Sri Lanka News Updates with Discussions

Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa said though there is no threat of terrorism in Sri Lanka, the Army had to keep its military surveillance all times.

The Opening the new Security Forces Headquarters Complex at Kilinochchi (SFHQ-KLN) he said: 'In addition to those perished, pockets of LTTE terrorists were arrested and some surrendered during the humanitarian operations in these areas. Similarly, some escaped capture in Sri Lanka'.

Rajapaksa said that those LTTEers, who escaped, and the Diaspora have teamed up together and are working hard to destabilize the country and resurrect their ruthless organization. ' Because of these concerns, Military Intelligence Corps had to be increased to 6 battalions from the original 1-2 battalions. The surveillance therefore has to be sustained at all times,'he said.

Nestled on the banks of the famous Iranamadu reservoir, the new Headquarters premises, boasts a nicely-done ground for physical training, plus a sports complex. The entire construction, including the state of the art modern conference hall cost the Army a total of about Rs 40.6 million.

Kilinochchi, one of the ancient cities in the north remained a vibrant commercial hub until Tiger terrorists encroached on it and set up its de-facto separate utopian state, a few decades ago before they were vanquished in May 2009.

The Sri Lankan government has identified over 300 acres of land in the Kandy District to construct a domestic airport proposed by President Mahinda Rajapaksa and the preliminary construction work is to commence next month.

The government has identified the land in the Karandagolla area in Kandy to set up the airport.

Media Minister Keheliya Rambukwella has said the preliminary construction work would commence next month and that the construction work would be handled by the Sri Lanka Air Force.

He has said that discussions were also underway to acquire some of the land belonging to the Peradeniya University for the airport project.

The proposed Kandy airport is expected to help boost the tourism industry in the country.

Kandy, the cultural capital of Sri Lanka with the world-famous Temple of Tooth is a major tourist destination next to the Sri Lankan capital Colombo.

A religious preacher and a financial wizard, in their own different ways, reportedly helped the LTTE prosper, exposing the many fronts of the banned group.

Two events over the last fortnight have uncovered the role of the Catholic Church in fostering Tamil separatism in Sri Lanka. The first was the deportation by India of the Sri Lankan Tamil Catholic priest, Fr SJ Emmanuel, to Dubai, when he arrived at Chennai hoping to meet Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, attend some events at Chennai University and later be at Jawaharlal Nehru University.

Fr Emmanuel is the president of the UK-based Global Tamil Forum (GTF), a leading LTTE front and umbrella organisation for the Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora groups. The Sunday Observer from Canada reported that Emmanuel had recently visited Canada and Europe to raise funds and mobilise pro-LTTE groups to stoke anti-Colombo propaganda in the West. But now, moderate sections of the diaspora are questioning Fr Emmanuel s role in radicalising Tamil youth while not utilising the millions of dollars collected through donations to help resettle and rehabilitate former LTTE cadres.

The second incident relates to the Oct ober 13 sentencing of Sri Lankan hedge fund billionaire Raj Rajaratnam to 11 years imprisonment for insider trading on Wall Street, by the US Federal district court, Manhattan.

Rajaratnam was actually investigated for his links with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. According to an ex-Tamil Tiger turned FBI informant, codenamed Rudra Rajaratnam s father, Jesuthasan Rajaratnam, himself a wealthy financial manager, was a lavish donor. The father-son duo set up the Rajaratnam Family Foundation to support charitable causes in Sri Lanka and elsewhere it was also a front to channel funds to the Tamil Tigers.

Vanity Fair reports that in November 2002 (the US State Department listed LTTE as a terrorist organisation in 1997), a Tamil cultural organisation, Ilankai Tamil Sangam, hosted its 25th anniversary celebration at the Doubletree Hotel in Somerset, New Jersey. LTTE flags and videos were displayed throughout the hall. It may be recalled that LTTE had assassinated former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in May 1991 and Sri Lankan President Ranasinghe Premadasa in 1993, besides wreaking mayhem in the island nation with suicide attacks on buses, temples, shopping malls, and village massacres.

At the Doubletree Hotel, Raj Rajaratnam (secretly taped by the FBI) said, Everyone must support the Tigers cause. He had, in 2000, given $1 million after the victory over the Sri Lankan Army at Elephant Pass, gateway to the northern peninsula.

Rudra infiltrated the LTTE network abroad by meeting Tiger operatives at such events. Rumours were spread that Rudra had contacts with top mafia figures in prison and could access corrupt American officials and get things done for the Tigers such as smuggling Tamils into the US. FBI built his credibility by helping illegally get in nine persons at the Newark airport in 2001. In April 2004, Rudra saved Fr Gaspar Raj, a Catholic priest and key Tamil Tiger member, from being deported by federal agents at Newark.

