Navy in a storm over Water Jet by Iqbal Athas

A string of recent suc cesses by the Sri Lanka Navy appears to have piqued the Tiger guerrillas.

They broke a two month long lull last Thursday to attempt a strike at the Sri Lanka Navy's small base at Kilali on the northern fringe of the Jaffna lagoon.

This came as the only major incident since Deputy Defence Minister Anuruddha Ratwatte and the three service commanders escaped an LTTE mortar barrage in Oddusuddan in December, last year.

An encounter between Tiger guerrillas and the Navy which broke out shortly after 1 a.m. on Thursday was joined in by the Army an hour later. It went on till past 3 a.m. The Navy men engaged the LTTE in the lagoon. Army fired artillery into the lagoon and hurriedly changed directions of a shore based radar to track down movements of Tiger boats.

During the three hour melee, the LTTE seized a Navy Water Jet (or Inshore Patrol Craft) bearing identification number P 174 worth over Rs 6.3 million. The water jet built locally by Blue Star Marine is 13.5 metres long and 3.18 metres wide. Delivered to the Navy in 1995-96, it is equipped with a 12.7 mm Machine Gun. It is also equipped with a sophisticated radar system. At the time of the attack, it is said to have also carried night vision devices and other armaments on board.

There were conflicting reports on the sequence of events. In the wake of a string of successes against the LTTE, a Navy spokesman, perhaps to avoid embarrassment, gave a version that contradicted almost all other official and independent accounts.

That was to later cause uneasiness at the highest levels of the Navy. It also raised issues about the futility of distorted or diluted versions being issued for public consumption whenever losses or reversals occur.

The Navy spokesman told the media on Thursday morning that some eight to ten LTTE boats had entered the Jaffna lagoon from the uncontrolled Pooneryn side. This was whilst a group of guerrillas, who had infiltrated through land, had kept firing at the base.

According to the Navy spokesman, two Water Jets deployed in the lagoon for night patrol came under attack. One had managed to come within the precincts of the base area whilst the other was hit and sunk outside. He claimed several attackers were killed and added that the guerrillas withdrew after they suffered heavy losses. He declared that one sailor was missing in action and two others were injured.

But some 18 hours after the incident, (on Thursday night) interception of LTTE radio transmissions by the security forces, both in the Jaffna peninsula and the Wanni, revealed Tiger claims that they had seized the P 174 Water Jet. The transmission gave details of items found on board.

Published accounts in the media on Friday, based on claims by the official Navy spokesman, surprised higher echelons of the defence establishment and even embarrassed some senior officials at Navy Headquarters. Of particular concern was the claim that the P 174 Water Jet had sunk.

Navy divers had on late Thursday searched the bottom of the sea in the general area, largely shallow and clear terrain, where the confrontation had occurred. They retrieved only a General Purpose Machine Gun (GPMG) and a grenade. There were no signs of a wrecked Water Jet.

If further doubts on the fate of the P 174 Water Jet were reflected in a news release put out by the Operational Headquarters of the Ministry of Defence, the Security Forces Headquarters in Jaffna, had not only obtained confirmation that it was in LTTE hands but also pieced together the sequence of events. That account, of course, did not tally with the claims made by the official Navy spokesman.

In its news release (No 122) on February 19 (Friday), the Operational Headquarters of the Ministry of Defence said:

"Further to the information released on the terrorist attack on the Naval detachment, Kilaly on 18 Feb 99, 01 water jet which was damaged due to the confrontation is supposed to be sunk. 02 Naval ratings were wounded and another is reported to be missing in action due to the incident."

By using the words 'supposed to be sunk,' the Operational Headquarters of the Ministry of Defence seemed to be making it clear there was some, (if not full), doubt on the Navy's claim. One cannot otherwise understand the use of the word 'supposed,' for it only goes to suggest that it was only a claim. And that claim came from the Navy in the form of remarks by their own official spokesman.

Major General Lohan Gunawardena, under whose overall purview comes the area where the incident occurred, is due to send a full report to the Army Commander, Lt. Gen. Srilal Weerasooriya. In fact the headquarters of 52 Division (under his charge) had reported the incident to Army Headquarters last Thursday (February 18) itself.

A brief detail of this incident was one of the items listed in the daily Situation Report (Sitrep) circulated to President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga , senior defence and security forces officials. This is how Thursday's incident was referred to:

'A NAVY BOAT CAME UNDER ENEMY FIRE WHILE PATROLLING IN KILALY LAGOON. 01 X WATER JET AND 01 X SAILOR REPORTED MISSING. 02 X SAILORS WERE INJURED.'

Independent accounts and details put together by intelligence agencies speak of a different story. Verification of these for further veracity and confirmation is difficult since the media is banned from visiting the operational areas. The only exception has been the official visits programmed by state agencies.

