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Editorial |
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Kadi's concerns irk Cabinet Ministers Triggering off the acrimonious battle was a briefing, former Foreign Minister and international affairs adviser to the President, Lakshman Kadirgamar, gave The Island and The Sunday Times publishers and editors on Friday, August 29. At the conference room at his Wijerama residence, he produced a full-scale colour grid map marking out the military installations of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) (See the map on this page) and explained the dangers posed to the strategic port of Trincomalee and its environs by this development. Mr. Kadirgamar made clear that heightening national security concerns did not allow his conscience to remain quiet. That was the reason why he had chosen to alert the editors and publishers. The sentiments
expressed by him were reflected again in a nine-page PA statement
(together with a black and white copy of the same map) issued on
Friday. Excerpts: "In 1967 the Sri Lanka Army and the Navy jointly started and carried out a search operation from Foul Point upto Kattaparichchan in the east and Ilakkanthai in the south. And in 1998 the special naval boat fleet again carried out a search operation from Foul Point upto Ilakkanthai sea-board. "These operations made it quite patent that there existed no permanent Tiger camp of any type in the area. The first Tiger camp started after the ceasefire agreement, to the South of Trincoamalee. By the ceasefire agreement Mullaitivu and Vakarai were recognized as Tiger-controlled areas, as they were permitted sea travel. "When they first started sea travel between Mullaitivu and Vakaraia they sought permission from ceasefire monitors to use Illakanthai as a temporary point of embarkation and disembarkation for cadres and taking in of cargo. That was not at all in conformity with the ceasefire agreement. "Although the Sri Lanka Navy objected to these illegal Tiger demands, security officers of the UNF Government agreed to grant the requests. Because of this approval the Sea Tigers, for the first time, used Ilakkanthai as a transit point between Mullaitivu and Vakarai. From April 2003 Sea Tiger craft came direct from Mullaitivu to Illakanthai and gradually transformed it as a main Tiger camp. Fast attack craft of the LTTE and suicide bomber sea craft of the LTTE is presently stationed there. "As this camp is situated within approximately four miles off Trincomalee, a Ilakanthai forms a chief launching pad on Trincomalee. The emergence of Ilakkanthai Tiger base is another outcome of the Government's silence in the face of the aggressive policy of the LTTE. "During the recent past 13 LTTE camps have been set up around the southern perimeter of Trincomalee from Ilakkanthai in the eastern direction. This coincides with the citing of the LTTE Naval camp in Ilakkanthai. "The cluster of LTTE camps put up recently around Trincomalee are code named 3-2 camp in Sampur, 0-2 camp in Villukulam and 0-1 camp, 32 MF camp, Dolphin and India One camp. In Kattaparichchan, located in the southern and eastern direction are 1-1 camp, 73 camp, 0-0 camp, and B.C. Camp 3 located in the eastern direction. "This has been done in flagrant violation of the MoU but the Government has remained tight-lipped on this matter. Further emboldened by this attitude on the part of the Government, the LTTE has proceeded to set up another camp in close proximity to Manirasakulam. "The Wan Ella camp has thus become the 14th camp put up by the LTTE surrounding Trincomalee. The Government not only maintains a strict silence on this matter in the face of this high handed action by the LTTE but also proceeded to justify their actions through media releases." Mr. Kadirgamar's briefing to publishers and editors came just after he had ended a tour of India. During a visit to New Delhi, he had briefed both Indian Government and Opposition leaders on the developments in Trincomalee. The move, The Sunday Times learnt, had already triggered off Indian concerns. The Government there is learnt to be taking stock of the situation and is also learnt to have made informal contacts on the matter with the Government of Norway, currently facilitating the peace process. Mr. Kadirgamar made clear that the UNF Government's failure to take action to neutralize the growing LTTE threat to Trincomalee not only endangered Sri Lanka's but also India's own security interests. When a publisher asked whether he could bring Mr. Kadirgamar's concerns to the attention of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, he replied "yes." That saw the beginning of the new crisis. The Government felt that the grid map was a "sexed up" version of the map that appeared in The Sunday Times. The term "sexed up" had come into vogue in the journalistic lexicon after the BBC accused the Labour Government of Prime Minister, Tony Blair, for sexing up a report on threats posed by deposed Iraqi leader, Saddam Hussain, in order to obtain Parliamentary approval to send troops to join coalition forces in Iraq. Premier Wickremesinghe who was briefed of the map and the comments made by Mr. Kadirgamar requested Navy Commander, Vice Admiral Daya Sandagiri to give the same briefing to Defence Minister, Tilak Marapana and Defence Secretary, Austin Fernando last Sunday. The Navy Chief complied. The briefing was given by Rear Admiral Wasantha Karannagoda, Commander Eastern Naval Area, in the company of Vice Admiral Sandagiri. Premier Wickremesinghe's subsequent inquiries had revealed that Mr. Kadirgamar had been briefed on the security situation in Trincomalee earlier by Vice Admiral Sandagiri, Rear Admiral Wasantha Karannagoda, Army Commander Lt. Gen. Lionel Balagalle and Director Operations at Army Headquarters. Meanwhile, The Sunday Times learnt that Defence Secretary, Austin Fernando, had obtained from Army Headquarters the text of the briefing given to Mr. Kadirgamar by Lt. Gen. Balagalle. This was because the Army Chief himself was on an official visit to South Korea at that time. That had also been handed over to Premier Wickremaeinghe. The very next day, Premier Wickremesinghe himself