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SRI LANKA: THE UNTOLD
STORY
Chapter 57: Kittu, the LTTE
legend
By K T Rajasingham
The
modern history of Sri Lanka is not complete without a
chapter on Satahasivam Krishnakumar, who was popularly
called "Kittu". He is considered a hero and more than a
legend by Tamils all over the world. He was a rebel, a
freedom fighter and he commanded the forces of the
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in Jaffna, and
later became a political activist of the organization.
The LTTE and the Tamils consider him as a beloved martyr
in the struggle for Tamil Eelam.
Krishnakumar
was born on January 2, 1960, the second the son of the
Sathasivam-Rajaluxmy couple of Valvetiturai, an
historically popular costal town in the Vadamaradchy
region. His father had a small printing press, at
Nelliady, Karaveddy, doing jobbing works.
But
Rajaluxmy, his mother had always been involved in
politics. She had been a strong supporter of the Ilankai
Thamil Arasu Kadchi (Federal Party) led S J V
Chelvanayakam and participated in the Satyagraha of
1961, in Jaffna, when Kittu was a toddler. She is a
great women, a matriarchal figure, and even today she
can be seen working to uplift downtrodden women in the
Jaffna region and those participating in the struggle
for a Tamil homeland.
Krishnakumar had his early
education at Chithampara College, Valvetiturai, where
the leader of the LTTE, Velupillai Prabhakaran, as well
as Mahendrarajah, alias Mahattaya, also had their
education. Kirishnakumar is a close relation of
Prabhakaran and also one his good friends, hailing from
the same village. In 1978, Krishnakumar was inducted
into the LTTE by Prabhakaran and he went with him to
Madras, Tamil Nadu, in India.
Once Krishnakumar
joined the LTTE, he was christened as - Kittu, a
familiar name in the midst of nearly 80 million Tamils,
scattered all over the world. On July 20, 1983, the Sri
Lankan government issued a ban on press reporting about
the LTTE. By that time the LTTE had started functioning
on its own. They were upset when they were called an
organization of some misguided youths, and a shadow
organization of the Tamil United Liberation Front of
Tamil Eelam (TULF), led by A Amrithalingham. To prove to
the government, as well as to the people that, TULF
could no longer control Tamil youths, the LTTE chalked
out an elaborate plan. Also, it planned to avenge the of
death of Seelan, alias Charles Anthony, at Meesalai on
July 15, 1983.
Accordingly, Kittu and Sellakili
were involved in the planning of an attack on a military
convoy at Tirinnalveli, located close to the University
of Jaffna. They chose a narrow road to ambush the army
convoy. Prabhakaran, Chellakili, Iyer, Victor,
Pulendran, Santos, Appaiah and Kittu participated on the
operation, which was successfully completed on the night
of July 23, 1983, with the death of 13 Sri Lankan
soldiers - the biggest loss for the Sri Lankan army
during that time, at the hands of the Tamil militants.
When the bodies of the 13 soldiers were taken to
Colombo, rioting erupted on the night of July 24 - which
was called the "Holocaust of 1983". After the riots,
India came forward to train the Tamil militants and
while this program was on in India, Kittu became the
Jaffna regional commander of the LTTE. Unlike other
commanders, he personally led attacks against the Sri
Lankan armed forces.
Whatever is said and done,
due credit should go to Kittu for disciplining the LTTE
cadres. It was reported that, he would lose his temper
if anyone questioned him. Kittu took stern action
against cadres who were reported to have violated the
code ethics of the militant movement. Violators were
mercilessly punished, and thus the message of discipline
was instilled in the minds if each and every cadre.
Kittu reportedly used foul language, both in public and
even with the cadres. He was said to be a megalomaniac.
Even when commanders under him in various towns called
for instructions regarding captured civilians who were
alleged to have committed simple offences, he would
shout at the commanders to dump them. He ran kangaroo
courts to instill fear into the minds of the general
public of the Jaffna peninsula.
During the
fratricidal clashes with the Tamil Eelam Liberation
Organization (TELO), Kittu and the LTTE were bent on
annihilating the TELO from Sri Lanka. The LTTE announced
that TELO had been banned and warned anyone sheltering
its leader, Sri Sabaratnam, popularly called Sri, and
other members of the organization, as inviting death.
