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| Haukland's
parting salvo draws Rajapaksa ire Just a week ago, he told Defence Secretary Gothabaya Rajapaksa that the Sri Lanka Army cannot win the war with Tiger guerrillas. He opined that unlike Al Qaeda, the LTTE was not a terrorist organisation. They were freedom fighters, he declared. Those words came from Mr. Haukland (he prefers not to use his military title) who has been associated with the SLMM since its inception in 2002. From that year until 2002 he was Chief of Staff. After a short break from October 2004 to October 2005, he rejoined the SLMM and became its head. This was after succeeding retired Norwegian Major General, the smooth talking Trond Furuhovde. Even if his remarks do not constitute the official view of the Government of Norway, the peace facilitator that signed a Status of Mission Agreement with Sri Lanka for the establishment and management of the SLMM, the occasion was an official one. Mr Haukland had called on Defence Secretary Rajapaksa on Thursday March 23 afternoon to introduce his successor, retired Swedish Major General Ulf Henricsson. The retired Swedish Army officer became Head of SLMM from yesterday. This was the result of President Rajapaksa Government's request to Norway to only play the role of a peace facilitator and leave ceasefire monitoring activity to another party. Accordingly it was announced during talks on the ceasefire in Geneva in February that Sweden would head the SLMM. Mr Haukland's controversial remarks drew an angry response from Defence Secretary Rajapaksa. "You have come here to do a job of work. If you want to do that efficiently, be impartial and don't take sides," he shouted back. Thereafter, he went on to give the outgoing and the new SLMM Head some advice. He said they should take time to learn about the culture and history of Sri Lanka. "The Sinhalese and Tamils have lived in unity for several decades. You come here now and say it won't work. Don't talk like that," exhorted Mr. Rajapaksa. Angered
by the remarks he went on to accuse the outgoing SLMM head of serving
in jobs in Sri Lanka only to add such stints to their resume and
not to achieve objectives. Mr Rajapaksa accused the SLMM of failing
to condemn recent Tiger guerrilla attacks on the armed forces field
and the police. The remarks drew a prompt reply from Mr. Haukland.
He said the SLMM had no evidence. "You cannot attack a person
if there is no evidence. I will deal with the person if I can catch
them," he pointed out. Mr.
Haukland was also to raise issue over the Ministry of Defence turning
down an LTTE request for a helicopter flight to ferry their military
leaders from the east to the Wanni. This was for a meeting with
their leadership. Defence Secretary Rajapaksa said the request was
intended to place the Government in an embarrassing position. He
said even armed forces area commanders serving either in the north
or the east were not provided helicopter rides when they were invited
for conferences in Colombo. With the CFA of February 22, 2002, both the Government of Sri Lanka and the Royal Norwegian Government concluded a Status of Mission Agreement (SOMA). The status, privileges and immunities of the SLMM and its members are defined and set out in this three-page agreement. The LTTE has in writing to the Norwegian Government committed its willingness to fully implement the SOMA. Article 3 of SOMA accords all members of the SLMM the same immunities and privileges as are accorded to diplomatic agents under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of April 18 1961. This includes immunity from "personal arrest or detention and from legal process in respect of all acts, including words spoken or written, performed by them in the course of duty." However, Article 4 of the SOMA states: "Privileges and immunities are accorded to the SLMM and its members in the interests of efficient and independent fulfilment of the Mission's tasks and not for the personal benefit of the individuals concerned. Without prejudice to their privileges and immunities, the Mission and its members will take all appropriate steps to ensure respect for and compliance with the laws and regulations of Sri Lanka." Surprisingly, if not shockingly, Mr. Haukland's remarks designating the LTTE as "freedom fighters" run counter to the official policy of the Donor Co-chairs who are supporting the peace process with offers of large scale foreign aid if the peace talks make progress. In the United States, the LTTE is listed as a "terrorist" organisation. In the United Kingdom they are banned and some of the front organisations have had their bank accounts frozen. It was only recently that the European Union imposed a travel ban on LTTE delegations visiting their respective member countries. In the light of this, the question that begs answer is why a retired Norwegian Army official who had been associated with the SLMM since its inception has chosen to pass judgement on the Army's inability to win a war with Tiger guerrillas. Furthermore, for the Sri Lankan public, his assertion that the LTTE are "not terrorists" but "freedom fighters" also requires an explanation. These words were uttered when he was