met Navy Chief, Vice Admiral Sandagiri, to obtain a first hand account of the developments. The meeting, The Sunday Times learnt, saw Premier Wickremesinghe listening attentively to the Navy Chief, quite in contrast to his initial reaction where he believed the Navy was hyping up the security situation. He had earlier asked the Navy top brass whether the security forces wanted to go to war when the UNF Government was talking peace. Last Wednesday Premier Wickremesinghe briefed the Cabinet about these developments. President Kumaratunga was absent at this meeting. Some Ministers used the opportunity to raise issue over the propriety of Mr. Kadirgamar bringing up the matter when he was the beneficiary of an official Government bungalow and Army commandos for personal security. It seemed that provision of security meant that beneficiaries had no right to raise issues of national security concerns that affected the territorial integrity or sovereignty of Sri Lanka. Some UNF Cabinet Ministers argued on the basis that those receiving protection over threats to their lives should remain silent even when national interests were being endangered. If that was absurd enough, UNF spin-doctors went to work to further malign Mr. Kadirgamar. This came through a vicious campaign where the state media was portraying Mr. Kadirgamar as an alarmist, by making references to what transpired at the Cabinet meeting. They charged that he was using government facilities and was still criticizing the government. The propaganda was countered by PA stalwarts Sarath Amunugama and Mangala Samaraweera during Friday's news conference. That included the issue of the nine-page statement. But the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) raised the most pertinent question. JVP's Wimal Weerawansa said the PA was raising these issues. But it was President Chandrika Kumaratunga who was the Commander-in-Chief. Instead of merely calling for reports on the issues raised, what action has she taken so far, he asked? Indeed the question begs an answer. Naval
purchase reports 'absolutely incorrect', says Marapana
The Minister in a statement says that though another company had offered canons at a cheaper price, as some had pointed out, it did not include the cost of upgrading the fire control system, which is also an essential part of the deal. He also states that the upgrading of the system should any way be handed over to the Israeli company, as they are the once with the proper technical knowledge to do so, as they had manufactured the systems. The Sri Lankan government, at the time of purchasing the fire control systems, had also agreed not to allow any company, other than the Israeli company, to upgrade the systems, the Minister adds. The text of the statement is as follows: 'My attention has been drawn to a controversy given publicity in the media, surrounding the purchase of weapons for the Naval Fast Attack Craft. The main allegation seems to be that whilst a weapon called "Bushmaster" is available to be purchased at a much cheaper rate, the Navy is about to purchase, instead, a weapon at approximately three times higher than this price. This is absolutely incorrect. The prices compared are the cost of a "Bushmaster" cannon with the cost of a cannon, including the cost of integration of the cannon to an existing Israeli Fire System. (Weapon system consisting of an Electro Optical Device, the Mount containing the gyro and computer system and the cannon) The proposed transaction was subjected to my examination and a Cabinet paper presented by me was approved by the Cabinet Sub-committee on Budget and Tenders, and finally, by the Cabinet itself. The proposal was not the purchase of a complete weapons system but the upgrading of the existing 15 Israeli manufactured Fire Control Systems already fitted on 15 of your fast attack crafts, by replacing the existing 23 mm cannons with 30 mm cannons and modifying the rest of the system to accommodate this change. In the first place, this upgrade can only be attended to by the Israeli Government-owned company who are the manufacturers of this Fire Control Systems. The cannon could be of any make, but the installation of the cannon and the upgrading of the Fire Control Systems, consequent to a change of the cannon, can only be done by this Israeli company. The technical know-how and the accessories necessary for this exercise is available only with this Israeli company (being the manufacturers of this system) and the Government of Sri Lanka, at the time of the purchase of these systems, has signed an agreement with this company preventing any other party modifying or upgrading the systems. Therefore, when the Navy wished to have the systems upgraded by replacing the existing 23 mm canon (to get a better range), the Israeli government was requested to submit offers for the purpose. They offered three offers, using three different 30 mm canons, including the "Bushmaster". According to the Israeli offer, the total cost of the upgrade, using the "Bushmaster" canon, was around US$ 824,000.00, using a Swiss made "Oerilikon" canon, was US$ 724,000.00 and with a Russian canon US$ 553,000.00 per Fire Control system. The upgrade using the Russian canon was rejected by the Evaluation Committee, as it invoked a deck modification (at a further cost to be borne by the Navy) and the "Oerilikon" was chosen, it being cheaper. Therefore it is absolutely incorrect to state that the cheaper "Bushmaster" was rejected in favour of a more expensive cannon. The "Bushmaster" suppliers later made an offer to supply the canon at US$ 228,472.00 per canon, but this was the price for the canon alone and does not include the cost of the upgrade to the system which, as I said earlier, could be executed only by the Israeli company which manufactured the Fire Control System to which this canon is to be fitted. The Israeli company had already quoted US$ 824,000.00 to upgrade the system using the "Bushmaster ". As this must necessarily have caused much concern amongst the public, and in particular, the armed forces, I shall be very thankful if this communication could be given publicity in your paper. |
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