Midweek Review
A forgotten episode: Black Sea Tiger raid on Colombo port

By Shamindra Ferdinando
Having read the writer’s review of ex-Lankadeepa defence correspondent Ratnapala Gamage’s Ranabime Panhinda (Notes from the battlefront), retired Lieutenant L.S.A.N.T. Siriwardhana sought an explanation regarding the absence of at least a reference to the high profile raid on the Colombo harbour, in April 1996.
The Australia-Sri Lanka dual citizen pointed out that the unprecedented LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) foray into the heavily guarded Colombo port never received the attention it deserved.
“Ratnapala Gamage discussed the commando-style LTTE raid on the Bandaranaike International Airport, carried out in late July 2001 though he left out April 1996 raid on the Colombo port,” Siriwardhana said, asserting perhaps the media never had sufficient access to the required information.
Siriwardhana declared that he felt the need to discuss the Colombo port attack against the backdrop of Sri Lanka’s latest humiliating defeat at the Geneva-based United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC). In the absence of a comprehensive examination of the overall war, with the focus on major specific incidents and developments, successive governments failed to counter continuing propaganda against the country, and its valiant fighting men, by interested parties.
Siriwardhana said that even over 12 years after the successful conclusion of the war, the government hadn’t been able to properly record the conflict. Therefore, Sri Lanka’s failure to effectively counter propaganda and the resultant developments should be a matter of serious concern, Siriwardhana said.
LTTE issues statements from London
Following the raid on the Colombo port, on April 12, 1996, the LTTE issued two statements from its International Secretariat, situated at 211, Katherine Road, London E 6, IBU, UK. The LTTE credited the Black Sea Tigers with the attack. It also showed how the British continued to mollycoddle the terrorists, on its soil, even long after the Tigers assassinated former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, in May 1991, on all types of pretexts. The UK turned a blind eye to the assassination of President Ranasinghe Premadasa and several lawmakers. Having openly nurtured Tiger terrorists we wonder whether the UK has any right to accuse us of doing any wrong in single handedly crushing that organization, termed by none other than the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, as the most ruthless terrorist organization.
According to the LTTE statements, dated April 13 and 15, 1996, Black Sea Tigers succeeded in destroying three Fast Attack Craft (FACs) and three supply vessels, in the Colombo harbour. The writer covered the Black Sea Tiger incursion which, according to the Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA), had been detected by two minor employees. The two employees, identified as boatmen, had made the chance detection, off the Jaya Container Terminal Stage One. Swift intervention, by the Navy, led to the destruction of an explosive-laden suicide craft, close on the heels of the killing of two underwater saboteurs (LTTE frogmen, identified themselves as ‘Aiya’ (April 15, 1996, The Island). But, later, the deaths of altogether at least four underwater saboteurs were reported.
The Black Sea Tigers raided the Colombo port one year after the LTTE’s extraordinary success in the East, as it launched Eelam War III. The LTTE resumed open warfare, without any warning, with the sinking of two Shanghai Class gunboats moored at the gunboat pier at the SLN dockyard, in the Trincomalee harbour. Underwater saboteurs blasted the vessels SLNS Ranasuru and SLNS Soorya, acquired in 1991 and 1971, respectively, just hours after the LTTE quit the Norwegians arranged negotiations. The LTTE credited two men, and an equal number of women of the Black Sea Tigers, for the attack. A week later, the LTTE brought down two Avro transport aircraft over the strategic Palaly airbase, on two consecutive days. The military lost over 100 officers and men. Shoulder-fired heat-seeking missiles, acquired from the Mujahedeen, in Afghanistan, delivered stunning blows. The suicide strikes, and the introduction of missiles, stunned the Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga government.
But, the raid on the Colombo port, a year later, involved both Black Sea Tigers and an explosive-laden boat.
It was meant to cripple the economy by discouraging foreign vessels, plying international shipping lanes, calling on Colombo. Had the LTTE succeeded, Sri Lanka would have suffered irreparable damage.
It would be pertinent to mention that the LTTE targeted the Colombo port, in the aftermath of the loss of the Jaffna peninsula. Operation ‘Riviresa,’ involving three Divisions, brought back Jaffna town, and its suburbs, under government control, in the first week of Dec. 1995. Having secured the Waligamam region, by Dec. 1995, the military consolidated about 50 percent of the Thennamarachchi and Vadamaratchcy sectors, in the peninsula, by April 1996. The then President CBK’s administration had the upper hand with the entire peninsula under its control. Having launched Eelam War III, the LTTE lost Jaffna peninsula, before the end of that year, and sought to deliver a knock-out blow. The LTTE picked Colombo port to stage a spectacular attack. In spite of 24-hour surveillance, after months of reconnaissance, undertaken by Tiger intelligence operatives, the LTTE mounted the operation on April 12, 1996, as the country was preparing to celebrate the Sinhala and Tamil New Year.
