Exodus of businessmen worries administration

Abductions and Ransoms: mass ‘exodus’ of millionaire businessmen

President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s administration seems to be concerned about the latest trend of abductions of millionaire businessmen, especially Muslims and Tamils in Colombo. This has resulted in a large number of Colombo businessmen attempting to flee the country fearing this latest threat.

In order to prevent this ‘exodus’ of businessmen, President Rajapaksa summoned a meeting with Muslim businessmen and some political supporters at Temple Trees on Tuesday and made a special appeal to them to make complaints against any abductions that they hear of or have already taken place.

It is learnt that the President summoned this meeting after holding a series of discussions with the defence top brass including the Service chiefs and Police chief. According to the latest statistics that are available with the President, nearly a dozen millionaire businessmen mainly Muslim, had been abducted and released by the abductors after taking a large sum of ransom from these businessmen. These businessmen are not willing to go to the police as they had already been terrorized.

Before the meeting, President Rajapaksa was reportedly informed that more than fifty Sri Lankan businessmen have already applied for visas to several European, Middle East countries and Malaysia fearing for their lives. Among them there were several who had already been abducted and released after paying several millions to abductors.

It is also learnt that a large number of businessmen have already received death threats and warnings threatening to abduct them through fax messages, telephone calls and emails.

However, so far there has not been a single complaint made by any of these victimized businessmen. Police claimed that they are unable to carry out any investigations as there were no complaints about such developments.

According to an informed source, at least more than three Colombo based businessmen were reportedly abducted twice and were released only after paying the ransom money.

Among the other abducted businessmen there were two Muslim businessmen, who are the owners of major garment selling shops in Colombo.

However, police have now reportedly submitted a comprehensive report to the President about these abductions, but still there has been no proper steps taken to stop it.

During this week’s meeting, the President had assured the Muslim businessmen that action will be taken to protect all businessmen. He has also assured them that he will not tolerate any discrimination against any religious or ethnic community in the country.

He also said that though the government had given a special telephone number to make complaints about abductions, no complaints have been received so far.

However, a western diplomatic official confirmed that still there were a large number of businessmen waiting to go abroad at least temporily until the situation comes back to normal.

‘Cold war’ between eastern and Wanni cadres prevailing again

State Intelligence units recently submitted a special report to the government stating that the ‘cold war’ between the Eastern cadres and the Wanni cadres had again commenced following disagreements between the one -time close associates of breakaway LTTE leader Karuna Amman, the current LTTE’s Eastern Special military Leader Ramesh and Eastern LTTE Commander Jeyam, who had been sent by the Wanni leadership a few months ago to Thoppigala.

According to the report, Jeyam led some fifty Wanni cadres sent by the LTTE Leader a few months ago in order to boost the morale of the eastern cadres, who were, in the recent past,continually defeated by government forces.

With the arrival of the Wanni cadres, although, there were some initial disagreements between Ramesh and Jeyam, the crisis deepened after Jeyam had ordered the eastern cadres to fight against the military while the Wanni cadres were having a free time in Thoppigala. Adding credibility to the intelligence report, last Monday, three LTTE cadres surrendered to the Army Camp at Polwatta in Valachchenai and revealed this latest split to the military. These LTTE cadres handed over a T-56 weapon, 4 magazines, 120 ammunition, 5 hand grenades, an LTTE flag and a pouch that was in their possession. According to them, Jeyam did not even send sufficient food to the cadres in the front, where the eastern cadres were fighting while at the same time he was giving them orders to fight to death.

Intelligence sources revealed that LTTE leader Prabhakaran is deliberately trying to isolate Ramesh, who was able to save his life, because another Senior Leader Bhanu requested Prabhakaran not to kill Ramesh.

Prabhakaran was planning to bump off Ramesh on the suspicion of aiding the Karuna faction. During this period, Ramesh had wanted to join with Karuna Amman due to the discriminatory policy carried out against the eastern cadres by the Wanni leadership.

Karuna however refused to tie up with Ramesh accusing that the latter had not joined Karuna at the time of the breakaway. It is also learnt that although Ramesh is in the East, his family had virtually been taken as hostages at Kilinochchi by the Wanni leadership.

