Situation Report

Prosecuting and profiteering from war

Here is the photo and caption provided by Navy headquarters "Chief of Defence Staff and Navy Commander Vice Admiral Daya Sandagiri called on 1st Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Staff of British Navy Admiral Sir Allen West during his visit to United Kingdom to attend celebrations of Bicentenary celebrations of the battle of Trafalgar. This is the first occasion the Sri Lanka Navy Chief met the 1st Sea Lord of the British Navy."

The message from President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces, to return to Sri Lanka immediately reached the Chief of Defence Staff and Commander of the Navy, Vice Admiral Daya Sandagiri, in the United Kingdom at a difficult moment for him.

Whilst in UK, he had sought an appointment to pay a courtesy call on the 1st Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Staff of the British Navy, Admiral Sir Allen West. He was awaiting a call from one of his aides in Room 231 of the Old War Office in the Ministry of Defence. Before that arrived, his Dialog international roaming phone, now an integral tool for service chiefs to command when they are out of station, rang.

It was a senior official from the President’s Office. Vice Admiral Sandagiri was told President Kumaratunga wants him to return to Sri Lanka immediately. He pleaded with the official to ask her whether he could board the first available flight after his brief engagement with Admiral Sir West was over. The official rang back later to say that would be okay.

It was Admiral Sir West who wrote to Vice Admiral Sandagiri on July 31, 2003 inviting him. He said, “In 2005 the Royal Navy will be marking the occasion of the 200th Anniversary of the death of Admiral Lord Nelson to host a commemoration to promote friendship and encourage camaraderie amongst seafarers from around the World.”

He added: “The City of Portsmouth, which has been a home of the Royal Navy for over four hundred years, will provide the setting for two major consecutive events to mark the bicentenary. The International Fleet Review will take place on 28 June 2005 and this will be followed by the International Festival of the Sea from 30 June – 3 July 2005…..”

Vice Admiral Sandagiri had not forgotten the two-year-old invitation. He obtained official clearance, purchased two Business Class tickets (for him and his wife) and an Economy Class ticket (for a Navy official) and took off on July 3 to London. The tickets cost the Sri Lanka Navy Rs 564,810.
Admiral Sir West had asked Vice Admiral Sandagiri “to send a warship or ships to represent Sri Lanka” and added “…..please accept my invitation to join me at the Review.” Though he was able to send the Navy warship SLNS Sayura for IMDEX (International Maritime Defence Exhibition) in Singapore and went there personally, he was unable to do so this time. The cost to the Government would have been much higher. Hence, he chose to go himself and take part in the Review. Unlike the IMDEX from May 17 to 20 this year, for which Vice Admiral Sandagiri received both Economy Class air tickets and accommodation, in Britain he had to pay for them out of Sri Lanka Navy funds.

On July 2 (Saturday) Vice Admiral Sandagiri returned to Colombo by Sri Lankan Airlines flight UL 504. One of his first tasks was to ask his dedicated media staff to ensure a colour photograph of his meeting with Admiral Sir West was published in the local newspapers. A copy of this photograph together with the caption provided by Navy Headquarters appears on this page. But Vice Admiral Sandagiri was not so pleased with one line in the caption. Though he wanted to say this is the first occasion a Sri Lanka Navy Chief met the 1st Sea Lord of the British Navy, it simply read, “this is the first occasion the Sri Lanka Navy Chief met ….”

It was only by last Sunday Vice Admiral Sandagiri began to respond to tasks that had prompted President Kumaratunga to recall him from Britain. One is the delay or non implementation of a decision taken by President Kumaratunga to appoint a new Eastern Naval Area Commander and also designate him Co-ordinator in Chief of Security Forces and Police in the Trincomalee district. This is whilst creating a new post of Deputy Chief of Staff at Navy Headquarters in Colombo.

