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Good work jolly.. keeping it alive

After completion of six months training in Kaluthara Police Training School, 336 youths who were recruited from the Northern province will join police department today, (07 Dec) Police spokesperson SP Krishantha Jayakody told defence.lk.

New recruits will get their appointments from Inspector General of Police Mahinda Balasuriya after the passing-out ceremony organized at the Police Training School Kaluthara today evening.

This is the first time in 30 years the police recruited Tamil youth to its service. Some of them are fluent in all three major languages of Sri Lanka, Sinhala, Tamil, and English, the spokesman said.

The Police expect to appoint these newly joined police officers to serve in the North and East parts of the country fulfilling the shortage of Tamil speaking police officers in the province.

Sri Lanka says that in spite of difficulties in obtaining arms and ammunition at one stage during the Eelam War in 2008, government forces never faced shortages in ammunition and equipment needed to sustain the offensive.

An authoritative official insists that the Lanka Logistics and Technologies Limited, which functions under Defence Ministry control, procured the required equipment from Sri Lanka s regular suppliers.

The official was responding to recent media reports based on Wiki Leaks revelations that the US had threatened to impose sanctions on Sri Lanka during the final stage of the war if it continued to have arms dealings with North Korea and Iran. The war concluded on May 19, 2009.

In a brief interview with The Island, the spokesman emphasised that there was no basis for US concerns of Sri Lanka s clandestine weapons procurement agreements with North Korea and Iran.

Sri Lanka broke off diplomatic relations with North Korea in 1971 in the wake of the alleged involvement of that Communist country in the 1971 JVP insurrection. But following the election of President Mahinda Rajapaksa in November, 2005, there has been a tremendous improvement in bilateral relations with Iran leading to an unprecedented 120-day interest free credit facility to help Sri Lanka obtain its crude oil supplies. Diplomatic sources said that the Iranian crude oil deal eased pressure on the Treasury in 2008 at the height of the Vanni war.

Responding to a query, the official said that those involved in procurement on behalf of Sri Lanka could have inquired about North Korean weapons or checked them on the Internet, though no actual purchases were made.

In an obvious reference to Lanka Logistics and Technologies Limited, the US, citing recent intelligence reports said that a Sri Lankan company responsible for acquisition of equipment and services for the Sri Lankan military had negotiated the purchase of RPG-7 Rocket Propelled Grenade Launchers (RPGs) and Multiple Rocket Launchers (MRLs) from North Korea s primary weapons trading firm. The US asserted that the Sri Lanka s deals with North Korea appeared to have violated UN Security Council Resolution 1718.

The US alleged that it had also received information that Iran s Ministry of Defence Logistics Export Centre (MODLEX) had also provided a multi-million dollar quote to the Sri Lankan Navy for the installation of naval equipment. It went on to allege that an Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Force element located in Sri Lanka provided details to an Iranian shipping company for the sale of weapons to the Sri Lanka Army.

A high level government source said that nothing could be as irrational as buying weapons from North Korea, when the same could be bought from Sri Lanka s primary arms supplier, China. The official said: 'The North Korean weapons are mostly of Chinese origin and there is absolutely no need for us to shop in Pyongyang. Given suspicion in Pyongyang that the US helped Sri Lanka Navy to track down LTTE ships on the high seas, thereby crippling a China-North Korea arms supply route, the Communist state wasn t likely to come to our assistance.'

Commenting on moves to acquire Iranian military equipment, the official said' That would have been unthinkable due to operational matters. How could you bring in something new at the last stage of the offensive and introduce hitherto used weapon systems without adequate training? A country couldn t adapt to new armaments overnight. President Mahinda Rajapaksa never contemplated procuring Iranian military equipment, though a previous government had explored that possibility. The secret arms purchases from Iran and North Korea are nothing but an international strategy to discredit Sri Lanka.'

Sri Lanka s offensive, defensive and support services comprises equipment of Chinese, Russian, Czechoslovakian, Israeli, US, Indian, Ukrainian, Pakistan and South Korean origin. Over the years, Sri Lanka has obtained Fast Attack Craft built by the Colombo Dockyard Limited, a Japanese-Sri Lankan joint venture and Fast Attack Craft built by France, though France has not been a regular supplier.

http://www.military.cz/usa/air/in_service/aircraft/b1b/b1b_en.htm

Twenty eight women soldiers killed in action will be remembered by the Sri Lanka Ex-Army women s Association at its 15th Anniversary to be held in January 15.

A drama titled Duwe Numbai will be staged by the members of the Association.

Ambassador John Gooneratne, one-time head of the Sri Lanka Peace Secretariat says under the direction of the then Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe s Office, several ministries had helped the LTTE to import new radio equipment during the Norwegian-led peace initiative.