Successful counter-attack
Siriwardhana, who had been the Command Operations Room officer (West) of SLNS Rangala, on the day of the Black Sea Tiger foray, made available to the writer the correspondence he had with Navy headquarters, as well as the Office of the President, pertaining to the incident. In addition to them, there were other documents that dealt with the issue.
Interestingly, the correspondence had taken place two years after the attack on the Colombo port, after Navy headquarters announced awarding of the ‘Rana Wickrama Padakkama’ (gallantry medal) to Lieutenant Commander L.R.N.A. Wijetunga, who had joined the crew of Dvora (P441) that destroyed the explosives-laden Black Sea Tiger boat, tasked to destroy one of the vessels in the harbour.
Siriwardhana challenged the awarding of gallantry award to Wijetunga, who had been the Duty Staff Officer (DSO) (West) at the time of the attack. Why did Wijetunga take the risk of a ‘Dvora ride’ at the time the Colombo port was under attack? What made him skip his primary task of taking control of the Command Operations Room? Instead, Wijetunga, who had been the senior most officer at the scene, boarded the Dvora contrary to his primary responsibility. Did Wijetunga shirk his primary responsibility? But, did he voluntarily risk his life by joining the Dvora crew facing a possible suicide attack?
At the time of the attack, four top officers, responsible for the Western Command, hadn’t been available. Commander Western Naval Area Commodore H.R. Amaraweera, Deputy Area Commander, Captain S.P.F. Wijeratne, Commanding Officer, SLNS, Rangala and Executive Officer, SLNS Rangala, hadn’t been available. Therefore, DSO Wijetunga had been the senior most officer responsible for taking counter measures. Perhaps, he felt confident in joining the Dvora crew, leaving the counter-attack in the hands of Lieutenant Siriwardhana who, efficiently, manned the Command Operations Room. In hindsight, the counter-attack couldn’t have been handled in a better way.
Lieutenant Siriwardhana, in a letter dated Sept. 23, 1998, addressed to the then Commander of the Navy, raised the issue, while categorically denying his intention was to secure a medal.
Having joined the Navy, through the Kotelawela Defence Academy (KDA) Intake IX, as an Officer Cadet, Siriwardhana served as an Electrical Officer and left the service, in 1999, due to an injury suffered playing rugger for the KDA and the Navy. Siriwardhana migrated to Australia in 2012. In spite of leaving the country, Siriwardhana pursued the matter, even after Gotabaya Rajapaksa won the presidency at the Nov. 2019 election.
A bid to deceive Navy

Lieutenant L.S.A.N.T.
Siriwardhana
The Black Sea Tiger operation got underway, on April 11, at 7.40 pm, with an anonymous call to the Command Operations Room that sea pirates were planning to board a merchant vessel, outside the Colombo harbour. The call was received by Siriwardhana, who had been, manning the Command Operations Room, at SLNS Rangala. Siriwardhana, however, felt that the caller was making an attempt to trick the Navy to deploy available vessels to track down sea pirates, and, thereby, would have facilitated the Black Sea Tiger operation. Siriwardhana based his assessment on the basis of specific information pertaining to (1) expected arrival of Lanka Asitha, carrying the multi-role Kfir ground attack aircraft. The fighter aircraft were to be unloaded at the Jaya Container Terminal (JCT). The aircraft were the first fighter jets acquired by Sri Lanka since the 1991 acquisition of Chinese fighters (2) Mercs Hendala, another merchant vessel, was being loaded with military hardware, at the Bandaranaike quay. The north-bound cargo was for troops engaged in operations in the Jaffna peninsula (3) SLNS Shakthi (Landing Ship Tank), too, was being loaded at the Rangala pier number 1 with military cargo for troops deployed in the North and (4) another vessel was discharging LP gas near the guide pier.
Anticipating a possible LTTE bid to infiltrate harbour defenses, Siriwardhana, in his capacity as the Command Operations Room officer, having alerted the DSO, regarding the anonymous call received, deployed two lightly armed locally-built Inshore Patrol Craft (IPCs) at the two entrances to the Colombo harbour. The officers-in-charge were told not to chase any suspicious moving craft in the vicinity. The sailor, at the radar watch, and other units assigned for the unenviable task of guarding the harbour, too, were alerted. At 8 pm, April 11, Siriwardhana handed over the Command Operations Room responsibilities to the next officer. Siriwardhana returned to the station at 4 am, on the following day, April 12, and was told of the withdrawal of one IPC. That left one IPC with the daunting task of meeting unforeseen threats. According to Siriwardhana, the sentry at the pilot station, detected the underwater movement and brought the development to his notice at 5.45 am, though the SLPA, at that time,claimed the initial detection was made by two of its minor employees. One cannot deny the ambiguity therein, but regardless of who received the credit for the detection, the Navy cannot, under any circumstances, absolve itself of the responsibility for security at ports.
