|
|
|
> magazine
|
|
||||
|
|
|||||
|
> magazine |
|||||
|
|
June 16, 2000 VOL. 29 NO. 23 | SEARCH ASIAWEEK Tracking Tigers in Phuket A secret Tamil guerrilla base embarrasses Bangkok By ANTHONY DAVIS Officially, the government's "Amazing Thailand" tourism campaign ended last December, after a year's extension. But unofficially, some folks can't get enough of a good thing. If recent events on the resort island of Phuket -- involving a mini-submarine and a secret base -- are any indication, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) are still enjoying an amazing stay in Thailand. And given the importance of their "home away from home" to the separatist war in Sri Lanka, they will be in no hurry to move on. There have been reports of Tiger activities in Thailand since the mid-1990s. Bangkok has generally shrugged them off for lack of evidence. But the Phuket affair has clearly embarrassed the government. The row began on April 9, when marine police at Phuket's Rassada pier stopped a truck. They suspected its driver was involved in oil smuggling linked with a tanker anchored off the resort. It turned out that Christy Reginald Lawrence, a 40-year-old Sri Lankan-born Tamil with Norwegian citizenship, had nothing to do with that racket. But when the police accompanied him to the office of Seacraft Co. Ltd., which he co-owned with a Thai partner, they found much more to interest them than oil. There and on a high-powered 17-meter boat, they discovered sophisticated sonar and global positioning system equipment, satellite phones, combat-training videos in Tamil, and LTTE calendars and uniforms. Worried by the implications of the underwater sonar, Thai navy officers searched Phuket's shipyards -- and found a half-built mini-sub at Koh Si-rae. Officials quickly clammed up, citing "national security" concerns. But Lawrence, whose wife is Thai, is just one figure in the Tigers' operations in Thailand. Over the last decade, the country has become a vital interface between the LTTE's war at home and its relentless international arms-procurement efforts. "It's a nerve center," says one intelligence source. A nation where plentiful foreign tourists and businessmen make blending in easy, Thailand provides access to several former war zones and their surplus weaponry. It offers excellent communications and a short sea hop to Sri Lanka. And, as elsewhere in the region, money can buy cooperation in high places. The Tigers have been active in Phuket since the late 1980s. In December 1990, port authorities at Penang impounded the Sunbird, an LTTE commercial vessel, and seized diving and communications equipment and some ammunition. The Sunbird had also called regularly at Phuket. When a Tiger base in Myanmar was closed in 1996 after protests from Colombo, Thailand's Andaman Sea ports became still more important. LTTE front companies and sympathizers in Bangkok have provided back-up for an extensive logistics network. Munitions have moved not only through Phuket, but also Ranong and Krabi on the Andaman coast, as well as Sattahip on the Gulf of Thailand. In January, Thai police seized a trawler near Ranong, carrying Carl Gustav rocket launchers. The incident, which was hushed up, involved a link-up among the Tigers, anti-Yangon Karen guerrillas and the Arakan Liberation Party, another Myanmar insurgent group known to have contracted out its shipping services. Since Lawrence's arrest, say intelligence sources, arms have also moved through Haadyai and Songkhla on the Gulf of Thailand. Most of the hardware the Tigers critically need (artillery and mortar rounds, surface-to-air missiles, big-caliber machine-gun ammunition) is bought in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic and North Korea. That makes Thai ports key for transshipment. Munitions are switched from ocean-going vessels to smaller craft that make the risky 1,900-km run to Sri Lanka's northeastern coast. Thai military intelligence is well aware of LTTE activities in the country, which Bangkok has told Colombo it will not tolerate. But with Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai's government facing an election later this year, mouthing diplomatic niceties is proving easier than implementing get-tough policies against arms trafficking. Lawrence is now out of jail on bail. Worst-case scenario for him? Probably a fine for failing to pay customs duty on imported high-tech goods. That's something Sri Lankan security officials would find truly amazing. Write to Asiaweek at mail@web.asiaweek.com
Quick Scroll: More stories from Asiaweek, TIME and CNN |
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
| Back to the top |
© 2000 Asiaweek. All Rights Reserved. Terms under which this service is provided to you. Read our privacy guidelines. |
|
ASIAWEEK'S
LATEST