Head of the SLMM. Hence, did this constitute the official view of the SLMM where Mr. Haukland has been a senior official? Needless to say his controversial remarks do not help the Norwegian Government's credibility or impartiality vis-a-vis the Sri Lankan public. This is at a time when the Government expects the SLMM to play a greater role in enforcing the Ceasefire Agreement. It is particularly in view of the military build-up by Tiger guerrillas in the north and the east and the outbreak of sporadic incidents. On Wednesday, guerrillas directed gunfire at the Navy's small detachment in Norway Island, off the Trincomalee harbour. They followed it up with mortar fire. The Eastern Naval Area Headquarters in Trincomalee directed an Inshore Patrol Craft (IPC) with an SLMM member on board to move into the area. By the time they reached the spot, the guerrillas had withdrawn. President Rajapaksa has also been increasingly concerned about reports of LTTE attempts to smuggle in more military supplies. This was after the March 25 incident in the seas south of the Gulf of Mannar where a Navy officer and seven sailors were killed. Soon after the incident he cut short a tour of the south and returned to Colombo. Thereafter, the next day, he cancelled several engagements in the north central province and urged Prime Minister, Ratnasiri Wickremanayake to deputise for him. He held a series of urgent meetings with defence and security top brass at "Temple Trees" where important decisions were made. One was to declare a "no go" zone in parts of the western seas where fishing by multi-day trawlers would be prohibited. Navy patrols have been given shoot at sight orders on violators. This and other new measures have become necessary after it was confirmed that the LTTE was busy smuggling in defence supplies. The latest sequence of events that laid bare fresh LTTE smuggling attempts surfaced after a friendly country tipped off Sri Lankan authorities in February, this year. One of their surveillance aircraft made a brief stop over in Colombo to take on board a Sri Lanka Navy officer. Thereafter, they conducted reconnaissance flights in the deep seas off the north-eastern waters. At one point they spotted a heavily laden ship with no flag of identification. They swooped low and obtained photographs. Thereafter the vessel veered further away from Sri Lanka. (The Sunday Times - Situation Report - February 19 2006). Naval craft that were deployed to track this vessel, however, arrested another large trawler and brought it to the Galle Harbour. It turned out that the vessel was an Indonesian one fishing illegally in Sri Lanka's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). The crew have been indicted in Courts and they face the prospect of their trawler being confiscated. Fresh evidence of a further attempt to transfer defence supplies surfaced after the Navy made a spectacular detection in the deep seas off Point Pedro on March 22. Details of this detection were reported exclusively in last week's The Sunday Times (Situation Report). On board a multi-day fishing trawler "Priyanka Duwa," Navy personnel arrested five persons. Their subsequent interrogation revealed three were top rung intelligence operatives of the LTTE. They had tried unsuccessfully to explode the trawler. Thereafter, they had tried to immobilise it by removing the cooling water line and the battery. One of the guerrilla intelligence operatives had revealed plans of the same ship, said to be 110 metres long (not ten metres as erroneously reported last week),to unload defence supplies in a general area some 170 nautical miles off the Mullaitivu coast. A Sri Lanka Air Force Beechcraft on a surveillance flight located the heavily laden vessel and reported that it was speeding away from Sri Lanka. It seemed that a second attempt by the LTTE to smuggle in defence supplies had failed. It was thereafter that intelligence reports began to filter that the LTTE may attempt again to carry out a mid-sea transfer of defence supplies, possibly in the deep waters off the western coast. The Commander of the Navy, Vice Admiral Wasantha Karannagoda launched a two-day operation by a fleet of Navy vessels to check on multi-day fishing trawlers in the deep seas surrounding Sri Lanka. It began on March 25 (Saturday). There were Navy vessels south of the Dondra Point, in the North East, in the Gulf of Mannar and other areas. As exclusively revealed last week, the Navy gunship SLNS Jayasagara and two Dvora fast attack craft (FACs) were assigned to check waters south of the Gulf of Mannar. They left Colombo early that Saturday morning. One of the Dvoras, P 431 commanded by Lt. Cmdr. Chaminda Navaratne was near Kudiramalai Point (north of Kalpitiya). From that location they had checked six trawlers, all multi-day fishing vessels. They
were now approaching the seventh trawler, also a multi-day fishing
vessel. It bore the name and place in Sinhala lettering - 'VASANA
DEVI' - NEGOMBO (painted Meegamuwa in Sinhala). Lt. Cmdr. Navaratne
spoke on the loud hailer. The Dvora and the trawler were some fifty
metres apart. He ordered those on board to line up on the deck so
they can be seen. Soon, six men on board the trawler showed up.
