Sri Lanka News Updates with Discussions

The construction of the Mattala International Airport has been delayed due to the non availability of a particular type of Bitumen used for the laying of the runway.

Due to the shortage the work schedule is slated to be changed, Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) sources said. The government expects to open the country s second international airport by the end of 2011 and the three kilometer long tarmac is scheduled to be completed by March, 2011.

Meanwhile, Petroleum Resources Minister Susil Premajayantha today called a special progress review meeting at his ministry to assess the situation on learning the issue.

The Sri Lanka Army is to hold its first ever SEAL (Sea, Air and Land) training exercise, Comoran Strike for nine days in the Silawatura area commencing from November 21 to enhance the efficiency of the armed forces.

Nearly 2500 soldiers from the three armed forces are to participate in the exercise with 1600 representing the army Commandoes and the Special Forces, Military spokesman Ubhaya Medawala told Daily Mirror online.

The training will focus on improving decision making, commanding and efficiency in deciding command capabilities at a given situation.

The training exercise is a brain child of the Army Commander Lieutenant General Jagath Jayasuriya, Major General Medawala said.

Landing of sea planes is not harmful to aquatic resources. Lagoons will not be polluted because of sea plane landings. Some people are spreading false information about this project, Ports and Aviation Deputy Minister Dayashitha Tissara said, yesterday. He said we are a people-friendly Government, hence we decided to have discussion with all parties'.

The Deputy Minister was addressing a media briefing. A discussion regarding the sea plane landing in the Negombo lagoon will be held today at the Negombo Town Hall at 3 pm.

Several environmental organizations, the fishing community,religious leaders and Ministry officials will participate in the meeting.

Ports and Aviation Ministry will start the Sea Plane Project by January next year and it will deploy two sea planes as an initial step.

The 'Ex-Cormorants Strike' the first-ever nine-day long, joint exercise in the history of Sri Lanka Army and Armed Forces is to commence on November 21 with the participation of over 2,500 troops, drawn from the Army, Navy and Air Force.

Under the auspices of Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, the exercise of this magnitude, the brainchild of Army Commander Lieutenant General Jagath Jayasuriya is to be conducted in areas spanning from Silawathura, Mannar to Mavillu in Thanthirimale, Anuradhapura, states a Sri Lanka Army press release.

Over 1,600 Army Commandos and Special Forces troops as the main element, together with Naval ships and Air Force aircraft will take part in the field training exercise. The exercise is to test on their command ability at all levels, decision making, execution of designed concepts to achieve operational competence in a joint environment with sister services, build-up of mutual understanding, discovery of own personal capability and limitations, provision of logistics and replenishments, etc. This exercise is conducted in an amphibious setting with emphasis on specialized ground operations and is to be executed in stages.

These sorts of exercises are designed to assess and gauge military effectiveness. Such exercises are conducted by many armies and armed forces worldwide.

Among the armaments recovered by the Army during the war and ongoing clearing operations in the Northern and Eastern Provinces are 15 artillery pieces and 805 mortars of different types. The artillery pieces comprised six 152 mm and nine 130 mm artillery all of Chinese origin.

The recovered mortars included six 122 mm, fifty seven 120 mm, two 85 mm, thirty eight 82 mm, one hundred and forty seven 81 mm, four hundred eighty seven 60 mm and 65 commando mortars.

Troops also recovered three six-barreled MBRL (multi barrel rocket launchers), 14 recoilless weapons and a range of other arms, ammunition and equipment acquired by the LTTE over the years.

Intelligence sources told The Island that the LTTE had smuggled in bulk of the armaments since February 2002 from different sources with most items including artillery and mortars being of the Chinese origin.

Testifying before the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) recently Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa said that those who talked about loss of civilian life had never discussed the LTTE firepower, which claimed the lives over 6,000 officers and men and wounded about 30,000.

