.

Sinking of Trinco-Muttur ferry baffles authorities

by Our Defence Correspondent
The sinking of the civilian ferry "MV Newco Endurance" in Trincomalee harbour last Sunday has left authorities scratching their heads at the sheer absurdity of the attack.

The motive behind the attack has left many scratching their heads in wonder, since the loss of the ship has only caused considerable hardship to people in the region, most of whom are Tamil and many of whom live in LTTE-controled areas.

The ship had been involved in carrying civilian passengers between Trincomlaee and Muttur and was of no military value at all.

The Newco Endurance was a 78 ton vessel, which was 28 meters long and carried between 300-350 passengers. The white coloured ship, which had frequently been used by NGO officials and journalists several years ago, when it was in service between Trincomalee and Jaffna was owned by Newco Shipping (Pvt) Limited, which has its office in Havelock Town in Colombo. The company’s owner, Bala Kirubamoorthi, has long been involved in civilian vessel operations in the north.

The vessels of the Newco Shipping line have been extraordinarily unfortunate, with this being the fourth ship to go down during the past five years.

The first incident involving a Newco vessel was on December 22, 1994, when the barge MV Tara sank off Mullaitivu. Fortunately, another vessel of the same company, MV Ngroma, was in the vicinity and rescued the Tara’s crew. This incident was not due to LTTE action, but was found to have happened due to leaks developing in the Tara’s hull, as the ship was quite old. In fact, at the time of the sinking, hostilities were at a minimum, with President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga having announced a few days before that the government and the LTTE would begin a cease-fire, which would be coming into effect on January 1 of 1995. It was amazingly fortunate that the Ngroma was in the vicinity to affect the rescue, since other merchant ships normally stayed a bit further out from this dangerous stretch of coastline which is dotted with LTTE bases.

The next incident was on October 5, 1996, when the MV Newco Pride sank off Negombo. Again, there was no loss of life. The ship normally worked for the Commissioner General of Essential Services, carrying supplies in the north and it is ironic that it would sink outside the war-zone, so close to Colombo.

The third incident was definitely the work of the LTTE. This involved the ferry MV Missen, which was seized by the Tigers off Pesalai in the Mannar district and its crew taken hostage, on July 1, 1997.

The ship was then set on fire and burned out totally by the Tigers. Most of the crew, who included several foreigners, were released after long periods in captivity.

Sunday’s attack came at 3.30 a.m., when an underwater mine blasted the ship and the pier it was tied to. The ship sank quickly and the pier was badly damaged.

The ship’s captain, 55-year-old Savarimuttu Arulnayagam, was killed and its Chief Engineer, Veeran Shanmugan was wounded. Three other crewmen on board escaped unhurt, while two more had gone on shore the previous night and escaped the incident.

The Newco Endurance had been doing a regular passenger run between Trincomlaee and Muttur which is a distance of only about 20 miles each way. It last did the trip on July 24, Saturday and returned at 7 p.m. which was only eight hours before the attack.

The Newco Endurance first went to northern waters in the days when all ships going north were hired by the Commissioner General of Essential Services, and arm of the then Ministry of Reconstruction, Rehabilitation and Social Services. It did a regular run between Jaffna and Trincomlaee.

But two years ago, the ship stopped this service, since it was old and not seaworthy enough for this run.

It was anchored in Trinco harbour for about a year, and then got permission to run a ferry service to Muttur starting in July of last year.

The armed forces have recovered several items, which were used by the divers who attached the explosives. The bomb was actually tied to the pier and not the ship, but as the vessel was secured to the pier, the result was that a large hole was blasted in its hull.

The items recovered include two diving air tanks, a wet suit, diver’s weights, a compass, and other breathing apparatus.

None of the items that were recovered, are part of the extra apparatus which are carried by the LTTE’s suicide cadres, such as the specially made suicide jackets. Thus, the attack may not be the work of the underwater wing of the Black Sea Tigers, who have always been involved in undersea attacks on ships.

The two air tanks are baffling investigators, since they still contained a lot of air when they were recovered. This indicates that the divers did not swim a long distance, such as from across the harbour, but came from only a few hundred yards away.

This raises the alarming possibility that at least two LTTE frogmen had come very close to Trincomalee town and had entered the sea virtually on the doorstep of the army, navy and police. The pier is in fact a civilian pier, but is within the area of the Harbour Police.

There was never any danger to the naval base in Trincomalee, since this is some distance away from the civilian pier, and is far more heavily guarded.

Another possibility is that this was not the work of the LTTE at all.

The competition for shipping rights in the northeast is intense, mainly because it is an extremely lucrative business. Shipowners and agents have become overnight multi-millionaires by landing a contract to operate between Colombo and northeast ports like Kankesanthurai, Point Pedro, Trincomalee and Mannar, transporting everything from people, to troops, to barbed wire and other material for the armed forces. This is apart from the all-important food supplies to half a million people in the Jaffna Peninsula, plus several hundred thousand more in other areas.

In fact, complaints of bribery and corruption are rampant against the government’s officials who have been involved in the selection of such ships in the past decade.

Competition is so intense that less than a dozen shipping lines have been able to secure hires in the northeast and even some of these have been driven out of the business by the competition.

The situation has recently been made even more complicated with the entry of one of the Tamil political parties into the shipping scene in the north, to run some of the ferry services in the region, namely the Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP). Although there is no evidence of any strong arm tactics by them so far, they are regarded with fear by some in the shipping industry, since they are former terrorists who are still allowed to carry their weapons.

It is known that the EPDP had tried to buy the Newco Endurance from Newco Shipping, and failed. The EPDP recently secured rights to operate a ferry service between Mannar and the Jaffna islands and Kankesanthurai and has been looking for a suitable vessel, with a crew who know the northeast waters.

For the government, the loss of Newco Endurance is merely a nuisance, but the ship will no doubt be replaced, if not by the same company, then by another shipping line. Thus, the services to Muttur can resume, after a few weeks or months.

The only loss is the damage to the pier, and this will have to be repaired.

But for the civilians in the area, the sinking of the Newco Endurance is alarming. Even if the ship is replaced, they will always be in fear when travelling on it, not knowing when it will be attacked. Until the ship is replaced, they will have to make an exhausting trip through jungle roads around the harbour, to get from Muttur to Trincomalee and the rest of the country.

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