Sri was on the run. He fled from his main camp
at Kalviyankadu and hid in Neerveli, later at Kopay and
finally at Kondavil, seven kilometers from Jaffna city.
The LTTE learned that Sri was hiding in Kondavil, and
immediately they cordoned off the area and launched a
house-to-house search. Kittu warned people over
loudhailers that, the fugitive Sri should not sheltered.
Ultimately, Sri was located behind the tobacco
heap and Kittu shot him in the leg. Sri toppled, but
managed to get up and begged Kittu to spare him. He told
him, "Kittu, let us talk with Prabhakaran, please don't
shoot me." These were his last words, as Kittu opened up
his machine gun. The battered body of Sri with 28 bullet
wounds, was displayed at the Kondavil bus stand, before
being handed over to his father for cremation.
This incident clearly displayed the brutal and
ruthless side of Kittu, but he had another side which
showed that he respected his able enemies. Kittu
recognized Captain Jayanath Kotelawala of the Sri Lanka
army as a brave soldier. In 1986, when Kotelawala sent
words to Kittu for a meeting, through Gamini Navaratne,
the editor of the "Saturday Review" the English weekly
published from Jaffna, he said, "Kotelawala was a brave
soldier and a gentleman. I would like to meet him."
Subsequently, the brave Sri Lankan soldier walked out of
Jaffna Fort armed with only the LTTE guarantee for his
safe return. Following the first meeting, both began to
meet regularly and the relationship blossomed so much
that, Kittu arranged to send firewood and mangoes to the
soldiers in the fort, whenever they made the request.
In October, 1986, Kittu also met in Jaffna
Vijaya Kumaratunga, the matinee idol of the Sinhalese in
the south of Sri Lanka and the husband of Chandrika
Kumaratunga, the present president of the country. On
December 27, 1986, Kittu received the first Sri Lankan
government delegation for talks in Jaffna. It was the
first time such direct talks had been initiated between
the Tamil militants and the government. A three-hour
meeting in camera was held between the Kittu-led LTTE
delegation and government representatives. But
subsequently Kittu felt that the talks were a ploy by
the government to isolate the LTTE from India so there
were no more.
Though Kittu was not politically
trained, his exposure to politics molded him into a
political wizard. On the night of March 13, 1997, an
unidentified man fired at and lobbed a powerful grenade
on the Mitsubishi Lancer carrying Kittu on Jaffna's
Second Cross Street, while he was on his way to meet his
girlfriend, a medical student at the Jaffna University.
Two of his bodyguards died instantly, while another was
seriously injured. Kittu's right leg was virtually
severed and he eventually lost it. The injury marked the
end of long and colorful military career and Kittu moved
to Madras, to take charge of the Tiger's propaganda
office.
During the LTTE-Indian Army's war, Kittu
was in Madras and senior officials of the Research and
Analysis Wing (RAW) held talks with him and the LTTE
representatives in an attempt to reach an understanding
with the LTTE to take the peace process forward,
according to the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord entered between
Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and the Sri Lankan
President J R Jayewardene. At these parleys it was
decided by Kittu to send Johny as the LTTE's emissary to
meet Prabhakaran, who was operating from jungle hideouts
in the Vanni region. Accordingly, Johnny was brought
from Madras on the Indian Air Force aircraft, by the RAW
officials and left him in Vavuniya, for him to proceed
his journey in the jungles, in search of Prabhakaran, to
brief him of the negotiation Kittu had with the senior
Raw officials, on behalf of the Indian Government and to
bring back Prabhakaran's instruction to Kittu.
Unfortunately, while Johnny was riding a bicycle
along a jungle track, Indian Peacekeeping Forces (IPKF)
soldiers lying in ambush, shot and killed him. Johnny's
death put an end to the Indian government for a
successful negotiation with the LTTE. As expected, the
LTTE-RAW talks collapsed. Ultimately, the Tamil Nadu
police sealed the 12 LTTE offices in Tamil Nadu in
August 1988 and arrested 154 LTTE activists, including
Kittu.
