Ships meant for civilian use, carryout military tasks

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 March 2007, 20:23 GMT]
While refusing to open the A9 land route, the Sri Lanka government (GoSL), under the pretext of shipping passengers and essential food items to Jaffna district, is using the ships to bring in the requirements of its armed forces occupying Jaffna peninsula, civil society sources in Jaffna said. The ship 'Ruhuna', the latest ship arriving at Jaffna, was taken to Kankesanthurai harbour, used exclusively by Sri Lanka Navy (SLN), first unloaded the goods brought for the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and the SLN.

The government, while conveying to the world that it is using the ships to transport passengers, essential food and other commodities, is covertly using the ships to bring in arms and other military accessories, civil sources in Jaffna said.

The ship 'Ruhuna' had 8788 parcels weighing 364 metric tonnes to the SLA and 14 parcels of 72 metric tonnes to SLN out of its total consignment of 3650 metric tonnes. Nearly 12% of the shipment has been used to serve the armed forces, sources close to Jaffna Secretariat said.

The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) had earlier accused the GoSL for using the ships meant for passengers and essential goods for military purposes.

Information on the goods shipped to Jaffna from Trincomalee is never disclosed to Jaffna Secretariat and these ships first unload the goods brought in for the armed forces at Kankesanthurai harbour and the goods for the people are unloaded later.