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'SS Courageous will increase SLN naval power by 75 percent, says Daya Sandagiri
Wednesday, 30 March 2005 - 10:18 PM SL Time
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Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) and the Commander of the Sri Lanka Navy, Vice Admiral Daya Sandagiri, said on Tuesday in Colombo that the inclusion of a 210 foot US Coastguard Vessel, USS Courageous, into the fleet of coastguard ship would greatly enhance' the deep sea operations of the Sri Lankan navy. `The new vessel will increase our naval power by 75 percent,` Vice Admiral Sandagiri said on Wednesday while speaking at the ceremony to officially commission the USS Courageous, which is renamed as P-621 into the Sri Lankan naval fleet. The ship is manned by 89 sailors and 13 officers led by Captain S.S. Ranasinghe.
He has also thanked the US government to have considered Sri Lanka for the transfer of the vessel.
The USS Courageous, which was officially gifted to Sri Lanka by the Bush Administration during the tenure of the previous United National Front (UNF) government, started sailing from Norfolk Harbor in Virginia in the mid of February and reached Colombo Port on Tuesday following an extensive refurbishment program. [Tamilnet]
Although the vessel was offered to Sri Lankan navy as a gift, the Government of Sri Lanka had to spent Rs. Six million for a comprehensive overhaul and refurbishment process, which was carried out by the US marine engineers for the past one year.
Speaking to the media after the ceremony, US Ambassador Jeffrey Lunstead has expressed his optimism that the new ship would be a major improvement for the Sri Lanka Navy.
`I hope the newly added ship will protect Sri Lanka and will help to bring peace to the country. After all it is what we all want,` the State-managed Daily News has quoted the US Ambassador as saying.
The move by the Bush administration to present the USS Courageous, to Sri Lanka is widely seen as an ongoing exercise of bolstering the military ties between the two countries and would add deep-water surveillance and interdiction capability to the Sri Lanka Navy.
On February 20, a war ship of the US Seventh Fleet, USS Blue Ridge, arrived in Colombo harbour as a prelude to the arrival of the USS Courageous.
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leo_m
Joined: Mar 2005
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30 Mar 2005 18:31:55 GMT Report for Abuse
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Look at the cost of a war. We do not need these ships if there is peace. Loom at the number of people in the armed forces and police. We could have found productive employment for the 100,000 or so people who have to defend rather than giving them productive employment.
Let us STOP THE WAR. Anything that we post here should reflect peace. Let us learn to think like human beings with different views rather than SINHALA BUDDHISTS.
Look at other countries which have surpassed us. We cannot even improve our rail network and the roads. We go backward not forward.
Let us find peace and fight corruption and irregularities and injustice to other ethnic groups and religions. Then we will get our respect from them. Today we have antagonized the Tamils, Muslims and other religions. Who is left???????
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jay-r
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30 Mar 2005 20:27:32 GMT Report for Abuse
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| Leo! Budhists have not antogonized Tamils & Muslims.Budhists have only trying to maintain their identity.Budhists never destroyed Tamil or Muslim worship places but theyhave destroyed Budhists.SINHALA BUDHIST VIEWS never doctrine invasion,unethical conversions,destroying other ethnic groups etc.So lets stop this war first.let LTTE realize that the war has reduced their populatoin as well as others.Had the LTTE collected all the resources and diverted them to develop N & E by way of opening industries,cultivation etc etc N & E would have been a small sigapore bu now.Solets stop this invasion as a begining and lets try to live as a single nation. |
leo_m
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30 Mar 2005 22:23:26 GMT Report for Abuse
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Jay_r. We are in the habit of always looking at the other and wait for a change. Let us change ourselves. When we change others will change.
I hope you can remember how we murdered out Tamil brothers and sisters in July 1983 riots. How we destroyed the businesses and even the Thosa boutiques. Had we refrained from those barbaric acts things would have changed. We should be ashamed of ourselves shouldn't we ? |
jay-r
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30 Mar 2005 22:41:27 GMT Report for Abuse
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| Leo-I won't say what happened in 1983 is correct.It's due to the failure of the rulers at that time this got aggravated.But any way,what lead to that attack? 13 SLA personal were killed in a LTTE land mine.Therefore both side should accept the responsibility.Also the militants should stop their atrocities as the GOSL has been observing the CFA to a very high degree but the LTTE was not! Thats the problem. Since 1983 how many times the LTTE massacred the very innocent Sinhalese people? brutally killed the innocent Buddhists monks who were helpless?at Antihero Sacred Maha Maluwa how many hundreds of devotees were gunned down like real butchers?how many in the boardering villages were brutally killed,some infants were thrashed on the floor? DID THE MAJORITY SINHALA SRI LANKANS TOOK UP ARMS IN REVENGE? BUT THERE IS A LIMIT FOR THIS PATIENCE! High time LTTE stop this nonsense of killing their own people first at least if they are human beings who want peace,because the very people the N & E Tamils were relying on,have become their own ENEMY. |
Sandman
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31 Mar 2005 04:18:49 GMT Report for Abuse
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| Whether at war or at peace, a nation has to have a defence policy and credible armed service to deliver that policy effectively. Sri Lanka, unfortunately needs to spend resources in pursuit of a peace that would allow a largely ungrateful minority group to live in harmony with others within a democratic framework. |
Sandman
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31 Mar 2005 04:25:27 GMT Report for Abuse
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History for Leo: Training of Tamil terror groups began in India as early as 1978. Do the math. That is at least 6 years ahead of the 1983 riots.
Do you remember what caused the riots? It was the killing of 11 SL armed forces personnel. The riots were an unnecessary and a senseless waste of human life, but do you see any tamils , whether the nice ones or otherwise, apologising for all the carnage caused since then by their own terror groups? |
dumindak
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31 Mar 2005 10:33:41 GMT Report for Abuse
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Dear Noel
You have become a LTTE supporter because it was your choice, not that sinhalese people have influence you to be LTTE supporter. In 1983 sinhalese people made the mistake, but LTTE has done so many mistakes 100 times worse than that. Then you should have stopped supporting LTTE after seen those.
Just try to think what you want to do,then do it. But dont put the blame on others |
PatrioticSriLankan
Joined: Mar 2005
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1 Apr 2005 00:55:02 GMT Report for Abuse
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if ltte got the courageous ship - they would even kiss bush's //snap
Moderated - Friday, 1 April 2005 - 7:49 AM |
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