He had a hurried meeting with Rear Admiral Wasantha Karannagoda at Navy Headquarters. In addition to being named Commander, Eastern Naval Area he had been designated by President Kumaratunga as Co-ordinator in Chief of Security Forces and Police in the Trincomalee district. Although Vice Admiral Sandagiri, before his departure, had directed Rear Admiral Karannagoda to move to Trincomalee on July 1 and assume command from July 4, he could not do so.

Vice Admiral Sandagiri, it is now clear, had asked Rear Admiral Karannagoda on his mobile phone, not to proceed. This was after the latter raised questions on his responsibilities as Co-ordinator in Chief of Security Forces and the Police. On Sunday, Rear Admiral Karannagoda was told to rush and hurriedly take over command and thus heed a presidential directive. This he did.

As a result, Rear Admiral Sarath Weerasekera, Commander, Eastern Naval Area until that day returned to Colombo. On Wednesday, he assumed office as the Navy’s first Deputy Chief of Staff. He will also act as Director, General Staff. His responsibilities as Deputy Chief of Staff are yet to be determined. In the second post, he will be responsible for personnel, transport, welfare and administration including legal matters.

Rear Admiral Karannagoda, in his capacity as Co-ordinator in Chief of Security Forces and the Police in the Trincomalee district, has been tasked with the responsibility of ensuring law and order in the area. Towards this end, he has been told that he will be responsible for all Security Forces/Police operations to ensure continuing normalcy in the Trincomalee district.

And last Monday Vice Admiral Sandagiri had another task – go before the Government’s military procurements committee headed by Chandrananda de Silva, a former Defence Secretary. This is to justify why he strongly lobbied that two million Sterling Pounds or 36 billion -- more than half of Sri Lanka’s 56 billion rupee defence budget for 2005 – be spent to procure the logistics landing ship Sir Gallahad from Britain’s Royal Fleet Auxiliary. Errors have crept into earlier reports about the cost of this logistics landing ship.

Britain’s Ministry of Defence wants to offer for sale three “Sir Class” Logistic Landing Ships (LSLs) on completion of their service life with the Royal Fleet Auxiliary. Built in 1986, the vessel is 140.5 metres or one and half times a football field in length Sir Gallahad has a gross tonnage of 8861 and an endurance of 13,000 miles at a speed of 14 knots. It is due to leave service in October, this year, and will go for re-fit to be available for sale in August 2006. As a result of battle damage suffered in 1982, the original Sir Gallahad was sunk off the Falkland Islands. A replacement Sir Gallahad was built and came into service in 1987.

A team from the Disposal Services Agency (DSA) of Britain’s Ministry of Defence was in Sri Lanka to apprise the Navy of surplus logistic landing ships and other vessels available for sale. Thereafter, Vice Admiral Sandagiri cast aside all protocol to lead a delegation of five Rear Admirals to inspect vessels on offer for sale. As revealed earlier, it is not customary for a Chief of Defence Staff and Navy Commander to head procurement missions abroad.

This position was further highlighted when he was received in Britain only by a Navy officer of a very junior rank. The Sri Lanka Navy had purchased Economy Class air tickets for the inspection team. Though Vice Admiral Sandagiri was lucky enough to obtain upgrades to Business Class from the airline concerned, during the last lap of his return from Dubai to Colombo, the country’s senior most security official was downgraded to travel Economy Class. The Business Class was full.

In his recommendation to procure Sir Gallahad for a staggering Rs 36 billion, Vice Admiral Sandagiri had argued that transport of troops and cargo to the Jaffna peninsula would be effectively served. This is because of the large number of personnel and vast quantities of cargo that could be carried. However, senior Navy officials say the logistics landing craft is so long it requires special berthing facilities in the Colombo Port. Moreover, they pointed out, that the vessel cannot enter the Kankesanthurai harbour.

But other details that the Government’s official committee on procurements heard from senior Navy officials are more shocking. These have prompted the Committee to seriously consider rejecting the request. It is expected to do so in the coming weeks. Here are some of them:

Britain’s Royal Navy is constructing another new replacement vessel for Sir Gallahad since maintaining its class of Lloyd’s Registry is not cost effective.

