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Top Tiger arms merchant released
The highly secretive operations of the KP Department - the self styled arms procurement unit of the LTTE - in Kampuchea has been laid bare there with the arrest of a Sri Lankan national.

However, moves by Defence Secretary Austin Fernando, in agreeing to accept his deportation to Colombo has put paid to efforts over a full-fledged inquiry. He has gone scot-free after being deported from Phnom Penh to Bangkok and thereafter in a Srilankan airlines flight to Colombo.

The man identified as Kaushalyan Sivalingam alias David was reported to be one of the key players in the KP Department, resident in Phnom Penh. Operating under cover of running a computer firm named Debug Computers, is allegedly involved in effecting millions of dollars in bank transfers and procuring sophisticated weapons and communications equipment which eventually found its way to LTTE bases in eastern Sri Lanka. He is also said to have run a farm there. However, three others arrested together with him remain there.

The KP Department is the international weapons procuring arm of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). It has been so named after the elusive Kumaran Pathmanathan, the chief procurement man known to operate under several passports using various aliases.

The Government, The Sunday Times learns, had asked the Kampuchean authorities to detain David indefinitely, as the suspect is well known, until fuller investigations were conducted in that country. To support its request, recent UN conventions against terrorism organizations (Security Council Resolution 1373) had been cited.

The Kampuchean Foreign Ministry had initially agreed to act on the request, but in a surprise move, news arrived that the man was being deported since the Kampuchean authorities had no laws to keep the man indefinitely. On-going investigations were intended to go deeper into LTTE operations in Kampuchea since computer data and other vital information had surfaced after the man's arrest.

State investigators believe high pressure moves led to the deportation of David despite requests to the contrary. The Defence Secretary's intervention in giving him all clear to return had led to the man checking into a five star hotel in Colombo after his return. Thereafter his whereabouts have not been known. Authorities have, as a result, not been able to interview him.

The deportation of David had come just days ahead of today's elections in Kampuchea. One official source in Colombo told The Sunday Times last night "we have unearthed strong evidence about LTTE's procurement operations in Kampuchea and its financial network.

However, frustrating enough, the man who is the king pin in the entire operation is now free to roam. Our investigations are badly hampered." Twenty eight year old David is said to have been employed in Saudi Arabia before moving to Kampuchea.

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