In the immediate aftermath of this attack, on the 11th of, Indian fisherman, who had originally been hurled by the LTT, then Sri Krishna was hijacked by the LTTE returned to Madras where they publicly stated that they were held captive by the LTTE during the interim period.
These incidents which are only few in a series of recentness on the part of the LTTE to challenge the international bill underlines the threat faced by not only Sri Lanka, India and now also the Maldives but all Indian Ocean maritime users. The international committee needs to swiftly respond to these challenges.
I would now deal with the global ramifications of LTTEs capability. The challenge of the LTTE process is not confined to the waters of the Indian Ocean. In this modern globalised world, where the element of technological transom, amongst different terrorist groups takes place at a rapid place. The LTTEs maritime terrorist attack offer copy cat models for other terrorist groups. The LTTE also provides a convenient transport facility for other terrorist organisations, thus the LTTEs activities are being watched as an early example of emerging trends and patterns in maritime terrorism.
The LTTE has carried out ten suicide attacks on Sri Lankan naval vessels with the use of explosive laden boats before the Al Qaeda attack USS Coal in Yeoman in October 2000. In fact, the Al Qaeda attack on the USS Coal was a copycat of the LTTEs attack on [the Abh Hita?], a Sri Lankan navy supply ship on 4 May 1991.
In a 19 March 2003 interview with the BBC, Sea Tigers chief Soosai was to state, I quote I think in Yeoman they used our strategy of targeting the hull of their suicide attack to blow up an American ship USS Coal. This is exactly what we used to do.
It is well-known that the tactical resource base of terrorism for the next generation will take the form of network terrorism in which actors across a spectrum of conflicts and crimes will modify the existing structures to take advantage of the inter-linked service arrangements. In this context, LTTE with its global reach through the Tamil diaspora, and its fleet of merchant vessels is ahead of the competition in acting as couriers as the providers of military training to several other terrorist groups in the region.
The LTTE ships have been used to provide alternate supply channels to other groups and crime scene syndicates in the region for their arms and human smuggling and for drug trafficking activities. As the LTTE has established a presence in the arms black market. For instance, in 1995 an LTD ship had clandestinely transported a consignment of arms and ammunition dispatch by the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen – HUM – of Pakistan to the southern Philippines for the use by [Abu Sair?].
The London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies, IISS, in its publication military balance 2000 sermon, also refers to commercial links between the LTTE and Al Qaeda movement. It has been suggested that LTTE establish linkages with the Mujahideeens in Afghanistan as far back as 1987 and in 2001 an LTTE delegation travelled to Kabul shortly before 9/11. Indias national security advisor MK Narayan in a speech on the 42nd Munich conference on security policy on 11 February 2007 said that both Jihad movement and the LTTE were relying heavily on funds from trafficking in narcotics which has doubled in the recent years.
The ramifications of the LTTE behaviour on the global terrorism is significant. It must be recalled that LTTEs imported two three-side bombing and must have the use of suicide jackets with C4 explosives with devastating impact long before the Al Qaeda movement. In fact, the LTTE was the pioneer in the field and is believed to have conducted 154 battle field and civilian suicide missions up until August 1998 compared with 50 attacks by all other groups around the world, including Hamas, Hezbollah and the Kurdish Workers Party.
It also been noted that suicide bombing jackets used in the London underground in July 2005 were very similar to the jackets used by the LTTE in Sri Lanka in the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s and that the terrorist attacks in Bali and Jordan also have the hallmarks of suicide technology that had previously been used in Lebanon and Sri Lanka. Furthermore, the LTTE on July 2001 at the Columbian airport was one of the most destructive acts of terrorism in aviation history.
In most recent times, the LTTE have developed using cover of the ceasefire agreement since 2000 to launch its first strike on the Sri Lankan air force base in Katunayake on 26 March 2007, but failed to achieve its desired effect.
Subsequent attacks have been carried out on April 24th in an area adjoining the Palaly military base in Jaffna and on 28 April near Colombo on the night when most Sri Lankans are watching the finals of the cricket world cup being played in the Caribbean.
To the world at large, the global fund-raising, arms procurement, human smuggling and propaganda operations, the LTTE also provides valuable insight into the manner in which terror groups may use those poorer populations to sub-serve their agenda.