One of them began answering questions posed by the Dvora skipper
in broken Sinhala. During debriefs by senior Navy officers, survivors from Dvora P431 said the explosion hit the bow area. Sailors who were standing there fell into the sea and some drowned because they were not wearing their life vests over their body armour. Survivors were able to activate life rafts on board and were later brought ashore by fishermen. Intelligence sources say on board the trawler were stocks of artillery ammunition, surface to air and surface to surface missiles among other things. Besides the first blast, testimony of survivors revealed there had been at least two to three secondary explosions, confirming intelligence reports of the presence of missiles on board. These sources believe the ship load of defence supplies was unloaded into trawlers in the deep seas off the western coast. It is one of these trawlers that had been encountered by Dvora P431. Others would have got away. There was a highly disturbing feature. The incident took place at 8.45 am on March 25 some 18.5 nautical miles east of Kudiramalai Point. But news of the incident reached Navy Headquarters only after 3 p.m. That was after the fishermen helped the survivors reach the shores of Battalangunduwa. This clearly meant that the gunboat SLNS Jayasagara and the other Dvora were completely unaware. So was Navy Headquarters. The consequences of such a situation at times of war are unimaginable. On
March 25 Navy Headquarters directed its sector commands on the need
to maintain continued communications and closely co-ordinate all
operations. They have been told to strictly comply with this directive. One such matter is said to be the ugly and acrimonious exchanges between some armed forces top brass at the last weekly meeting at the Joint Operations Headquarters (JOH) on Tuesday. That such a heated dialogue, casting aside decent norms, has taken place in the presence of junior officers has raised deep concerns over how joint operations could be executed if a war broke out with Tiger guerrillas. Moreover, it has been pointed out that such dirty verbal duels have become all too common in the past months. After President Rajapaksa's and entourage return to Colombo, both Defence Secretary Gothabaya Rajapaksa and Foreign Secretary H.M.G.S. Palihakkara are to fly to New Delhi. Among other matters they are likely to brief their Indian counterparts on the Pakistan visit. This week also saw some top level changes in the military establishment. In the Sri Lanka Air Force, a veteran flier Air Vice Marshal Roshan Gunatilleke assumed office yesterday as Chief of Staff. He succeeds Air Vice Marshal Laksan Salgado who retired yesterday. He was earlier Deputy Chief of Staff and was, among other matters, in charge of operations. This position has been taken over by Air Commodore P.B. Premachandra. The latter was Director (Training). Major General Lawrence Fernando, Director General General General Staff (DGGS) at the Joint Operations Headquarters (JOH) has been appointed Commandant of the Army Command and Staff College in Batalanda. He is being succeeded by Major General Sumith Balasuriya who held the newly created post of Director General, Budget and Finance at Army Headquarters. Though buoyed by a sweeping victory at the local council elections, President Rajapaksa now faces an uphill task. The guerrillas have declared they would not agree to another round of talks after Geneva until the Government disbands paramilitary groups. And the Government has declared it has no truck with any such group. Guerrillas continue smuggling defence supplies. They have begun to step up war cries. The task for him is not only to ensure a very high level of military preparedness. A more important one appears to be that of ensuring greater amity at the highest levels of the security establishment and call a halt to big level power play or creation of new strong centres of power. For a man who has overcome many an odd to wear the mantle of Sri Lanka's fifth executive President, this is not a difficult task. President Rajapaksa knows what is going on and what he should do. Probe
on huge arms deals: Navy top brass fear reprisals President Mahinda Rajapaksa who appointed the Commission of Inquiry wants it to inquire and report, inter alia, on:
The Commission comprises Justice Nimal Gamini Ameratunga, Judge of the Supreme Court. A retired senior officer of the Sri Lanka Administrative Service (SLAS), Edmund Jayasuriya will function as Secretary. Mr Jayasuriya told The Sunday Times evidence will be recorded in camera. Hence the records will not be made public whilst the Commission's sittings are in progress. He said a three-month period has been given for the Commission to forward its report though the date of commencement of the sittings is yet to be decided on. He said the Commission would receive public representations until April 17. This is in the form of written representations after which the Commssion may invite individuals or organisations for further discussion. The Commission office is located in Room No 2 - 114 at the Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall (BMICH). The Sunday Times learns that some serving Navy officers who are conversant with procurement and other related matters want to make representations to the Commission. However, some of them are seeking assurances that there would be no reprisals on them since some of the serious allegations they level are centred on an officer who is holding the highest post in the nation's defence establishment- the Chief of Defence Staff. President Rajapaksa's decision to appoint a Commission of Inquiry follows the exclusive revelation in The Sunday Times (Situation Report) Of January 1 this year. The report revealed how the Government cancelled over a billion rupee deal where former Commander of the Navy and now Chief of Defence Staff, Admiral Daya Sandagiri ordered 20-year-old guns for the Navy's Fast Attack Craft (FAC) fleet on the grounds they were "brand new" and made an advance payment running into millions for the weapons that were not in production. The move followed a full report the Commander of the Navy Vice Admiral Wasantha Karannagoda sent Defence Secretary Gothabaya Rajapaksa. Vice Admiral Karannagoda declared in his report that the "deal appears to have been done deliberately in order to give time for the contractor to find the guns since they were not in production." He said, "Possibility exists that this was done to buy time until the Royal Navy (United Kingdom) started removing their 20-year-old guns from their vessels. He warned that "if the deal went through, Sri Lanka Navy craft would have been fighting with weapons of outdated technology against Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). This would have had a serious bearing on national security." Instead of appointing a Commission of Inquiry under the existing laws, President Rajapaksa has invoked a provision in the Constitution to order this probe. This provision allows him to obtain the opinion of the Supreme Court on "a question of law or fact" that has arisen or likely to arise "which is of such nature and public importance that it is expedient to obtain the opinion of the Supreme Court." |
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Copyright © 2001 Wijeya Newspapers
Ltd. All rights reserved. |
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The outgoing Head of Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), retired
Norwegian Brigadier Hagrup Haukland, who leads the team of Nordic
citizens tasked to monitor the Ceasefire Agreement between the Government
and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) had some parting
words of wisdom to Sri Lankans.