Sixteen months after the conclusion of the war, security forces are still recovering small quantities of ammunition and explosives in the Vanni region with occasional recoveries in the East.

Responding to a query by The Island, an authoritative military official said that among the recovered items, there could be some belonging to the Army, including artillery, mortars, armoured fighting vehicles and armoured personnel carriers which had been seized by the LTTE years back.

Sources said that the Army during the Vanni campaign had recovered most of the heavy weapons in areas east of the A9 road in the last five months of the campaign. The LTTE collapsed on May 19 last year on the banks of the Nanthikadal lagoon.

The LTTE is believed to have acquired at least four utility vessels formerly of the Japanese Maritime Safety Agency/Coast Guard through an agency handling sale of used ships.

Sources say Blue Hawk , Magamai , Rakuy and Expor had been used by the LTTE to move arms, ammunition and equipment from floating warehouses over many years in its war against Sri Lanka.

The vessel destroyed on Sept. 17, 2006 about 120 nautical miles off Kalmunai on the East coast could be one of the 22 metre Japanese vessels, sources believe.

The LTTE is believed to have purchased as many as 30 ships of different categories since 198, the majority of them hfrom Japanese firms, though theJapanese government wasn t aware of the transactions. Those who handled the purchases on behalf of the LTTE had acted as legitimate ship operators.

Ponnaih Anandarajah alias Iyanna, one-time KP s second-in-command is widely believed to have handled the transactions. Anandarajah succeeded KP during the Norwegian-arranged CFA, though the LTTE reinstated KP a few months before the collapse of the group in May last year. Anandarajah visited Vanni, where he met LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran during the CFA.

Sources said that Anandarajah s whereabouts weren t known. It is believed that Anandarajah could be working with one of the three Diaspora factions now engaged in a major propaganda campaign against the Sri Lankan government. Sources said he was having a substantial amount of funds at his disposal.

Of the LTTE ships numbering about 30, the Sri Lanka Navy sunk about a dozen vessels. India destroyed one and another was detained by another country. Even if a few vessels had been disposed of by the LTTE, about ten ships could have been engaged in legitimate business one and half years after the conclusion of the war, sources said.

Once upon a time, ancient travellers like Marco Polo, Sindbad the Sailor, the Portuguese Admiral Lorenzo de Almeida... they all sailed to Ceylon s southern port city Galle. Centuries later, thousands of others travel by road.

If you re planning to be part of next January s Galle Literary Festival 2011, you can take a completely new option. In fact a most exciting option would be to fly to Galle, much to the envy of others. Yes, transportation to and from the Galle Literary Festival takes on an excitingly new dimension with SriLankan Air Taxis ferrying writers and visitors to the southern capital city and back for Galle s most talked about event.

Now in its fifth successful year, the Galle Literary Festival to be held from January 26th to 30th has taken top billing both in Sri Lanka s and the international literary/cultural calendar, drawing writers and visitors from all parts of the world. This year too SriLankan Airlines as the festival carrier will fly in participants from all parts of the airline s network covering 49 destinations 31 countries. The majority of participants from Europe will fly out from London while many others will fly from Delhi.

For a fare of Rs. 12,000 + taxes, you can hop on board a SriLankan Air Taxi from Colombo to Galle for the day. In fact FlySmiles members can redeem miles too on this sector. What s more... you also get a complimentary Day-Pass from SriLankan Air Taxis to the Galle Literary Festival on the day of your flight.

Taking off from Colombo, your flight will cruise at an altitude of 1500 to 3000 feet above sea level along Sri Lanka s western coastline. Along the way it s all yours to enjoy Colombo s fast changing skyline from Moratuwa, Panadura to the sacred city Kalutara with its famed Bo Tree and Dagoba, where river meets sea.

