.

Attempt to attack Kokilai army camps foiled

by our Defence Correspondent
An attempt by the LTTE to divert the attention of the army away from the recent series of operations in the western Wanni, by attacking army camps in the Kokilai region of the Trincomalee district, was thrown back last Tuesday.

The Tiger operation began shortly after dusk on Tuesday when two large boats carrying weapons and ammunition, believed to be mortars, mortar rounds, and machine guns, left a Sea Tiger base at Mullaitivu and quietly moved down the coast towards the wildlife sanctuary near Kokilai, 35 kilometres to the south, escorted by four other boats with mounted machine guns.

But at 10 p.m., the convoy was spotted by radar by a pair of patrolling Dvora fast attack craft, which warned the eastern headquarters at Trincomalee of the movement. Army camps along the coast at Kokilai and Naiaru were also alerted.

Reinforcements were quickly dispatched from Trincomalee, in the form of several more gunboats and Dvoras.

Shortly before midnight the battle began, with the gunboats attacking in the convoy.

As the four Sea Tiger craft fired back at the naval boats, the two logistics boats turned and fled back towards Mullaitivu.

Meanwhile Sea Tiger reinforcements also arrived in the form of four more boats, which joined in the battle.

One LTTE craft, hit repeatedly by gunfire, caught fire and sank. Three others were hit and disappeared from radar screens. They are believed to have sunk although they were not actually seen to sink in the darkness since they did not catch fire.

The four remaining LTTE craft scattered and fled back towards Mullaitivu, with the warships in hot pursuit.

The LTTE may have been hoping to trap the gunboats closer to Mullaitivu, as four more craft suddenly appeared.

But more naval warships had been on their way to the scene of the battle from the north and these also arrived at this time and joined the fray attacking the newly arrived Tiger boats from another directions.

The LTTE squadron scattered and made their way back to Mullaitivu.

The attempt to divert the army’s attention is a clear indication that the Tigers are unhappy about the operations in the western Wanni, despite the fact that the army has gained little ground there in more than two months.

The dead LTTE officers have been identified as Lieutenant Colonel Prasad alias Vinod Jayachandran, Major Nayagam Suruli alias Ponnadurai, Maj. Vasandan alias Mariadas Wimaladas, Maj. Inmola alias Kanagarathan Vasanthan, Captain Sellarani alias Amararani (female), Lieutenant Dharma (female), Lt. Medandai (female), and Lt. Mari Angela (female).

The battle showed that the Sea Tigers are not the near invincible adversary that they once were and that their ranks have been considerably thinned in the last two years in battles mainly off the Mullaitivu coast. They are no longer able to send very many boats as in the past when they would send 50 or more out at a time to swamp the navy’s warships.

Sle of SLT shares

Meanwhile, on the northwest coast, an LTTE trawler which was attempting to take 71 Tamil refugees to India was nabbed by a navy gunboat on May 22, one mile north of Talaimannar.

The boat, a multi-day trawler numbered BSM 7507, has been identified as one built by Blue Star Marine of Wattala and sold to a fish mudalali in Trincomalee. It had been hijacked by the Tigers two years ago while on the high seas.

When it was nabbed it was carrying 35 men 25 women and 11 children. All had paid between 5,000 rupees and 8,000 rupees to the LTTE for the journey to Rameshwaram.

Meanwhile Sri Lanka’s cash strapped government has finalized its plans to raise more money for the war effort by selling off a large chunk of Sri Lanka Telecom Limited.

The Public Enterprise Reform Commission on Thursday called for expressions of interest for the purchase of a 10.5% shareholding of SLT, part of the stake owned by the government.

The government is hoping to raise about seven billion rupees (630 million dollars) by selling these 180 million shares and is hoping to get about 37 rupees per share.

The sale is significant in the sense that it is one of the last major assets that the government can sell off, in order to raise money for the war.

President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga and members of her Cabinet have repeatedly said that they will not be selling off other large corporations such as the Ceylon Electricity Board, People’s Bank, Bank of Ceylon, and Sri Lanka Ports Authority. This is mostly due to opposition from employees and unions despite the fact that many international lending agencies have repeatedly urged the government to speed up its privatization programme.

The government already sold a 35% stake in SLT (630 million shares) in 1997 to Nippon Telephone and Telegraph Company (NTT) of Japan, for 225 million dollars, along with a contract to manage the firm. SLT has an issued share capital of 1.8 billion shares.

The government had often looked at SLT as its major reserve in the inevitable event of having to raise more money for the war. After the current sale the government will have 51% of SLT, which cannot be sold for several years since the agreement with NTT requires the government to maintain a majority shareholding of the firm. SLT employees have been assigned 3.5% of the shares already but these haven’t been handed over yet since the government wants to avoid the possibility of workers selling off their shares at cheap prices and bringing down the price that the government can get for its shares.

The decision to sell the l0.5% stake had been taken a year ago, but it took a while for PERC to finalize preparations for the sale.

Proceeds from the SLT share sale are expected to go towards retiring public debt, mainly short term loans taken by the government to finance its budget deficit.

Deputy Finance Minister G. L. Peiris had wanted to bring the deficit down to 6% of GDP, but it is likely to run at about 8.5% this year. This means that the government must borrow more money, which in turn will raise interest rates given on loans taken by the government, thus leading directly to high interest rates on loans given by banks. This immediately slows economic growth, since the private sector and individuals cannot afford to pay high interest and will take fewer loans.

Slower economic growth in turn leads to less revenue through taxes to the government, from what was expected, which completes a vicious circle of bringing an even higher budget deficit.

No doubt Minister G. L. Peiris is heartbroken over his plans to reduce the deficit, but from the Defence Ministry’s point of view the war goes on.

  | NEWS | PROVINCIAL | POLITICS | EDITORIAL | FEATURES | LEISURE | BUSINESS | SPORTS | ADS |