World

Lankan asylum ship in Canada belongs to LTTE

by lalith | October 25, 2009 at 09:27 am

262 views | 27 Recommendations | 2 comments

Lankan asylum ship in Canada belongs to LTTE: experts

October 25, 2009 10:32 am

The migrant smuggling ship intercepted off the West Coast carrying 76 Sri Lankan men is owned by the outlawed Tamil Tigers and previously smuggled weapons from North Korea to Sri Lanka, says an international expert on South Asia terrorism.

It’s feared the ship may be the first wave of defeated Tamil Tiger fighters fleeing for safe haven after the end of Sri Lanka’s 25-year civil war, says another security expert.

Canada hosts the largest population of Sri Lankan Tamils outside of Sri Lanka, and has long been a key support base for the Tigers, which is on Canada’s official list of terrorist organizations.

In a radio interview with ABC News in Australia on Saturday, Singapore-based Rohan Gunaratna said the Ocean Lady is a rebel freighter belonging to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), the separatist guerrillas known as the Tamil Tigers.

“It is now clear that it is a Tamil Tiger-owned and -operated ship,” said Gunaratna, who heads Singapore’s International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research. The Sri Lakan native has authored several books on the country’s civil war that ended in May, with government troops finally defeating the LTTE.

“Certainly, not all ships that are transporting people are managed by terrorists, but in the case of the Ocean Lady, it is a Tamil Tiger ship that had been used in the past to smuggle weapons from North Korea to Sri Lanka,” said Gunaratna.

The LTTE owns many merchant navy vessels. Most of these ships were used for weapons smuggling into Northern Sr Lanka. The Sri Lanka Navy and the Air Force were abvle to destroy some of these ships during the war.

What better use could the remnants of the LTTE terrorists (most of them abroad) get from these ships?

0 See all footage | View Slideshow

Share: email story | add to any | | facebook | stumbleupon

recommend Add a comment

sara star

at 19:25 on October 25th, 2009

Meanwhile, National Post reporter Stewart Bell, who has written extensively on the LTTE, reports the ship, sailing under the false name of Ocean Lady, departed from India early last month, according to international shipping records.

After a stop in Mumbai on Aug. 31, the ship formerly known as the Princess Easwary sailed from the northwest Indian port of Mundra on Sept. 8. That was its last recorded port of call until it entered Canadian waters.

...But investigating the ship will be a challenge. Registered in Cambodia, the Princess Easwary visited ports in Indonesia, Taiwan, Japan and the Philippines in 2008, according to Lloyds MIU, which tracks vessel movements.

While records indicate the ship's last port of call was India, it may have made unreported stops elsewhere in South or Southeast Asia to pick up its human cargo before heading for Canada, reports Bell.

The company listed as the ship's owner does not appear to exist.