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Kadir dropped his guard after assurances?
Did Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar, who was aware of an August 2005 plot to assassinate him, drop his guard after a wealthy overseas Tamil businessman told him the LTTE had assured him that he would not be killed by them as long as he held his portfolio?
The businessman with very close links to the LTTE was in the habit of calling on Mr. Kadirgamar whenever he visited Sri Lanka. The Foreign Minister who was always keen to learn "the other view" saw him only after he had cleared security at his residence. Unhappy Army commandos guarding the Minister who screened him gave him the sobriquet "Babu" after one day confiscating a syringe he was carrying saying he was a diabetic.

"Babu" was the name of the suicide-bomber who killed President Ranasinghe Premadasa. He had infiltrated the Premadasa household two years before the assassination was carried out. Mr. Kadirgamar and the Tamil businessman have been old family friends of many years. During their meetings they discussed the current political crisis, especially the north-east insurgency.

Mr. Kadirgamar had been warned of an impending bid on his life this very month through the Directorate of Military Intelligence by a western intelligence agency. The brief one-paragraph warning said a plot to assassinate him was to be executed in August 2005, but it did not give specific details on how it would be executed. In addition, the Directorate of Internal Intelligence (DII) had warned that the guerrillas were also planning to assassinate Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse and Deputy Defence Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake.

Major General Sarath Fonseka was then acting Commander of the Army (Lt. Gen. Shantha Kottegoda was away in Thailand) had promptly telephoned Mr. Kadirgamar to warn him of this. Thereafter, the very next day he had made available two more motor cycles and four escort vehicles for his use.

The warning by the western intelligence agency had been the subject of intense discussion by Mr. Kadirgamar with senior Army officers responsible for his security.

Investigators probing the minister's assassination have been told by his security staff that following the overseas businessman's advice that Mr. Kadirgamar would not be targeted while he held the Foreign Minister portfolio, Mr. Kadirgamar had taken a more relaxed view on security precautions. The businessman is reported to have further said that the LTTE had, however, told him that they might assassinate Mr. Kadirgamar when he was a private citizen.

With Mr. Kadirgamar purchasing a private residence at Buller's Lane, his security advisers had in September last year, requested more personnel from Army Commander Shantha Kottegoda. The request was turned down on the grounds that in that case Mr. Kadirgamar would have more security than Premier Rajapakse. This negative response by the Army Commander had prompted Mr. Kadirgamar, who served as a member of the National Security Council and was on top of the LTTE's hit-list to tell his security advisers not to press for more personnel. But Mr. Kadirgamar's security contingent pursued their efforts through the Ministry of Defence. Approval for an additional contingent was granted — ironically on the day he was assassinated — eleven months after the first request.

The additional men were due in Colombo from their camps only this week.
The private residence of Mr. Kadirgamar had a permanent guard of just four Ministerial Security Division personnel together with a solitary policeman from the Cinnamon Gardens Police. Investigators are adopting a two-pronged probe into Mr. Kadirgamar's assassination, one to trace the assassins, and the other to ascertain which arm of the security establishment was responsible for the terrible inadequacy in his personal security.

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