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Chased out of Burma, LTTE sets up n



Chased out of Burma, LTTE sets up naval base in Phuket

By K.J.M Varma
>From Asian Age
March 27, 2000

Colombo, March 26: The LTTE has set up a new naval base at the Thai
holiday island of Phuket to transport large consignments of weapons and
drugs after closing down its previous base at an island in Burma, media
reports said.

A detailed investigative report of the Lloyd's list, a leading
publication on international shipping and insurance, published in the
local newspaper said the LTTE first established its base outside Sri
Lanka at Twante island in Burma, using its good relations with the
Burma's military junta. But it vacated Twante following diplomatic
pressure mounted by Colombo on Rangoon. The rebel group later set up its
second base Phuket island in Thailand to carry consignments of heroine
and weapons, it said.

The report said during the time when the rebel group had its base in
Burma, its fleet of about 11 ships carried large consignments of heroine
for sale on the streets of the developed countries.

"The colossal profits helped to fund the Tiger war machine another
regular and more conventional trade was in hardwoods," it said.

The report said that the most of the LTTE ships were small general cargo
ships, registered in Panama, Honduras or Liberia and owned by front
companies set up LTTE shipping department in-charge K. Pathmanathan
alias K.P. The LTTE ships manned by personnel from its leader, V.
Prabhakaran's birthplace at Velvututhurai, in northern Jaffna peninsula
spend the overwhelming majority of their time carrying commercial
cargoes. "The crew-usually Velvututhurai Tamils, are paid for their work
unless they are Tiger cadres," it said.

Stating that it was very much possible to trace and identify the details
of companies that have assisted the LTTE from the records and outline a
picture of LTTE shipping operations, it said the group obtained a
consignment of 50 tonnes of TNT and 10 tonnes of explosive RDX from
Nikalyev port in Ukraine in 1994. (PTI)