essential supplies to civilians in the north, sustained hull damage after the attack, and with water leaking into the vessel, was towed into the port. One crew member was wounded in the attack. “

Ambassador Goonetilleke pointed out that the ship was carrying 500,000 tons of wheat flour to ease the food situation of the civilians of Jaffna about which the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) is always talking about.

Describing the effort his government had to take to protect the civilian food and the private contractors hired to transport them the ambassador said, Soldiers at Point Pedro east of Kankesanthurai port observed a flotilla of 20 Sea Tiger boats approaching the ‘MV City of Liverpool’ and opened fire using long range guns.

Navy Dvora fast attack crafts blocked the path of the Sea Tiger crafts, which split into 2 clusters and moved toward the vicinity of where the vessel was berthed. During a nearly 45-minute confrontation, the navy destroyed two suicide boats. One Sea Tiger suicide boat, which managed to slip past the navy boats to blow up the cargo ship, was destroyed by navy sailors, who fired from on board the vessel. The resulting explosion damaged the vessel hull. Navy sailors were on the cargo vessel as part of the security measures at the harbor.

As precedence to this attack, in December 2006, the Tamil Tigers engaged in a blatant act of sea piracy. Off the Mullaitivu seas in the northeast, the Tamil Tigers boarded a disabled Jordanian vessel, ‘Fara III,’ transporting 14,000 MT of rice from India to South Africa . They took control of the vessel and seized the communications equipment on board before taking into custody the foreign crew members, who were subsequently released through strong pressure from the international community. The vessel continues to be held by the Tamil Tigers, Goonetilleke pointed out.

Ambassador Goonetilleke described the steps taken by his government to ease the food situation in Jaffna : “Having failed to obtain security guarantees from the Tamil Tigers for managed use of the A 9 Highway, or an alternative land route to reach the peninsula, the government has arranged to supply the needs of the civilians and uses the sea route to ensure that adequate supplies of food and other essential items are sent to the peninsula.

In addition, the government has also arranged to import supplies to the peninsula from South India . The government’s efforts to obtain ICRC protection for the cargo vessels were denied by the Tamil Tigers and it is against this challenging background that the government continues to ship essential supplies to meet the needs of the civilians in the peninsula.

To downplay their terrorist activities, the Tamil Tigers have been using various ploys to hoodwink the international community with the intention of discrediting the government. Among these are the complaints of a humanitarian situation prevailing in the north and east, which the Tamil Tigers themselves have created.”