As no charges were filed against the
arrested LTTE activists, Kittu and the others threatened
to launch an indefinite hunger strike for their unlawful
detention. But in October 1988 Kittu was set free and
deported to Jaffna, which at that time was under the
control of the Indian forces. Kittu subsequently reached
Vanni.
When the LTTE started its negotiations
with the government led by President R Premadasa after
April 1989, Adele Balasingham writes in her book The
Will to Freedom that they saw Kittu in the camp at
Vanni when they went there after the second round of
talks with Premadasa.
She writes, "In early
October we made our second visit to the Mullaithievu
jungles to meet and consult with Mr. Pirabakaran. During
the course of the visit Mr. Pirabakaran conveyed to Bala
his wish to send Kittu to London for treatment to his
amputated leg. On hearing the decision to send him
abroad, Kittu was obviously of two minds. Undeniably he
aspired for a suitable prosthesis to be fitted, which
would help him with his walking and mobility. But he was
a man emotionally attached to his cadres and his
homeland and the prospect of separating from them was an
obvious source of distress to him. Kittu flourished in
the environment where he could teach his cadres and
encourage them with their interests and he often
initiated new projects for them to engage in. And so as
the day for his departure grew nearer he became quieter;
as did many of his cadres. And I think that one of the
most pitiful sights I can remember seeing is the
legendary guerrilla fighter crying on Mr. Pirabakaran's
shoulder, the day we were to take him out of the Alampil
jungle. His cadres carried him in a chair on their
shoulders - to the waiting helicopter. In a classic
Kittu style, he put a brave face for his cadres during
the trek out of the jungle, expressing his affection for
them in the jokes he was cracking.
"Soon after
his arrival in Colombo, we escorted Kittu to the British
High Commission. After discussion with the British
Ambassador, Kittu's entry visa to the United Kingdom was
authorized. But Kittu had one serious matter to attend
before his departure to London. When Kittu went to
Mullaithievu jungles after being released from the IPKF
custody, he became separated from his medical student
girlfriend, Cynthia. Now he was anxious to be reunited
with her. On his request, she traveled from Jaffna to
Colombo to meet him. Shortly afterwards they decided to
marry. Kittu's mother rushed from Valvetiturai to
Colombo to attend the ceremony. Cynthia's parents were
already in Colombo. And so, on October 25, in one of the
rooms of the hotel where the LTTE team was accommodated
during the talks, the registration of the marriage of
Kittu and Cynthia took place. A few days later, Kittu
flew to London and Cynthia joined him after travel
arrangements were made." - Pages 250-251.
There
are no medical reports of Kittu attending hospitals in
London for treatment and it was never made available to
the media. Even whether he went to any hospitals for
medication is not known. But he was in London and was in
charge of the international secretariat of the LTTE, at
that time located at 54 Tavistock Place, London WC1.
While in London, he won the enmity of Sri Lankan
Tamil refugees who had sought asylum in England. It was
reported that, he harassed Sri Lankan Tamils and even
threatened them and demanded payment of money to the
LTTE defense fund. As his harassment became intolerable,
the refugees began to send petitions to the immigration
and police authorities in London, complaining about
Kittu and of his intolerable harassment.
At one
stage, it was told that, there were more than 2,000
petitions against Kittu in at the immigration office
alone. After a thorough investigation, the immigration
authorities sent in notice of deportation to Kittu. On
the receipt of this, Kittu left London for Paris and
later to Switzerland, where he sought asylum. But
according to reports, Kittu left Switzerland and went to
Sweden and from there he went to Vienna in Austria.
While there, he received instructions from Prabhakaran
to return to Vanni, so he flew to Singapore.
There are conflicting reports of what happened
after that. According to one report, Kittu traveled from
Singapore to Thailand, and from there he boarded a ship
named MV Yahata. This account states that the Yahata
left the Thai island of Phuket with a huge weapons cargo
loaded by the Pakistan navy, under its Inter-Services
Intelligence supervision for Karachi in January 1993.
In the Bay of Bengal the boat changed its name
to be Ahat by painting over the first and last letters
in the original name. On Wednesday, January 13, 1993,
when the Indian navy patrolling the sea southeast of
Madras, they came across the 400-hundred tonne ship,
Yahata alias Ahat, without navigation lights, en route
to Madras.