Currently there are four LTTE Senior Leaders – Ramesh, Nagesh, Ram and Jeyam – all trapped following a series of military operations launched by the military in some 150 square kilometres of land in the Thoppigala jungle.

According to those who had surrendered there are many more LTTE cadres waiting a chance to escape from Tiger claws. Lack of proper leadership and gaps in the command structure has created chaos among Tiger cadres resulting in many ignoring and disobeying orders from middle ranks.

According to latest statistics a total of 664 LTTE cadres had surrendered to the security forces since 2002.

General Officer Commanding (GOC) 57 Division in Omanthai transferred

General Officer Commanding (GOC) of the 57 Division located in Kalmadu west of Omanthai, Brigadier Sumith Manawadu had been transferred with immediate effect by Army Commander Sarath Fonseka. The Army Chief also appointed 56 Division GOC Brigadier Chula Dias as the new GOC of the 57 Division.

Brigadier Manawadu had been appointed as the Brigadier General Staff of the Eastern Army Headquarters. In the recent past several military operations had been carried out by the 57 Division led troops in Omanthai. However during several such battles with the Tamil Tigers, one or two operations launched by the military were unable to reach its target as scheduled.

During the latest battle at the forward defences in Omanthai the Tamil Tigers were able to inflict heavy damage to the military. During a predawn attack launched by the Tigers two weeks ago, the military lost more than 30 soldiers and over a 100 soldiers were injured while several dozens of soldiers are still missing.

India ready to give MI-17, but awaiting a ‘proper’ response from Sri Lanka, more items in the list

Amidst Tamil Nadu government’s protest against the selling of military hardware to Sri Lanka, India’s central government has made arrangements to allow neighbouring Sri Lanka to purchase several MI-17 transport helicopters from India soon.However, a diplomatic officer told the Daily Mirror that the Indian government is still awaiting a clear response from the Sri Lankan Government to make final arrangements, as the Sri Lanka government is now in a dilemma whether to go for Indian hardware, following the strong statement made by an Indian official. India’s National Security Advisor M. K. Narayan had told media after meeting with visiting Sri Lankan Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa that Sri Lanka should come to India to purchase weapons not Pakistan or China.

The diplomatic official also said that there were several military items that had been forwarded by the Sri Lanka government to the Indian defence authorities during the recent visit of Gotabhaya Rajapaksa.

However, a highly placed government source confirmed that Sri Lanka will go ahead with its original plans to purchase military hardware from China and Pakistan if the island’s ‘Big Brother’ declined to give offensive military hardware to Sri Lanka.

The official further claimed that already the Indian Air Force air craft made several visits to the Bandaranaike International Air Port with a stock of ‘classified’ military hardware during the last few weeks.

It is also learnt that already India has given some of the promised Radar Systems to Sri Lanka to face the Tiger’s latest air threat.

On the Indian side, a diplomat said that it has not decided about the remaining list of military items demanded by Sri Lanka and the top brass of the Indian defence only discussed about further naval deployment if required to be carried out in the Palk Straits.

India increases more deployment in the Palk Straits

Days after a special meeting between India’s top military officials in Tamil Nadu about the strengthening of sea patrolling and setting up of new radar systems and anti air craft guns along the Tamil Nadu coast, another important meeting took place in the Indian Eastern Naval Command last week about the same issue. These actions had been taken in order to prevent any possible attack from the LTTE, who recently demonstrated its air capability conducting attacks on Sri Lanka’s strategically important locations.

During the meeting, held at Eastern Naval Headquarters in Arakonam, led by Indian Eastern Navy Chief steps had been discussed on further deployment of more gunships, and the creation of a stronger buffer zone across the Indian Ocean in order to block smuggling routes specially those used by the Tamil Tigers.Following the Tamil Tiger’s air threat, the Indian defence authorities had taken prompt action to safeguard its territory. Accordingly India has set up four new anti- aircraft guns near Rameshwaran, eight radar stations of the Air Force are being set up in the same area, further six Naval ships stationed mainly in the Palk Straits, Bay of Bengal and the Gulf of Mannar and several Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have also started fltying over the Palk Straits.

In addition to these steps, India is now conducting joint sea patrolling with the Sri Lankan Navy along the Palk Straits.

(http://www.dailymirror.lk/2007/06/15/opinion/02.asp)