Dvora confronts Black Sea Tiger craft
Responding to the warning from the sentry at the pilot station, Siriwardhana dispatched two smaller patrol craft to the area where underwater movements were alleged to have taken place. The looming threat was also brought to the notice of the DSO (West). Then one of the two patrol craft confirmed the presence of a diver to Siriwardhana and proceeded to use explosives against the target. As the Navy eliminated the underwater threat, the sailor at the radar point had brought to the notice of his superior that an unauthorized boat was making a bid to enter the harbour through the northern entrance. Siriwardhana, struggling to cope up with the new threat, directed two patrol craft though one of them lacked the main armament. The two boats, and the sailor at the sentry, engaged the boat as Black Sea Tigers fired Rocket Propelled Grenades (RPGs).
However, Dvora P 441, that had been moored at the Rangala pier, had immediately intervened without being directed by the Command Operations Room. Siriwardhana, in his Sept. 23, 1998. letter acknowledged the timely intervention made by the Dvora. Siriwardhana stated: “Then I realized that P 441(Dvora) had gone for assistance and subsequently heard a loud explosion, learnt that the terrorist boat had been destroyed by the Dvora.” The LTTE craft is believed to have been manned by at least five persons.
The then Lt. D.K.P. Dassanayake, Staff Officer, Harbour Defence (later Navy spokesman) had commanded the Dvora in the absence of its Commanding Officer Lt. Commander Manoj Jayasuriya. A salvo from the Dvora blew up the enemy craft. The blast indicated that it had been laden with high explosives. In addition to Dassanayake, the second-in-command of the Dvora Lt. Nalina Dayananada had been onboard the vessel but can the Navy justify Wijetunga joining the crew at the expense of his given task.
Oil tanker ‘ARMA,’ moored at the North pier, car carrier SINGHA ACE at the guide pier, SEA LAND ENDEAVOUR docked at the Jaya Container Terminal 1 pier, and NEDLOYED OBRIDJAN berthed at the Queen Elisabeth Quay, were damaged as a result of RPGs and other weapons fired by Black Sea Tigers.
Perhaps the LTTE had inside information regarding the arrival of four Kfirs and the unloading of a large stock of artillery shells and mortars. The Army warehouse, within the harbour, was one of the key targets whereas there were other ships and assets. The Navy recovered bodies/parts of bodies of four terrorists though six were believed to have been involved in the operation. The boat, laden with explosives, was to enter the port, following near simultaneous attacks carried out by the six infiltrators. But, the chance detection of underwater saboteurs, and the ensuing blasts, prompted Black Sea Tigers, operating the explosives laden boat, to enter the port.
P 441 had been tasked on that particular day to meet any eventuality. Had there been a minute delay, on the part of Dassanayake in taking the Dvora out, the consequences would have been catastrophic. But, P 441 wouldn’t have made a difference if not for the detection made by the sentry at the pilot station, according to the Navy. However, for some reason, the Navy deliberately failed to ascertain the circumstances leading to the detection and the counter-attack. Some officers expressed disgust and disappointment and, at least one, protested.
Midweek Review
Canada plays politics with Sri Lanka again ahead of its national election

UK Premier Keir Starmer reiterated his Government’s commitment to addressing justice, accountability of reconciliation in Sri Lanka and issues faced by Tamils, including advocating for human rights and justice for Tamil victims.
The often repeated declaration was made at the Thai Pongal celebration at 10 Downing Street on 20th January. The Indian High Commissioner in the UK Vikram Doraiswami was among those present. Perhaps Starmer hadn’t considered India’s culpability as the regional sponsor of a terror project in Sri Lanka that claimed the lives of as many as 70,000 combatants and civilians. Among the dead were former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and over 1,300 Indian soldiers.
Doraiswami joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1992, the year after the LTTE assassinated Gandhi at Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu. Would Starmer dare to raise India’s accountability and also look into the UK role in bolstering Tamil terrorism? The UK allowed a free hand to the LTTE with the group’s International Secretariat functioning from London without any restrictions. The LTTE wouldn’t have achieved status as a major terrorist organization if UK didn’t facilitate its operations. The writer’s assessment is that the British backing for Tamil terrorism was much more than that of Canada.
By Shamindra Ferdinando
Over 17 years after the decimation of the terrorist group, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), with a conventional fighting might militarily by our security forces, Canada and the UK are still seeking to punish Sri Lanka for pulling off that most unlikely victory against their deadly pet that they nurtured covertly.