Prabhakaran ran the Tamil Tigers abroad on classic, cellular lines, with one group unaware of the other. But Rudra soon emerged as a trusted go-between for many cells trying to raise money and procure weapons, including surface-to-air missiles. In August 2003, Rudra travelled with LTTE s top international financier Vijayshanthar Patpanathan (Chandru), to the Tigers Vanni fortress. It had underground bunkers for advanced computers and communications equipment and two fully equipped subterranean hospitals. He met most of the senior LTTE leadership here, and recorded their conversations.

By 2005, Rudra had helped the FBI get a comprehensive picture of LTTE s fund-raising capability. Rajaratnam s name cropped up often LTTE gave Rajaratnam huge money to invest in his Galleon Group fund. The Tigers raised $1 million every time they held a function, and extorted thousands of dollars from diaspora professionals for the next wave of operations .

In 2001, when the FBI wiretaps detected an executive from Intel Corporation giving Rajaratnam insider tips, the link between terrorism and insider trading was exposed. And just as the legendary gangster Al Capone was actually convicted for tax evasion, so Rajaratnam was investigated for terrorist funding, and convicted for insider trading!

FBI uncovered LTTE s main front charities in the US and Great Britain, which were shut down. This impacted the LTTE s capacity to fight. The Tigers last stand came in April 2009, when the Sri Lankan Army overran Vanni, killing Prabhakaran.

One important front group, the Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation, was active in 17 countries before the US Treasury froze its assets in November 2007. Rajaratnam played a key role in transferring money from the TRO to the LTTE. An April 2007 affidavit by an FBI special agent regarding Rajarathnam s banking records showed that he wrote three checks totalling $1,000,000 between July and September 2000, which made its way to a TRO account in London (paradise of the arms merchants). Most of the money was later withdrawn in cash.

The TRO received maximum donations from America, where the Rajarathnam family was the largest private donor. The US Treasury said the TRO had facilitated LTTE procurement operations, including purchase of munitions, equipment, communication devices, and other technology. Through 2003, Raj gave $5.05 million to his family foundation, which passed on $5 million to the TRO. In June 2004, he gave $1 million directly to the TRO. After the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004, Rajaratnam set up Tsunami Relief, Inc, which was administered by staff at the Galleon Group headquarters in New York. It collected over $7 million and gave nearly half the money to the TRO in America and in Sri Lanka.

These huge monies have prompted victims of LTTE violence to file for damages in New Jersey, for crimes financed by Rajaratnam. His lawyers assert that there is no connection between Rajaratnam s donations to the TRO and the harm suffered by the claimants, as there is no evidence that he ever sponsored acts of violence.

Yet, in US law, one need not prove that money a person gave to an entity that funded terrorism was actually spent on armaments it s enough to show that the recipient body used some of its funds for terrorist purposes. The New Jersey federal court has already accepted jurisdiction and upheld the suit as a claim for crimes against humanity.

As India debates clemency for the murderers of Rajiv Gandhi, the New Jersey verdict will be interesting.

The Sri Lanka Army has expanded the sole intelligence battalion of the Military Intelligence Corps into six battalions to face future threats and to make sure that a situation similar to what the country underwent in the recent past would not take place again.

If we have a stable and a strong intelligence network facing internal or external threats it will not be a difficult task. It can be from anybody but when our network is strong, we are more secure, Military spokesman Brigadier Nihal Hapuarachchi said.

He said that the Army is not 100 percent certain of some elements in the Tamil Diaspora as well as former LTTE cadres so therefore the threat comes from them also remain large.

We do not want to have the same situation we faced and dealt with in the past. The regiment commander is authorised to communicate with the intelligence officers under the directions of the head of the Military Intelligence Directorate, he said.

We have placed these battalions in Security Forces Headquarters that we have covering the country, Brigadier Hapuarachchi said.

When asked about the strength of the newly formed battalions he said that he cannot give a specific number. The battalions are represented by personnel from all the regiments.

Recently, Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa also speaking at the opening ceremony of the new Security Forces Headquarters Complex in Kilinochchi said the military intelligence apparatus has been expanded for external and internal threats.

Some LTTE cadres escaped capture in Sri Lanka. Those LTTE members as well as the Diaspora have teamed up together and are working to destabilise the country and resurrect their ruthless organisation, he said.

Because of these concerns, Military Intelligence Corps had to be increased to six battalions from the original one to two battalions. The surveillance therefore has to be sustained at all times, the Defence Secretary noted.

The United States in December 2009 raised the possibility of Sri Lanka contributing to US-led coalition operations in Afghanistan, but Sri Lanka had declined the offer, a leaked US diplomatic cable cited by Wikileaks revealed.

The leaked Confidential cable stated that this was revealed in a meeting US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Robert O. Blake had with Sri Lankan Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa on December 8, 2009.

Blake raised the possibility of Sri Lanka contributing to US-led coalition operations in Afghanistan, noting that would be a significant step in support of improving military-to-military engagement. Rajapaksa replied that contributing forces for combat operations right now would be too politically sensitive during the current election season in Sri Lanka. He added that the Sri Lankan Government would have to consider seriously the implications for its Muslim minority as well as the danger of drawing the ire of groups like Al-Qaida and Lashkar-e-Taiba by becoming a force provider.