But according to another report, the
280 tonne (there was confusion even on the tonnage of
the ship) MV Ahat, owned by the LTTE, was intercepted by
Indian naval and coastguard authorities in the Indian
Ocean on January 13, 1993. It was alleged by LTTE
sources that the vessel was intercepted by the Indian
navy when it was 440 miles from the Indian coast.
It seems that an Indian Coast Guard Donier
aircraft was on a routine surveillance flight between
Point Calimere on the Tamil Nadu coast and Pont Pedro in
Jaffna in northern Sri Lanka when it first sighted the
vessel on January 6, and it was kept under watch from
then on. Two days later, an Indian naval aircraft on a
reconnaissance flight reportedly noted that the vessel
had entered Indian waters and was proceeding towards the
coast in a suspicious manner, frequently changing
course.
It was at this point 200 kilometers off
the coast of Tamil Nadu, on January 12, that Indian
naval intelligence reportedly had confirmation that the
Ahat indeed belonged to the LTTE and that it passengers
included key LTTE figures. Thereafter "Operation
Zabardast" was launched by the Indian navy on January
13. On the following day, two coast guard vessels, CGS
Vivek and the missile corvette INS Kirpan, approached
the LTTE vessel, which was escorted towards the Indian
coast and navy commandos made preparations to board to
capture the crew and passengers and seize all the arms
and ammunition on board.
According to another
version, the Yahata left Phuket in January 1993. By
then, the Thai port had become a focus of Indian
intelligence interest. (One submarine understood to be
Indian had been sighted from the air near the harbor,
apparently spying on shipping activity.) On board the
Yahata - along with a shipment of arms and explosives -
was Kittu. In the Bay of Bengal, the Yahata became the
Ahat by the simple expedient of painting over the first
and last letters in the ship's name. But on January 13
it was intercepted by the Indian navy and three days
later, at a point 700 kilometers southeast of Madras,
the final act was played out. Kittu and other Tigers
aboard permitted the crew to swim for safety, then they
detonated explosives on board and went down with the
ship.
It was generally stated that, according to
another account which was supportive of the LTTE
version, on Wednesday, January 13, 1993, the ship Ahat
was unlawfully intercepted by the Indian navy in
international waters in the Indian Ocean. The ship was
intercepted about 290 miles east of Hambantota in the
south of the island of Sri Lanka and about 440 miles
southeast of south India (Latitude 6 degrees North,
Longitude 85 degrees East).
According to an
Indian Defense Ministry statement dated January 16,
1993, Indian Coast Guards and naval vessels were
monitoring India's exclusive economic zone. While on
patrol they detected the Ahat on January 6 and were
shadowing it as it was acting suspiciously and
frequently changing course. Considering the activities
of the LTTE and the smuggling of arms and ammunition
into India and Sri Lanka, the movement of the ship was
monitored. On inquiry by radio contact, it was found
that the vessel was carrying arms and ammunition and
explosives for the LTTE. Naval reinforcement were rushed
immediately.
The Defense Ministry statement
added that, the crew set the ship on fire after it had
been surrounded by navy boats, when it was about 12
nautical miles off the southern Indian city of Madras.
Some individuals were seen throwing articles into the
sea and jumping overboard after setting the ship on
fire, and nine persons were rescued from the water.
According to the Indian version, the crew and the LTTE
cadres on board were given every opportunity to
surrender. Efforts to put out the fire and save the ship
from sinking were hampered by large quantities of high
explosive on board the ship and the knowledge that there
could still be nine persons on board. The statement also
confirmed that Kittu was on board the ill- fated ship
and that he had threatened to blow up the ship, if
Indian marines tried to board it and take him prisoner.
According to an LTTE radio broadcast on January
16, 1993, Kittu, along with eight other senior military
cadres, committed suicide in true Tiger fashion and died
a martyr's death. The voice of the Tigers' radio
identified the victims as:
1.Sathasivam Krishnakumar,
alias Colonel Kittu of Valvetiturai.