You pass the Fisheries Harbour at Beruwela and swoop over scenic golden beaches of Bentota with its necklace of hotels dotting the coastline. Your final destination will be Koggala deep in the Martin Wickremasinghe country which evokes vivid images of Madol Duwa and Gamperaliya , classics of Sri Lankan literature and immortalised in film by the doyen of Sri Lanka Dr. Lester James Peries.

This time s festival will attract historians, poets, award winning writers, and biographers from England, India, Pakistan, Turkey, Nigeria, the Ukraine, Malaysia, Australia, Canada, USA, South Africa, and Sri Lanka.

Among them will be Nobel, Booker, Orange, Whitbread, Commonwealth and Gratiaen Prize winners who will be part of the activities including panel and solo discussions, concerts and workshops. There will also be gourmet lunches, Al fresco lunchtime concert picnics, dinners and late night revues and readings.

Adding to the excitement of the experience, SriLankan Air Taxis will also operate scenic flights out of nearby Koggala during this festival to enable foreign visitors to discover more of southern Sri Lanka from a bird s eye perspective.

Sri Lanka's historic Galle Fort exudes a distinct olde worlde charm. Every street corner, every old building, every tombstone and every archway have each a story of their own. These are stories, sometimes untold and waiting to be discovered by inquiring Sri Lankan and foreign visitors.

While savouring the 21st century charm of the Galle Literary Festival, you can also embark on a voyage back in time when battles were lost and won, tales spun and charmed... and history created and reshaped in this UNESCO World Heritage site.

The Sri Lanka Air Force has embarked on an ambitious Research and Development program to develop an indigenous aviation technology in collaboration with the Moratuwa University.

The project is progressing rapidly under the direct supervision of Air Chief Marshal Roshan Gunethilake and the UoM Vice Chancellor Prof Malik Ranasinghe on the advices of the Secretary of Defence.

Recently, Air Force published some photographs of their latest Unmanned Aerial vehicle (UAV) produced in SLAF on their web.

This is another land mark achievement of the nation in the technological front.

President Asif Ali Zardari of Pakistan visited Sri Lanka from November 27 to 30,2010, at the invitation of President Mahinda Rajapaksa. Among those who accompanied him were Shah Mehmood Qureshi, the Pakistani Foreign Minister, Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar, his Defence Minister, and Saleem Mandviwala, Chairman of the Investment Board of the Government of Pakistan. He was also accompanied by a delegation of Pakistani businessmen.

In an article on the visit titled A new dawn in Pak-Lanka ties , the Daily Times of Lahore said on December 6: In the past, Pakistan helped the Sri Lankan state for three reasons. First, increasing Pakistan s ability to participate in South Asian politics and posing itself as a counter-balance to India. Second, increasing its value in the region. Third, fighting Tamil militant forces, which are considered a product of Indian intelligence agencies.

Pakistan s value for Sri Lanka in the past came from its willingness to supply heavy equipment such as multi-barrel artillery guns and shells to the Sri Lankan Army for use against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). It also helped the Sri Lankan Air Force in the servicing of its aircraft used against the LTTE. The heavy military equipment supplied by Pakistan and China helped the Sri Lankan Armed Forces in their operations against the LTTE.

Now that the LTTE has been defeated and practically destroyed by the Sri Lankan Armed Forces, Sri Lanka does not have the same pressing need for military equipment from Pakistan as it had in the past. Despite this, Pakistan is interested in selling to Sri Lanka military equipment manufactured by it with Chinese assistance. This was one of the subjects discussed with Rajapaksa. The Pakistani Defence Minister accompanied Zardari to assist him in these discussions. Qureshi was reported to have told Pakistani journalists accompanying Zardari that Sri Lanka evinced interest in the purchase of the Pakistani al-Khalid Main Battle Tanks, light weapons and ammunition, and the JF-17 Thunder aircraft jointly produced by Pakistan and China.

The two leaders are reported to have agreed to enhance intelligence-sharing in matters relating to terrorism. Zardari reportedly offered to train Sri Lankan police and other security officials in counter-terrorism.