The fuel costs to operate for ten days for Sir Gallahad is US $ 1.8 million or Rs 180 million or Rs. 18 million a day. Therefore, the monthly fuel cost would be Rs 558 million. This is Rs 158 million more than the Navy’s monthly wages bill of around Rs 400 million. It is also more than half the fuel costs for the entire fleet of Navy vessels for a whole month.

Annual requirement of spares would amount to US $ 650,000 or Rs 65 million. The Royal Force Auxiliary operates the vessel with US $ 2,392,000 or Rs 239.2 million worth of spares on board.

Financial constraints have prevented the Sri Lanka Navy from maintaining bigger craft. Sir Gallahad is more than four times the displacement of the largest vessel operated by the Sri Lanka Navy. In the past 30 years SLN has been operating vessels less than 150 tonnes. This was until the Government purchased two Israeli built, outdated, Fast Missile Vessels (FMV) which had a displacement of 440 tonnes.

These two vessels, procured in 2000, at a cost of US $ 26 million (Rs 260 million) are now idling in the Colombo Port. They are no longer operational and need engine replacement.

The SLN is also in possession of SLNS Sayura (1870 tonnes) and SLNS Samuudra (the former US Coast Guard cutter Courageous – 1007 tonnes).
Security considerations will require Sir Gallahad to be protected by a fleet of other Navy vessels during its voyages.

At present all major repairs and maintenance work for Sir Gallahad are carried out by the original engine manufacturers or on contract basis. This facility will not be available in Sri Lanka.

Some of the tasks meant to be carried out by the landing craft could be carried out with the existing assets of the Navy – SLNS Shakthi, LCMs, A-520, A-521 and A-543.

The annual operating cost for this logistic landing craft would be US $ 2.5 million or Rs 250 million on the basis of running it ten days a month. If it were to run for a month, it would be a staggering Rs 775 million.
The move by Vice Admiral Sandagiri to prod the Government to purchase a Rs 36 billion vessel brings to the fore, once more, the pathetic state of affairs in the country’s defence establishment. It remains very clear that no major lessons have been learnt during the near two decades separatist war.

Only politicians seem to have taken a cue. Former Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, chose to enter into a Ceasefire Agreement with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in February 2002. He explained that the war was not winnable by the military and that was one of the reasons he chose the path to peace talks. President Kumaratunga concurred with him a few weeks ago though she accused him earlier of jeopardising national security.

She went a major step further. To fight a war, she declared to the Maha Sangha at a meeting at the BMICH, she needed honest military officers, not those who made business deals.

She is right though she had not ensured that even one dishonest officer was punished or his ill gotten wealth disclosed to the public. There were a few in uniform in the armed forces and in the political establishment who became billionaires and millionaires. Hence, corrupt activity in military procurements continues even during relatively peace times. The only exception perhaps will be in the coming weeks. This is simply because the Government has called a halt to military procurements at least temporarily .
The Sunday Times learnt that a military officer who rose from the lowest rungs to a higher position procured a prime coconut property at a cost of Rs 25 million. According to one source, he told the seller, a wealthy businessman in the Kurunegala district, that he and his wife (who was then working) had saved the money for this family procurement. Another source alleged the officer had purportedly obtained a huge loan from a businessman with multi million rupee investments in Kandy and secured loans from colleagues. Needless to say this is a good case for the Commission to Investigate Bribery or Corruption to fully investigate.

Besides unbridled corruption, where successive Governments have done little to minimise, there is also another disturbing aspect. That is the haphazard procurement of defence needs, without doubt a contributory cause for corruption. It is not late even now for a top level team of serving officers from the Army, Navy, Air Force and even the Police to first examine defence needs and identify what are most required. Thereafter, the Government’s official procurement committee could study the matter.
This is not to say that the existing procurement committee is by any means incompetent or not suitable to the task. However, it is made up of retired persons, some of them who were in the military long before the onset of the separatist war. Hence, a study of procurements first by serving officers who are conversant with the fast changing character of warfare and what is needed to meet the challenges posed by them is an inevitable requirement. Thereafter, the already functioning procurement committee could examine their recommendations.