2. Sri Ganeshan,
alias Lt-Col Kuttisri of Suthumalai North, Manipay
3.
Suntheralingham Suntharavel, alias Mlarvannan alias
Major Velan of Viyaparimoolai, Point Pedro.
4.
Nadarajah, alias Jeyarajah, alias Sea Tiger Captain
Jeeva of Pasaiyoor
5. Gunarajah, alias Segaram
Michael Jeeva, alias Sea Tiger Captain Gunaseelan,
Second Cross Street, Jaffna.
6. Ratnasingham
Arunarajah, alias Sea Tiger Captain Roshan of Nallur,
Jaffna.
7. Sivalingham Kesavan, alias Sea Tiger
captain Nayakan of Polikandy, Valvetiturai.
8.
Mahalingham Jayalingham, alias Sea Tiger Lt Nallavan of
Maniamthottam, Jaffna.
9. Aloysius Jayanathan, alias
Sea Tiger Lt Amuthan of Navanthurai, Jaffna.
The
Tiger leadership announced three days of mourning for
the martyred heroes of the LTTE, commencing on January
18.
The LTTE accused the Indian government of
joining hands with the Sri Lankan government to crush
the Tamil people's struggle for independence, a
statement issued by the LTTE in Jaffna stated, "The
former Jaffna Commander of the LTTE was on his way to
meet the LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran to brief him
on the latest peace proposal arranged with the
assistance of certain European countries to find a
solution to the ethnic crisis in Sri Lanka.
"Kittu had explained to the navy officials, who
surrounded him, but they had rejected his explanation
and had taken the LTTE ship by force to the shores.
Following this action by the Indian navy Kittu and eight
of his comrades committed suicide to prevent themselves
from becoming prisoners of the Indian government.
Thileepan, Kumarappah, Pulendran and Johnny were the
earlier victims of the treachery of the Indian
government and now Kittu has been added to this list.
"India is out to crush the independence struggle
of the Tamil people of Sri Lanka. It did not want the
Western countries showing interest in solving the ethnic
question. Weakening the LTTE and strengthening the
Sinhala chauvinist government were the major intentions
of the government of India." Meanwhile, it was announced
in Madras that, the dead body of a Tiger cadre and two
injured cadres from the burnt out ship had been
retrieved and taken to Visakapattanam naval base by the
Indian naval commandos. The two injured men were being
treated aboard a navy hospital ship under strict
security. Although the Ahat had been badly burnt and
damaged, reports and photographs in the Indian
newspapers indicated that the ship as afloat. According
to General Officer Commanding the Indian Navy's Southern
Sector, Vice Admiral Kailasha Kumar Kohili, the Indian
Navy Frigate Vivek and another vessel had first
attempted to bring the fire under control. When
difficulties were encountered they had to bring in the
better equipped navy frigate, Feroze Gandhi. It not only
brought the fire under control, but navy commandos
boarded the LTTE ship.
The captain of the
ill-fated ship, Jayachandran, and eight other members of
the crew who were rescued by the Indian navy were
charged on January 18 under the Terrorist and Disruptive
Activities Act (TADA) before the magistrate of
Visakapatinam, M Ramakrishnan. Jayachandran was placed
in police custody for three days for interrogation and
the other eight members were remanded for 14 days and
were identified as Satkunalingham, V Krishnamoorthy, K
Nayakam, S Sivarasa, S Indralingham, S Balakrishnan and
T Mohan.
The International Secretariat of the
Liberation Tigers presented, on Friday, February 5,
1993, a petition to the United Nations calling for the
formation of a special committee to hear and investigate
alleged violations committed by India, which caused the
death of its Central Committee member, Sathasivam
Krishnakumar and eight other LTTE members in the Indian
Ocean, in January 1993. The petition pointed out that
the General Assembly is empowered to act under Chapter
IV, Article 22 of the United Nations Charter to
establish an ad hoc special committee to function as a
tribunal to investigate and report on the gross
violations of international law, committed by the Indian
government and its agents and servants against the
people of Tamil Eelam and its leaders, as set out in the
petition. The petition declared that under the Law of
the Sea Convention, which constitutes customary
international law and to which India is a party,
therefore India has no right to exercise a police
jurisdiction on the high seas.
