MAHINDA - THE BIG FAT BUNKER RAT :)))
'A multimillion-dollar luxury bunker is under construction within the High Security Zone (HSZ) of Colombo for the protection of President Mahinda Rajapakse and his family.
According to initial estimates done by the Central Engineering Consultancy Bureau, the luxury bunker will cost in the region of Rs. 400 million given the protective cover to be afforded to the bunker.
The Sunday Leader learns work on the luxury bunker commenced in July this year with the services of a private company availed to carry out the mammoth construction.
Due to security considerations, The Sunday Leader refrains from disclosing the location of the luxury bunker or the names of the companies involved in the underground construction work.
It is learnt, millions of rupees worth of work has already been carried out on the construction, for which the Treasury is expected to meet the costs.
The luxury bunker is built as a safe haven for the First Family with modern living quarters, which will be self-contained.'
The government considers the issue of the bunker as one of high security affecting its anti terrorism drives. There had been many complaints of the harassment of journalists since the promulgation of new anti terrorism laws and regulations a few weeks ago following an alleged suicide bomb attack in Colombo considered to be aimed at the President's brother, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, Secretary of Defence, who is increasingly seen as an emerging strong man. This harassment included the questioning of three journalists by the security services about their sources of information and the abduction of the chief of a security firm, allegedly for obtaining information on the sources of information of a journalist who wrote on the country's security situation. The general apprehension that the anti terrorism laws will be used against the media is very high. Local and international human rights organisations have condemned the present laws and questioned their necessity and validity.
http://www.ahrchk.net/statements/mainfile.php/2007statements/878/
Edited By - Thivya - 26 Aug 2008 18:03:17 GMT |