Both the British and Canadian governments alike play politics at Sri Lanka’s expense. Canadian Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre recently stated that he would lead the world in seeking prosecutions in international courts of the Rajapaksas and other “criminals” who have persecuted the Tamil people. Influential groups of Sri Lankans of Tamil origin are represented in both the UK and Canadian parliaments.
Poilievre, whose party is widely expected to win the election, was speaking at the ‘Harvest of Hope’ event in Toronto on 18 January, marking Thai Pongal and Tamil Heritage Month. Obviously, the Conservative Party leader seems to be confident that he could win over Canadians of predominantly Sri Lankan Tamil origin at the October parliamentary elections.
Poilievre sought to appease the Tamil Canadians close on the heels of Premier Justin Trudeau’s announcement that he would resign after a successor is chosen. Rightwing Poilievre, early last year, declared he would seek to prosecute Sri Lanka at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and appoint lawyers to pursue charges against Lankan “war criminals” in international criminal courts.
However, the Conservative Party wouldn’t find it easy to entice Tamil Canadians as during Trudeau’s 10-year premiership, when Canada went out of its way to attack Sri Lanka. The Liberal Party, under Trudeau’s leadership, humiliated war-winning Sri Lanka at any given opportunity.
Recently, the Canadian media quoted Trudeau as having said: “I intend to resign as party leader, as Prime Minister, after the party selects its next leader through a robust nationwide competitive process.” Whoever replaces Trudeau will continue hostile policy towards Sri Lanka. One-time central banker Mark Carney and former Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland are in the fray. The Liberal Party is scheduled to announce the winner on 09 March.
All political parties represented in the Canadian Parliament, in May 2022, unanimously and arrogantly agreed that Sri Lanka perpetrated genocide during the war against the LTTE. On the basis of that unsubstantiated decision that had been endorsed by both Liberal and Conservative Parties, the Canadian Parliament recognized 18 May as the Tamil Genocide Remembrance Day. These overwhelmingly white accusers, however, forget the fact that like all of Americas, Canada, too, was established by committing numerous acts of genocide against its first citizens. And, to this day, they continue to perpetrate such acts with impunity. Such pale faces, with so much innocent blood on their hands, have the audacity to accuse small countries, like Sri Lanka, that refused to yield to terrorists, who were subtly supported by them, the same way they back even Islamic terrorists when it suits them as we clearly saw in Syria for example.
Sri Lanka brought the war to a successful conclusion on May 18, 2009 though LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran was only killed on the banks of the Nanthikadal lagoon at the dawn of the following day as his surviving band tried to breakthrough security forces lines.
What the Conservative Party Leader Poilievre could do to outdo Trudeau who had glorified Prabhakaran’s macabre project by targeting some Sri Lankan leaders responsible for eradicating the LTTE terrorism?
Over the years, those who had received Canadian citizenship, as well as others awaiting same, funded the LTTE as it killed and maimed thousands of Sri Lankans. Obviously, both Liberals and Conservatives, as well as other political parties, represented in Canadian Parliament, have conveniently forgotten thousands of Tamils killed by the LTTE. Canadian political parties are also silent on the origins of terrorism in Sri Lanka that may have claimed the lives of as many as 70,000 people. The dead included 1,300 Indian soldiers, members of rival Tamil terrorist groups, several dozens of politicians, like President Ranasinghe Premadasa as well as one-time Indian Premier Rajiv Gandhi, among many others.
Canadian political parties have bent backwards to appease Tamil Canadian voters. With their eyes on the still growing significant number of Tamil Canadian votes, they haven’t at least bothered to examine why Sri Lanka took on the separatist conventional military challenge. Canada never realized the need for a negotiated political settlement in Sri Lanka as long as the LTTE wielded conventional military power. Had the LTTE overwhelmed Sri Lankan military, Canada would have been one of the first countries to congratulate the triumph of terrorism here. That is the reality.
Fortunately, by the time Trudeau received the Liberal Party leadership in 2013, and became the Premier in late 2015, more than four years after Sri Lanka brought the LTTE to its knees, called “the deadliest terrorist group” even by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, was not in a position to resurrect its military. In other words, once considered invincible by so-called experts, had been truly defeated. Canada, like many other like-minded countries, responded with shock and dismay at the way the LTTE collapsed after having vowed to defeat the military.
Sri Lanka created history by eradicating the LTTE militarily. Sri Lanka’s triumph dispelled the myth spread by interested parties that our armed forces were incapable of defeating a major terrorist group with conventional fighting means, like the Tigers.
Tamil electorate on a new path
Eradication of the LTTE is no longer a major issue at national or lower level elections in Sri Lanka. Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s superlative performance in the Northern and Eastern regions, at the last presidential and parliamentary elections in Sept. and Nov., last year, respectively, proved that predominantly Tamil electorates couldn’t be significantly influenced by post-war issues.
