Tilak halts wire taps

Defence Minister Tilak Marapana has put a halt to wire taps by the Directorate of Internal Intelligence (DII).

He personally gave the order to a senior DII official that things should come to an immediate halt until further orders.

Obviously Mr. Marapana, a one time Attorney General, was in the know that the wire taps had very little to do with fighting the enemy, which has remained the Tiger guerrillas until the recent cessation of hostilities. It was a case of finding out what the political opponent did, who their girl friends are and what they spoke about those in power.

Insiders say the UNF Government will strictly adhere to legal provisions relating to wire taps. That requires the specific permission of the Minister of Defence. Earlier some targets like politicians, journalists, foreign correspondents and those close to UNP leaders were permanently subjected to taps.

One is reminded of a similar measure when the PA was voted to power in 1994.

Then Minister of Telecommunications Mangala Samaraweera, not only ordered a halt to wire taps but also got SLT engineers to disconnect the cable that gave access to the snoopers to listen in on conversations.

When it was decided to resume telephone surveillance, intelligence sleuths then had a time persuading Telecom engineers to re-connect the cables. The sleuths did not know how to do it.

This time, however, they will not have that problem. Whether Charlie Mike will be allowed to continue with the same job remains a billion dollar question.

Karuna in Batticaloa

Troops at the Welikanda check-point were on their routine chores of examining vehicles that were moving to and from Batticaloa.

They halted a Double Cab approaching from Batticaloa. The man in the front seat lowered the window, then slightly lowered his sunglasses and declared "Karuna, Karuna…" and signalled the driver to take off.

The puzzled men did not know what to do. They had orders not to confront the Tiger guerrillas. One man jotted the number of the vehicle and soon Military and Police radios began to crackle. The story spread that Tiger guerrilla Military Wing leader for Batticaloa, Karuna had entered the controlled areas in the Batticaloa district.

When the Double Cab arrived at the check-points at Karapola and Manampitiya, they checked the vehicle, identified the occupant and waved their hands, signal to move. It turned out that the sentry at Welikanda had noted down a wrong registration number. The man who had claimed to be Karuna was playing a joke. It was a senior Police officer in the area. He laughed away as he drove towards Polonnaruwa.

Loss of assault rifle

A Chinese built T-56 assault rifle with a loaded magazine has gone missing from the Sri Lanka Navy's base at Welisara, one of the high security installations.

Insiders say this is the fourth time such a loss had occurred in recent years.