The retired career diplomat was responding to a query by The Island on Saturday (Jan. 8) in the wake of the latest revelation by Wikileaks.

According to a leaked US diplomatic cable, India expressed concerns after the Sri Lankan government imported radio equipment from Norway to be supplied to the Tigers.

The UNP, which was in power in 2002, had, according to the US Embassy in Colombo, requested and received radio equipment which was then handed over to the LTTE through the government departments. Dr. Gooneratne said that the communication equipment had been consigned to the Norwegian Embassy (Oct. 2002) a duty waiver had been granted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs the equipment was handed over to the Govt. Peace Secretariat, which handed it over to the LTTE, with the assistance of the Defence Ministry (in Nov. 2002).

Gooneratne said: 'But that is not the whole story. There is a kind of Rashomon effect when it comes to knowing the full story of the communication equipment and the LTTE. There were many actors in this triangular arrangement GOSL, the LTTE and Norway, and presumably only one or two of them had the fuller story.'

On the GOSL side there were the (1) Office of the Prime Minister, the captain of the team, as it were (2) the Ministry of Defence (3) the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (4) the Ministry of Mass Communication, which gave a licence to the LTTE to 'operate and maintain a private broadcasting station' (5) the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka which said it had 'no objection' to the release of the equipment to the LTTE (6) the Government Peace Secretariat that handed over the equipment to the LTTE, and, perhaps, others, according to Dr. Gooneratne.

On the LTTE side there was Tamilselvan, the head of the Political Wing (who was killed in his bunker during a bombing raid by the SL Air Force), and Pulidevan, the Secretary General of the LTTE Peace Secretariat.

And there was the facilitator, Norway.

Responding to a query, Dr. Gooneratne said that during the peace process the UNF government had always kept India informed of what was going on. He said: 'India always is a bit sensitive (to the point of being allergic) to the impact developments in Sri Lanka could have on Indian security. And the reach of the communication equipment must have, naturally, been of concern to India. This is similar to the concerns that India expressed when Sri Lanka wanted to obtain radar equipment to counter the threat from the LTTE Air Wing, from one of Sri Lanka s traditional strong supporters, and India advised that it should not be higher than the 2D level. That matter was amicably solved by India herself providing and manning the radar equipment.

As a final thought, considering what Wikileak has done, it can be said that 'A leak is the safeguard of democracy.'

This is what Bradman Weerakoon, the then Secretary to Premier Ranil Wickremesinghe wrote in Negotiating Peace in Sri Lanka -volume II published with funds provided by Norway and the Berghof Foundation, in which he discussed Norway using its diplomatic privilege to import radio equipment worth $ 93,265 bought by the LTTE in Singapore and then transferring it to the Sri Lanka Peace Secretariat to be handed over to the LTTE Peace Secretariat. 'Since duty would become payable as soon as diplomatic goods were transferred to Sri Lankan non-government hands, the SL Peace Secretariat became liable to the payment of about Rs. 3 million as duty. This payment which was effected by the SL peace Secretariat was duly set off against the grant of around Rs. 12 million which the Norwegian government annually gave the SL Peace Secretariat for its running.'

According to the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD) document calling for open invitation-for-tender for evaluation of Norwegian peace efforts in Sri Lanka from 1997 to 2009, Norway had allocated approximately NOK 100 million for the peace process.

Deccan Aviation Lanka will induct a new eight seater aircraft which is scheduled to commence commercial operations in April this year. Deccan Aviation Lanka CEO and Director Denham Schokman told Daily News Business that the new aircraft is manufactured by Gippsaero Australia and is a leader in its class of aircraft with the ability to land at all airports in the country including unpaved runways and beach strips.

The aircraft has a published value of USD 650,000. Last year 35 percent of the Deccan flights were utilized by locals. This is an improvement from the 25 percent in year 2009. Helicopter flights are typically expensive all over the world and attract a clientele who are willing to pay a premium.

The new aircraft has the lowest operating cost of its class and this will enable us to offer attractive airfares to the market, Denham Schokman said.

The Government has relaxed many restrictions to facilitate domestic flight operations, this has attracted new applicants who has established interest to start domestic flight services.

Deccan s move to induct a new aircraft falls parallel with the Government s Visit Sri Lanka 2011 campaign.

The new aircraft is set to create new leisure products such as para jumping and skydiving which is new brand of tourism that Sri Lanka is yet to unveil.

This will also create new employment opportunities to the youth.

The aicraft s slow and low flying maneuverability will enable the company to conduct scenic flights such as whale watching, sunrise at Adam s Peak, Sigiriya and similar attractions.