Regardless of much touted accountability issues and assurances to pursue the Geneva agenda, Tamil parties failed to garner the required support of the Tamil electorate. They overwhelmingly voted for Tamil candidates fielded by the National People’s Front (NPP) at the general election and thereby inflicted unprecedented defeat on the Illankai Thamil Arasu Kadchi (ITAK).
Finally, the JVP-led NPP won all the Northern and Eastern electoral districts. The Tamil-speaking people declared beyond doubt that they wanted to move ahead and not be entrapped in the past. They obviously realized that a politically motivated high profile Western campaign against Sri Lanka is not meant to help restore their shattered lives but play politics with an issue. Those who cannot stomach Sri Lanka’s triumph over terrorism still want to haul up the war-winning country before international criminal courts. However, ITAK, and smaller Tamil political parties, have now realized that accountability issues do not attract voters. Over 17 years after the end of the war, young voters, in no uncertain terms, had indicated that they aren’t interested in pursuing a political agenda, based on accountability issues.
Earlier, the ITAK-led Tamil National Alliance (TNA) wholeheartedly represented the LTTE interests.
Perhaps, the NPP, too, has realized that its often repeated promise to release political prisoners is irrelevant. Even if the NPP wanted to release some to deceive the people, no such prisoners are held by the government. There are only a handful of Tamil convicts and few others held in terms of the PTA (Prevention of Terrorism Act). The convicts are responsible for major attacks and high profile assassinations. Actually political prisoners are nothing but a non-issue and those demanding their release from detention are only fooling themselves.
It is high time Tamil political parties give up their primary strategy revolving around accountability issues. Having received the LTTE’s backing both in and out of Parliament at the outset of Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga’s second term, the ITAK is now struggling to come to terms with unfavourable situations in the North.
Failure on the part of M.A. Sumanthiran, PC, to retain his Jaffna district seat, meant that the ground situation had changed drastically. That was nothing but a severe warning issued not only to Sumanthiran but to all Tamil politicians who have been essentially advancing an accountability agenda like a beggar’s wound. However, Canada appeared to have failed to recognize the changing situation on the ground. Perhaps, the Canadian High Commission (CHC) should re-examine post-national election developments closely. The CHC should wait till the conclusion of the Local Government polls early this year to carry out reassessment as at least a section of the Tamil electorate may switch their allegiance back to the ITAK.
But, the writer is of the view that dynamics have changed and those genuinely concerned about the wellbeing of the Tamil people shouldn’t depend on accountability issues to promote political agenda. In fact, having played ball with the LTTE throughout the war and backed Prabhakaran’s decision to indiscriminately use hapless Tamil civilian human shields on the Vanni east front, the ITAK should be investigated for its culpability for war crimes. The ITAK had no shame at all as it fully cooperated with the LTTE’s despicable strategies. Today, the ITAK wouldn’t dare to mention that it recognized the LTTE in 2001 as the sole representative of the Tamil speaking people. Of course that was done at gunpoint. The late R. Sampanthan had no choice but to cooperate with Prabhakaran’s strategy meant to build a political front subservient to them.
Canada had no qualms in mollycoddling the ITAK in spite of that political party endorsing recruitment of child soldiers. The highpoint of the LTTE-ITAK/TNA relationship was the engineering of Ranil Wickremesinghe’s defeat at the 2005 Nov. presidential election that paved the way for Mahinda Rajapaksa’s victory, resumption of war in August 2006 by the LTTE and its decimation militarily by the armed forces.
Canada seeks Tamil Canadians support
Against the backdrop of the 2015, 01 Oct. Geneva Resolution that had been treacherously backed by the then Sri Lankan government, headed by Maithripala Sirisena, and Ranil Wickremesinghe as the President and Prime Minister, Canada took a series of measures to step up pressure on the war-winning country. In May 2022 Canada publicly announced that Sri Lanka perpetrated genocide. Trudeau dismissed Sri Lanka’s protests though Ottawa didn’t have absolutely anything to back its extremely politically motivated claims. Shame on Canada and its Premier.
It would be pertinent to mention that Premier Stephen Harper’s Conservative government, too, couldn’t stomach Sri Lanka’s triumph over terrorism. In fact, both Conservatives and Liberals competed with each other to censure Sri Lanka. They felt Canadians of Sri Lankan origin could be easily won over by censuring Sri Lanka.