Two Water Jets of the Navy were said to have been some 1.5 nautical miles off the Kilaly coast when groups of guerrillas in boats confronted them. When the latter began firing with RPGs (Rocket Propelled Grenades), Machine Gun and small arms fire, the Water Jets had headed towards the Kilaly base for cover. One had managed to rush towards the base.

Coming under intense fire, personnel on the second Water Jet (P 174) had reportedly jumped overboard and swum to the base except for one - LME (Leading Engineering Mechanic) Hewawasam. He has been declared Missing In Action. It is at this point that the P 174 had been captured. LTTE radio transmissions intercepted at that moment is said to have revealed that Tiger guerrillas sought an additional group to come over immediately.

There are conflicting reports on whether damage was in fact caused to the P 174 Water Jet. There are also conflicting reports on whether there was a land based attack simultaneously as the two Water Jets came under Tiger guerrilla fire. Whilst some security officials denied it took place, there were Navy officials who claimed Tiger cadres had in fact infiltrated the area.

But the billion dollar question that has baffled the security establishment is whether or not the men in the two Water Jets were manning the on board radar. If they were in fact doing so, they would have spotted the presence of the Tiger boats. That would have given them sufficient time to send out an urgent alert to shore based military installations.

Such an alert had in fact come only after the first Water Jet had reached the Navy base in Kilali. The response came, reportedly in a short time, from the Army units surrounding the area including the Army's shore based Special Boat Squadron (SBS). Soldiers, some in their night clothes, clutched weapons and waded waist deep in the shallow waters to aim their guns and fire in the direction of the area where the LTTE boats had been spotted earlier. Artillery guns were soon trained in on the same area. Positions of shore based radar were changed to locate the position of the Tiger guerrilla boats. Two SBS Javelins, (the improved version of a dinghy but costing over Rs 250,000) were drifting in the shallow waters and had to be retrieved.

It was only on Wednesday, a day before the latest Kilali incident, that senior officials of the Army and Navy discussed possible LTTE threats at a top level conference at the Army's 54 Division Headquarters in Elephant Pass. According to one source, General Officer Commanding, Major General Sarath Munasinghe, the one time Military Spokesman, is said to have warned of possible attacks that week on either Army defences in the area or the Navy patrols in the lagoon. By a strange quirk of fate, it followed the very next day at Kilali.

It was only last Tuesday, a cheerful Navy Commander, Vice Admiral Cecil Tissera, briefed the National Security Council about the Navy's latest success. It came on February 11 when the Navy's Fast Attack Craft patrol in the Palk Straits intercepted two fibreglass boats south of the Delft island (Situation Report - February 14). They had arrived from Tamil Nadu shores, crossed the Palk Straits and were heading towards a Sea Tiger Base in Nachchikuda when the incident occurred.

A 32 foot fibreglass boat seized by the Navy contained a big load of medical supplies - saline bottles, sterilised water bottles, field dressings, antibiotic tablets etc. The detection revealed that the LTTE was using Tamil Nadu once again to obtain supplies including medical requirements. Just 24 hours after top officials in the security establishment learnt of the Navy's success came the incident at Kilali, one which quite evidently, tended to obscure the earlier gains. But the fact that the official spokesman's version of the incident sought to cover up some of the real details did upset some Navy senior officials.

One high ranking source said Vice Admiral Tissera had told the Ministry of Defence in a report on the Kilali incident that 'the craft was missing or possibly sunk or towed away by the enemy…"

Who, then was responsible for a different official line ? Navy sources confirm that some senior officials directly concerned with the event were responsible but declined to elaborate.

Whoever was responsible, the move reflected badly on the credibility of the Navy, particularly at a time when they were gaining increased public confidence with their string of successes. Attempts at covering up losses with 'official' accounts will only contribute to a loss of image in the public eye and raise doubts even over the real achievements. More so with the Navy earning the wrath of the LTTE with its recent strikes.

Last Thursday's loss of a Water Jet is the sixth for the Sri Lanka Navy. During an LTTE attack on the Pooneryn defence complex in November, 1993, the LTTE seized five Water Jets from the Navy's detachment at Nagathevanthurai near Pooneryn.

President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, who is personally directing the military machine against the LTTE, has declared that top priority should be given to strengthening the Navy. This stems from the defence establishment's new priorities where Navy is being regarded as the first line of defence. The Ministry of Defence is to equip the Navy with an Israeli built Multi Purpose Vessel shortly.

A three member Navy team led by Rear Admiral D.W. Sandagiri, Chief of Staff and comprising Commander R.A.L. Gunasinghe, Captain Superintendent Dockyard and Commander J.C. Hettigama, Deputy Director, Naval, Electrical And Electronics, were in Israel to conduct a study and evaluate offers.

Israel was identified after three suppliers made bids when tenders were called for by the Ministry of Defence. The other two suppliers from Ukraine and Russia.


(Situation Report - 21st February 1999 )