It is important for the Government to realise that the vast majority of military personnel are not corrupt. Most of them are competent professionals, skilled in their own area of activity and ready to offer their service. The Government cannot continue to ignore them under the pretext of pursuing peace.

The time has come to recognise them. They have to be vary of the sanctimonious crooks in uniform who have bled and are bleeding a nation’s wealth and robbing its future. Otherwise, political leaders who allow this to continue will have to answer a lot of questions.

Muthaliff probe bares bigger plot
Tiger guerrilla leader Velupillai Prabhakaran’s campaign to eliminate top rung officers of the Army’s Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI) was to have begun with a top most man – Major General Kapila Hendavitharana, now Director General Military Intelligence.

The former Director of Military Intelligence and now DGMI, in which position he oversees the intelligence arms of the three armed services, was to have been gunned down on a particular day. His regular routine had been identified and the senior officer was known to frequent a market place every Sunday morning. But on that fateful day, he was fortunate to have gone abroad.

The revelation came when CID detectives interrogated suspects arrested by the Bandaragama Police following a tip-off. The arrest and the recovery of a T-56 assault rifle, a 9 mm pistol, a micro pistol and ammunition were from a house in Ratmalana.

The suspects, The Sunday Times learnt, have given CID interrogators graphic details of how they mounted surveillance on the movements of Maj. Gen. Hendavitharana. Over a period of time they had trailed him to locations he had frequented.

The suspects are also learnt to have revealed that they had at first been tasked to undertake the killing of Major Nizam Muthaliff (promoted posthumously to Lieutenant Colonel). This was immediately after they found their main target, Maj. Gen. Hendavitharana was not to be seen. They had mounted surveillance; but had not been able to accomplish that task. Thereafter another group had carried out the killing. Lt. Col. Muthaliff was killed at Narahenpita on May 31. The suspects had also revealed that groups tasked to assassinate other targets had infiltrated the city but were unable to divulge details including would be victims.

Director of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), Senior Superintendent of Police Sisira Mendis, denied media reports that the son of a former Army Commander had provided classified, sensitive information to the suspects. However, an associate of the suspect had frequented the Officer’s Mess of the Kotelawala Defence Academy. There he had met many others including the son of a former Army Commander.

According to intelligence sources in Colombo, Mr. Prabhakaran has issued fresh orders to his cadres to eliminate members of all state intelligence agencies operating in the East. The move came after an abortive claymore mine attack on an LTTE convoy carrying 40 cadres from the North to the East in Welikande. The Army denied any involvement in the incident though the LTTE repeated its accusations against them.

The revelations come as a Sea Tiger guerrilla, described as senior LTTE cadre, was being interrogated by the Army. This was after he entered Security Forces controlled areas in the north and voluntarily surrendered.
Chief of National Intelligence, Major General (retired) Chula Seneviratne broke the news of the surrender during a recent meeting of the National Security Council. He said the cadre, who had played an important role, had bared some vital information. His disclosure caught even the armed forces commanders by surprise. They were unaware till the announcement was made.

Among them, The Sunday Times learnt, was the fact that the LTTE was continuing to smuggle in military hardware through the high seas.
Navy Commander and Chief of Defence Staff Vice Admiral Daya Sandagiri held the view this was not possible since Operation Waruna Kirana, the naval barrier in the high seas off the North East coast prevented it.

But the confessions of the Sea Tiger guerrilla had proved the contention wrong since he had given details of what had been going on.
And now, Vice Admiral Sandagiri has despatched one of his Naval intelligence sleuths to the north to find out details.

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