In May 2014, the Canadian High Commission in Colombo asked the writer whether The Island could publish a hard-hitting statement issued by the then High Commissioner Shelley Whiting prominently ahead of Sri Lanka’s Victory Day parade. The writer, in his capacity as the News Editor of The Island, gave the HC an assurance that regardless of what Whiting had to say it would receive front-page coverage. The HC wanted to know whether any sections would be deleted. Assurance was given that it would be carried, sans any alterations. As promised The Island carried the Whiting’s statement that challenged President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s decision to celebrate the country’s triumph over terrorism.
Whiting, who had served at their Kabul mission prior to being posted to Colombo, declared that Canada wouldn’t be represented at the Victory Day parade that was to be held in Matara on May 18, 2014. In spite of proscribing the LTTE and the World Tamil Movement in 2006 and 2008, respectively, funds flowed to the LTTE. The LTTE couldn’t have sustained conventional fighting for over two decades without uninterrupted funding from the West. Canada remained a major source of funding until the very end when the Sri Lankan military decimated the LTTE militarily in a series of operations on the Vanni east front.
Having won the 2015 presidential election, Maithripala Sirisena, in consultation with Premier Ranil Wickremesinghe, cancelled the Victory Day parade. Canada must have been thrilled. Whiting’s condemnation of the military celebration was the only instance a foreign government called for the ending of the annual event held to mark a worthy victory clinched against so many odds.
In Oct. 2015, treacherous Yahapalana leadership (UNP-SLFP combine) co-sponsored a US-led accountability resolution against the Sri Lankan military. There hadn’t been a previous instance of any country moving/backing a resolution targeting its own armed forces and political leadership at the Geneva-based United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC).
In May 2022 Canada declared Sri Lanka perpetrated genocide. In early January 2023, Ottawa sanctioned former presidents Mahinda Rajapaksa, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Staff Sergeant Sunil Ratnayake and Lieutenant Commander Chandana Prasad Hettiarachchi. Both Ratnayake and Hettiarachchi had been earlier sanctioned by the US, one of the worst human rights offenders, for committing what it called serious crimes.
Interestingly, no Western government has so far sanctioned war-winning Army Chief Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka though a number of senior officers, including General Shavendra Silva (US) and Maj. Gen. Chagie Gallage (Australia). The US threw its weight behind Fonseka at the 2010 presidential election. Having accused Fonseka’s Army of murdering thousands of Tamils, the LTTE proxy Tamil National Alliance (TNA) formed an alliance with the UNP and the JVP to defeat Mahinda Rajapaksa. Their project failed pathetically as the electorate inflicted a massive defeat on the celebrated Sinha Regiment hero. The drubbing was such Mahinda Rajapaksa polled over 1.8 mn votes more than Fonseka.
In the absence of cohesive policy on the part of Sri Lanka in countering unsubstantiated war crimes accusations, Western powers pursued an agenda inimical to Sri Lanka. The idea was to push Sri Lanka to offer a political package that addressed Tamils’ aspirations. In other words, Western powers wanted Sri Lanka to grant what the LTTE couldn’t secure through terrorism driven war.
Midweek Review
It reeks in the Palk Bay!

A shooting involving Indian fishermen and Sri Lanka Navy personnel within the island’s territorial waters, and injuries sustained in apprehending the poachers is in the news, yet again. And as is often the case in these countless and never-ending confrontations and competing claims and counter claims in state rituals, we have two versions of the event. But one thing is indisputable: Indian fishermen had entered Sri Lankan waters illegally and thereby came within the jurisdiction of the island nation’s laws and legal apparatuses including interventions by its navy.
Naval action followed by competing statements by India and Sri Lanka are mere state rituals that have not been able to address long-standing practices that pre-existed the formation of nation-states. For the longest time, when national identities, citizenship, and maritime borders did not exist in the legal sense we understand them today, what we now call Sri Lankan and Indian fishermen waded undeterred into each other’s waters and engaged in fishing to their hearts’ content. They even lingered for extended periods of time in each other’s lands during specific fishing periods. I recall engaging in a conversation at the turn of the century with one such fisherman from South India who had decided to settle in Chilaw long ago. In his case and that of many of his comrades at the time, it was a matter of marrying into the Sinhala speaking fisher families. Over time, these people blended into local communities. At the height of these activities and even after both India and Sri Lanka gained independence, the long arm of the nation-states’ laws and national interests did not intervene in such activities beyond a point. But this changed as nation-states evolved into what Ashish Nandi has called ’garrison states’, militarised borders were drawn and bodies of laws developed governing cross-border travel.
Notwithstanding national borders and the associated practices of statecraft and competing nationalisms, fishermen in the two neighbouring countries have continued to wade into each other’s waters consciously disregarding what is known as the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL) due to its invisibility. Such border violations are often deliberate and a matter of routine because fishermen often get away with this infringement. However, the kind of intrusion followed by violence now in the news is not the norm, but the exception.