No action was
taken by the United Nations on the petition submitted by
the Liberation Tigers on behalf of the people of Tamil
Eelam as claimed by the Tamil Tigers. However, nine
survivors from the MV Ahat were arrested by the Indian
navy and lodged in solitary cells in a special wing of
Vishakapatnam jail with maximum security. They were
charged with criminal conspiracy, shipment of explosives
and threatening navy officials.
The case was
heard for 37 days, and dragged on for three years.
Thirty-four witnesses for the prosecution, mostly navy
personnel, were interrogated. On the court's directive,
the navy salvaged the remains of the ship and claimed to
have retrieved rocket-propelling guns and other arms,
but the navy did not submit the gunnery records or
communication tapes of the ship to the court, even
during in camera sessions.
Fearing that the case
against the accused was not proceeding in favor of the
prosecution, the Additional Solicitor General of India,
T S Tulsi, was specially requisitioned to marshal
additional points in "defense" of the prosecution in the
case. The Indian government, having itself instituted
proceedings under the TADA and invoked the jurisdiction
of the court, now contended that the court had no
jurisdiction to inquire into what happened on the high
seas.
UNI reported on June 20, 1996 as follows:
"Additional Solicitor General of India, T S Tulsi told
the designated court here today that the trial court had
no jurisdiction to go into what happened on the high
seas off Madras coast, where the LTTE vessel MV Ahat
alleged to be carrying arms and ammunition was
intercepted and nine militants were captured.
"Tulsi ... contended before the designated Judge
P Lakshmana Reddy, that as per the 1952 convention with
regard to the laws of the seas, whatever happened on the
high seas was a matter between two independent states.
The two states in this case were India, whose navy
captured the vessel and Honduras to which the vessel was
said to belong to. Hence the matter could be tried only
in the international court of justice, if Honduras
raised any objection. But Honduras had not made any
complaint so far and had even disowned any control or
supervision over the crew that operated the LTTE vessel,
which was originally registered in that country, he
submitted.
"He contended that the designated
court had jurisdiction to try the arrested men for
offences committed on the territorial waters of India.
Quoting relevant provisions from the Territorial waters,
continental shelf act 1976, Tulsi said the territorial
waters of India extended up to a distance of 12 nautical
miles from the coast, the contiguous zone to 24 nautical
miles and the continental shelf and the economic zone to
200 nautical miles.
"Tulsi argued that under the
provisions of TADA to prove the theory of conspiracy
each of the accused need not be involved or in the know
of the real purpose for which the arms and ammunition
they had carried in the vessel would be used. It was
sufficient if they had lent substantial assistance in
the illegal act of transporting explosives, arms and
petrochemicals which were carried clandestinely, he said
and asserted that there was no legitimate use for which
these were carried. They were deemed to have shared the
intention to carry out terrorist acts, he said.
"Tulsi submitted that though the vessel was
registered under the name MV Yahata, it was changed in
the high seas, because the vessel was engaged in
clandestine activities. He contended that the moment the
vessel changed its name, it had lost its nationality.
Also the crew, did not hoist the flag of its nationality
and did not have necessary papers. When the Indian navy
wanted to know its call-sign, the crew gave a wrong
call-signal and it was clear that the vessel was
stateless, he said. Such a vessel had no right under the
international law he contended.
"Quoting
international law on piracy, Tulsi said the master of
the vessel was not in control of the vessel, but it was
Krishnakumar [alias Kittu] and he was communicating with
the other vessels in the vicinity. A pirate ship could
be seized and we had the right to seize this vessel, and
contended that, if hostile boarding was resisted, the
Indian navy had the right to capture the vessel. But the
Indian navy personnel did not board the vessel, because
of humanitarian considerations and they feared that the
men on board might consume cyanide capsules. But later,
we had no alternative but to resort to hostile boarding
as a logical conclusion, he submitted.