He said a possible alternative for Sri Lanka might be to provide training assistance to Afghan security forces under the auspices of a non-governmental organisation or private company. He recalled a local precedent for this approach, dating back to 1985-1986 when a South Africa-based company had provided security assistance to Sri Lanka in the early years of the war with the LTTE. He said the company had provided military and security experts from a host of countries, including the United Kingdom, other Commonwealth nations, and even some Russians. For four or five years, the company was based in Jaffna and had trained Sri Lankan pilots and taught infantry tactics, including close quarters combat skills. He said that while the South African company had not participated in combat operations, it had closely monitored Sri Lankan military operations, assisting in de-briefing patrols and conducting after action reviews, the cable stated.

It said Blake had warned that Lakshar-e-Taiba, which had used Nepal and Bangladesh as staging posts to attack India, could next turn to Sri Lanka.

Rajapaksa said the Sri Lankan Government has arrested two men transiting Sri Lanka to Nepal based on information provided by India s research and Analysis Wing (RAW). The Sri Lankan Government has since turned them over to RAW. Rajapaksa noted that the Sri Lankan Government has assigned separate officers to watch extremists. Blake suggested that the Sri Lankan Government exchange further information about LTTE networks with US counter-terrorism experts, the cable stated.

According to the cable they also discussed accountability and reconciliation, the State of Emergency disarmament of ex-combatants and paramilitary groups reconstruction in the North, rehabilitation of LTTE ex-combatants LTTE child soldiers access to LTTE ex-combatants for the ICRC potential Sri Lankan contributions to peacekeeping operations and to US-led coalition efforts, and Sri Lankan military expansion plans.

The European Commission and Sri Lanka initialled in Colombo an aviation agreement which will restore a sound legal basis for developing future aviation relations between Sri Lanka and EU Member States.

The so-called 'horizontal agreement' will place several provisions in bilateral air services agreements between 15 EU Member States and the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka on a sound legal footing by ensuring compliance with EU legislation.

Most importantly, it will remove nationality restrictions in bilateral air services agreements between EU Member States and Sri Lanka. It will thereby allow any EU airline to operate flights between Sri Lanka and any EU Member State in which it is established, where a bilateral agreement between the EU Member State concerned and Sri Lanka already exists and traffic rights are available.

The agreement represents an important step towards strengthening aviation relations and enhancing the overall cooperation with Sri Lanka, while encouraging traffic between the EU and Sri Lanka. Air transport is crucial for relations between the EU and Sri Lanka, linking people, cultures and businesses.

Currently there are direct flights between Sri Lanka and six EU Member States (Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands and the United Kingdom). In 2010, the total number of air passengers travelling between the EU and Sri Lanka increased by 11% to 380,000 passengers.

Currently, there are 47 such horizontal agreements with partner countries worldwide. More than 900 bilateral air services agreements have already been modified by the joint efforts of the European Commission and EU Member States to replace nationality rules with the principle of EU airline designation.

Director of Naval Operations Rear Admiral Jayantha Perera ceremonially handed over the second Inshore Patrol Craft (IPC) constructed by the Navy to the Sri Lanka Coast Guard at the Port of Colombo, Monday. Designated Director General of the Sri Lanka Coast Guard Rear Admiral Ruwan Dias and senior officers of the Sri Lanka Navy and Sri Lanka Coast Guard were present on the occasion.

The new IPC augments the operational capability of the Sri Lanka Coast Guard and allows it to increase its fleet requirements at a low cost saving a substantial amount of foreign exchange to the country.

The craft was constructed at SLNS Mahasen in Welisara under the SLN's Inshore Patrol Craft Construction Project at an approximate cost of 20 million rupees. The new IPC meets the local requirements since it is custom-built as per the specifications of the operator Sri Lanka Coast Guard using indigenous expertise and raw material. The craft is 14.5m in length and 3.5m in width. It has a displacement of 9 tons and is fitted with two engines of 350 HP each.

Major General Conant, designated Deputy Director of Pacific Command (PACOM) of the United States of America visited the Sri Lanka Navy Headquarters in Colombo on 04th November 2011. He was accompanied by Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defence Mr. Robert Scher and US Defence Attache in Sri Lanka Lieutenant Colonel Schuler.

They met Director General Naval Operations Rear Admiral Jayantha Perera and held cordial discussions on matters of mutual interests and PACOM engagements. Mementos were also exchanged on the occasion as a gesture of goodwill.

The Commander of the Air Force, Air Marshal Harsha Abeywickrema recently attended the Pacific Air Chief s Conference (PACC) held in Honolulu Hawaii, on the invitation of the Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force General Norton Schwartz. The prime aim of this conference was to bring together Asia Pacific Air Chiefs for the purpose of building relationships and promoting mutual understanding of common air power issues and challengers.

As part of the conference Air Marshal Harsha Abeywickrema along with other Pacific Air Chiefs visited the Pentagon in Washington DC. He also had a brief meeting with USAF Chief of Staff, General Norton Schwartz at his office.