In a statement issued on 28 January 2025, India’s Ministry of External Affairs noted that “an incident of firing by the Sri Lankan Navy during the apprehension of 13 Indian fishermen in the proximity of Delft Island was reported in the early hours of this morning.” It further noted, that “out of the 13 fishermen who were on board the fishing vessel, two have sustained serious injuries and are currently receiving treatment at the Jaffna Teaching Hospital.” But the statement from the Sri Lanka Navy differs in important details. It notes that Sri Lanka’s “Northern Naval Command observed a cluster of Indian fishing boats poaching in the Sri Lankan waters off Valvettithurai, Jaffna in the dark hours of 27 Jan 25.” This location is much closer to the Sri Lankan coast than what the Indian statement claims, yet it is evident from both statements that the incident took place well within Sri Lanka’s territorial waters. This discrepancy in the statements is intriguing as the two locations are approximately 62.4 km apart. Interestingly, the contested island of Kachchatheevu is 22.4 km from Delft, the location given in the Indian statement, and 84.7 km from Valvettithurai. Therefore, a careful reader may not be faulted in wondering if locating the scene closer to Kachchatheevu is deliberate, given that the island is a bone of contention between the two countries.
The Navy statement further states, “subsequently, the Northern Naval Command mounted a special operation to send away those fishing boats from the island waters, deploying naval craft. During this operation, the Navy seized an Indian fishing boat [that] continued to remain in Sri Lankan waters, while marshalling illegal fishing activities and collecting the fishing harvest. The operation also led to the apprehension of 13 Indian fishermen aboard the fishing boat.”
For Sri Lanka, this is not merely an accident that can be wished away as the somewhat clinical Indian statement does. It goes beyond protecting the maritime borders of the country, to preserving a crucial source of livelihood of many people in northern Sri Lanka and other parts of the island. It is both a bread-and-butter issue as it is a matter of national interest. Therefore, the Sri Lanka Navy has acted precisely in the manner that it should, as is expected and is within its mandate. Is it also not ironic that the bleeding hearts of southern Indian politicians who are up in arms about the so-called discrimination and abuse of their Tamil brethren in Sri Lanka by its government, seem to turn bone dry when their constituent fishermen callously plunder the resource-rich fertile waters of Sri Lanka, thereby remorselessly depriving their Tamil brothers and sisters of their livelihood.
The Sri Lankan statement further notes, “the Sri Lanka Navy boarding team was compelled to conduct noncompliance boarding as the Indian fishing boat continued to maneuver aggressively, without complying with the Navy’s lawful orders and its duty, during the process of taking the boat into custody. On this occasion, the Indian fishermen have acted aggressively, maneuvering their fishing boat in a hostile manner and behaving confrontationally with the Navy. However, while boarding the fishing boat in accordance with the authority vested in the Navy, the Indian fishermen, as an organized group, have attempted to assault naval personnel and made an attempt to snatch a firearm from a naval officer, endangering the lives of the naval personnel. In the process, an accidental fire has taken place, causing slight injuries to two Indian fishermen.” So unlike in the Indian statement which refers to ‘serious injuries’ the Sri Lankan statement refers to ‘slight injuries.’
What is seen here is not a deliberate act of shooting as the Indian statement and much of the Indian reporting on the incident insinuates, but an accident that has occurred due to the aggression and unlawful behaviour of Indian fishermen in a location in the sovereign territory of another country, they had no business of being in, in the first place. Intriguingly, none of these details are present in the Indian statement. It merely says that in addition to lodging a ‘strong’ complaint against the incident with the Acting High Commissioner in Delhi and the Sri Lankan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, “government of India has always emphasized the need to treat issues pertaining to fishermen in a humane and humanitarian manner, keeping in mind livelihood concerns. The use of force is not acceptable under any circumstances whatsoever. Existing understandings between the two Governments in this regard must be strictly observed.”
India’s Ministry of Externa Affairs lodging a complaint with our Acting Hish Commissioner in Delhi and a similar complaint being made by its High Commission to our Foreign Ministry is the height of absurdity. While our Foreign Ministry and missions may be numb to such action, we should be mindful that the main infraction — Indian poaching — happened in our waters and therefore comes under the jurisdiction of Sri Lankan laws, in the dispensation of which accidents can also happen.
In any case, this statement itself may seem well articulated in the lofty corridors of performative and orchestrated diplomacy and the Indian Ocean conference circuit. But it makes little sense beyond as an example of excessive verbosity in the real world of cross-border poaching and naval action in the darkness of the night involving aggressive culprits and the threatened livelihoods of citizens of a sovereign country. Besides, it was just over six months ago that a young Sri Lankan sailor brutally met his end because of the aggressive manoeuvering of an Indian trawler in Sri Lankan waters. Therefore, these statements are naught but mere rhetoric, of no use to the Sri Lankan fishermen who — through no fault of their own — have to bear the brunt of Indian infractions and incursions into their bread-basket.