"Quoting
from a Privy Council decision, Tulsi contended that
since the vessel lost its nationality, the Indian Navy
had the right to board the vessel and bring it to the
territorial waters of India. Once the vessel entered the
territorial waters, it committed an offence and was
liable to be punished. However, the TADA court judge, P
Lakshman Reddy, rejected the submissions of the
Prosecution as well as the charge of carrying explosives
against the crew, and held that the Navy and the
investigating agencies, including the Central Bureau of
Investigation and the Special Investigating Team, had
failed to prove their charges against the crew of the MV
Ahat."
The Hindu International News reported on
June 29, 1996 from Visakhapatinam: "All the nine Sri
Lankan Tamil, suspected to be members of the Liberation
Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), were acquitted by the
Designated Court by P. Lakshmana Reddy, Designated Judge
and District and Sessions Judge, here on Friday. He
directed the Commissioner of Police of Visakhapatnam to
hand them over to the Government of Honduras
immediately, since MV Ahat, the vessel they were sailing
in, was registered in Honduras.
"The
prosecution's case was that the nine accused along with
Kittu, a top-ranking LTTE leader, and nine militants
were sailing on MV Ahat carrying arms, ammunition and
petrochemicals. The vessel was intercepted by an Indian
Coast Guard ship, 440 nautical miles off the Indian
coast on Jan. 13, 1993, when it was observed that it was
not flying a flag and those aboard the vessel also
threatened to blow up the vessel, if it was approached."
"The naval ships which joined the Coast Guard
ship, later persuaded MV Ahat to come near to Madras.
When it was near the shores of Madras, it had allegedly
fired at the naval ships on Jan. 16 and later the cargo
aboard the ship was set ablaze. While Kittu and nine
others committed suicide, the nine accused in the case
jumped into the sea and were picked up by the naval
ships."
"The Judge said there was no case under
the TADA Act against the accused, as they were brought
forcibly into the Indian waters and also there was no
evidence of any offence. He agreed with the defence
argument that the Coast Guard ship was not justified in
intercepting MV Ahat, when it was in the international
waters and when the accused had revealed that the ship
belonged to Honduras. Dissatisfied with the judgment of
the Trial Court, the Prosecution appealed to the Indian
Supreme Court. But the Supreme Court upheld the Trial
Court's finding and ordered the release of the accused."
Reuters reported on 18 March 1997: "India's
Supreme Court has ordered the release of nine Sri Lankan
Tamil guerrillas, four years after they were arrested
from an explosives-laden ship off India's southern
coast, court officials said on Tuesday. The officials
said the Monday verdict upheld a lower court's ruling
that had criticized the Indian navy for intercepting the
ship. ... The rebels, who were not identified, were
arrested under India's tough Terrorist and Disruptive
Activities Prevention Act (TADA), after they were
accused of opening fire on Indian security forces. The
prosecution has failed to establish any offence
punishable under the TADA act or the rules framed there
under, the court order said. .... 'none of the accused
can be said to have committed any offence under the
Indian Explosive Substances Act and the Indian Arms
Act', it said.
"If the nine LTTE men are freed,
India will not want to keep them here as free citizens
of the world," one Western diplomat said. "Would they
extradite them? That's another very sensitive prospect."
The Indian authorities, faced with the decision of the
Indian Supreme Court, adopted a more interesting
approach. They re-arrested all the freed accused on
charges of entering India without valid travel
documents.
Agencies France Presse reported on
March 28, 1997 from New Delhi: "Eight Sri Lankan Tamil
Tiger guerrillas were freed by an Indian court after
spending four years in jail only to be immediately
re-arrested on fresh charges, United News of India (UNI)
reported Friday. A court in the southern town of
Visakhapatnam released the eight late Thursday. They had
been arrested off the Indian coast in 1993 for allegedly
trying to smuggle plastic explosives and weapons into
India. But police re-arrested them for entering India
without valid travel documents. UNI said they would be
produced before a court later Friday."
The facts
as found by the Indian courts establish that the MV Ahat
was intercepted in the high seas and forced (persuaded)
to travel into Indian territorial waters by the Indian
navy. It was a proven act of piracy and Sathasivam
Krishnakumar and eight others lost their lives. Today,
eight other Tamils languish in India's jails on trumped
up charges of having entered India without valid travel
documents.
Chapter
56: The execution of Mahattaya
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