What is obvious in these rituals of statecraft is the woeful absence of proactive action on the part of Sri Lanka. If India can summon our Acting High Commissioner to their Ministry of External Affairs and lodge a ‘strong’ complaint over an accident stemming from an illegal Indian activity that took place in our waters, did our Foreign Ministry summon the Indian High Commissioner to protest against his compatriots illegally and perpetually entering our waters, behaving aggressively towards our navy and depriving a section of our citizens of their only livelihood? Did our Foreign Ministry ask him why they have opted to report basic facts wrong in their statement? Silence in such situations is not only extremely dangerous but also smacks of pusillanimity. This kind of institutionalized timidity on the part of Sri Lanka does not augur well for the country at the time we are celebrating our supposed ‘Independence,’ and is also counterintuitive to the notion of national interest.
This general lack of intent towards meaningful action is also evident in the Joint Statement of 16 December 2024, issued during President Anura Kumara Dissanayaka’s visit to India which states that “acknowledging the issues faced by fishermen on both sides and factoring in the livelihood concerns, the leaders agreed on the need to continue to address these in a humanitarian manner. In this regard, they also underscored the need to take measures to avoid any aggressive behaviour or violence. They welcomed the recent conclusion of the 6th Joint Working Group Meeting on Fisheries in Colombo. The leaders expressed confidence that through dialogue and constructive engagements a long-lasting and mutually acceptable solution could be achieved. Given the special relationship between India and Sri Lanka, they instructed officials to continue their engagement to address these issues.” Here, the omission of any reference to the destructive bottom-trawling fishing method is conspicuous by its stark absence. It is indeed unfathomable that the Sri Lankan team did not insist on the inclusion of this critical reference in the statement.
Rampantly used by Indian fishermen, bottom-trawling disrupts the seabed, marine ecosystem and biodiversity of the Palk Bay, while boosting India’s seafood exports and yielding high profits while destroying the Sri Lankan fishermen’s livelihoods. For this reason, Sri Lanka banned bottom-trawling in 2017. However, none of these are in the Joint Statement of 16 December 2024 or the Sri Lanka Navy statement of 28 January 2025, and have also not been taken up with the Indian High Commissioner in Colombo. This is not only a failure of Sri Lankan foreign policy in action but also a complete compromise of our country’s national interest.
In this context, the real culprits in the failure to resolve the problem definitively are the leaders of the Indian and Sri Lankan states — politicians and bureaucrats alike. Why has technology not been resorted to more thoughtfully in this situation where the required technology actually exists? For the longest time, both sides have been waxing eloquent about attaching non-tamperable and permanently switched-on transponders to fishing boats which will inform the Navies or Coast Guards of the two countries when maritime border violations take place. As a technologically advanced country, India has the higher capacity to produce the required innovative mechanisms and tools for this purpose that can be used in both countries for mutual benefit. Bilateral collaboration of this nature can actually bear fruit rather than the hollow discourses of rhetorical diplomacy and statecraft.
For India, these issues are important only insofar as they resonate with Tamil Nadu politics and therefore possible vote banks. In reality, it is never about the lives or livelihoods of poor South Indian fishermen or their confiscated properties. For Sri Lanka, it is a matter of ill-defined sovereignty and the livelihood of a significant section of the people in the north. At the same time, this unfolds in a situation where the Sri Lankan Navy is unable to patrol the country’s maritime borders effectively, a known fact which Indian fishermen exploit as a matter of routine.
If both countries are adequately serious beyond issuing mere statements after the fact, these incursions are easily stoppable. However, once the technology is put in place as a matter of law, both countries must enforce them to the letter, and patrol the borders more effectively. But, pending the fruition of such law, Indian fishermen, cannot be allowed to plunder Sri Lankan resources. It is also high time, the Sri Lankan government, with the kind of overwhelming mandate it has received from the people, make it very clear to the Indian state that endless incursions into our territorial waters and ravishing of the country’s natural resources can no longer be tolerated. And if legitimate deterrence is to be used in protecting our borders and resources as do all sovereign states including India, so be it. This is the minimum we expect from our government in its pursuit of our national interest.
Midweek Review
The Teen Mum Question

By Lynn Ockersz
Into the shadows of shame,
Is the Teen Mum slinking,
Now that the seed in her womb,
Which she didn’t aim at planting,
Is almost close to ripening,
Rendering her heavy with child,
But judge her not in haste,
And go for the First Stone,
For, she’s a hapless victim,
Of an education needing updating,
With a knowledge of do’s and don’ts,
On the question of human mating,
And going into ‘proud independence’,
May this issue be taken up for discussing.
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