Associated Press,  Wed Jan 11 03:11:10 EST 2006
Sri Lanka is considering the purchase of Chinese-made guns for its navy just days after an explosives-laden boat slammed into a patrol craft, killing 13 sailors, a news report said Wednesday.

The report follows the strongest-ever warning by United States that the Tamil Tiger rebels resist any resumption of their armed struggle for a separate homeland, with Washington making a veiled threat that it would give strong backing to the Sri Lankan government in the conflict.

The Island newspaper said the 30mm guns would be mounted on vessels similar to the one that was attacked on Saturday in what authorities allege was a suicide attack by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

Speaking to business leaders in the capital Colombo on Tuesday, U.S. ambassador Jeffrey Lunstead that if ``the LTTE chooses to abandon peace ... we want it to be clear, they will face a stronger, more capable and more determined Sri Lankan military.''

Since Dec. 4, 61 Sri Lanka security personnel have died in attacks blamed on the Tamil Tigers, raising concern that the country was sliding back into decades of warfare that has left 65,000 dead and 1.6 million displaced since 1983.

The Island said a high-level delegation from Sri Lankan navy was expected to leave for China later this week to discuss the weapons purchase.

The Defense Ministry was not available to confirm the report, but Beijing has in the past been a major weapons supplier to Sri Lanka.

Lunstead said the U.S. was helping - through relief and rescue military training and assistance programs - to ``shape the ability of the Sri Lankan government to protect its people and defend its interests.''

``There can be a role for the LTTE in future development of Sri Lanka, but only if it returns to the peace table, renounces terrorism in word and deed and become a responsible participant in Sri Lanka's future,'' he said.

The rebels are banned in the U.S. as a terrorist organization.

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- The Academic

Well I suppose they've got to do something to balance the books after the Sandagiri fiasco.

The middle income customer in Colombo usually stays away from Chinese made products.

But the poor who walks through the Pettah markets ends up buying one from China.

When the US talks about helping Sri Lanka, they mean SELLING more weapons to SLA and SELLING assorted services related to training and assistance and any contracts related to such post and pre war assistance are usually given to the Bush clan - Cheney et all! So save your precious money, resources and people and find ways to achieve peace and development.

Perhaps the very honest hardworking CBK crony Sandagiri will be replaced by someone else who will also make more money off the deals ? But Chinese commissions are likely to be less than from the West. So without building or buying houses in the West the new procurements guys can vacation in Singapore?  Why is Sandagiri still working without having the dignity to resign until the investigation is over?  MR is all talk like CBK was because he has no clue about military matters. His brother is a good officer and he should tell MR not to vacillate.  WAR IS GOOD for Generals to make money.  

Tigers will NOT attack Jaffna. That is a ruse. They will attack Trinco because they are smarter and  think at least 10 years ahead of the sycophantic corrupt officers who surround politicians.  They will blockade the Navy. They will fire SAMS and neutralize the Airforce.  They are well prepared. The RW, CBK incompetents have already ruined MR.  MR is running out of time thanks to CBK and her peculiar brand of cronyism and RW's rather queer brand of appeasement under which LTTE has become stronger than the SLAF, SLN and the SLA as well in some areas.  Mark my word, Trinco and Colombo will be targets and then they will trap the soldiers in Jaffna.  But some General will be made Ambassador and his granddaughters will have a thumping big dowry.  look at the number of cars in Colombo for officers and their wives who think they are ENTITLED to handouts while the poor soldier in Jaffna  has to ride a tractor to battle. SHAME on the callous corrupt indifference of most top generals and politicians who depend on them .  Tiger leaders sit and eat with their troops and dont ride luxury vehicles to battle and dont send their wives shopping in official limosuines driven by army drivers and then get free tickets to travel overseas thanks to arms dealers and agents.  MR will not be able to change it but perhaps the JVP can force them to be accountable.  Go to the Pola with me in the Bus or  three-wheeler and observe the haughty top officers and  you know we are nothing other than a typical thirdworld corrupt regime where leaders get rich at our expense.  We are like Zaire, Congo, Panama, El-Salvador etc.  Stupidity prevails and the honest brave Generals like the new SLA commander are resented by the crooks like CBK's golaya Sandagiri who still reports to her forgetting his oath of loyalty is to the Constitution and the Commander in Chief.

The US ambassador's talk should be taken on opposite site. Jeff''s talk is to indicate that since the GOSL militery is not strong enough to take the LTTE attack, it is going to be though on both sides.
US is not going to offer any assistance to SL militery. It has been told during Mangal's visit.
Now the Chinese findings are comming from JVP and again as usual going to be a failure for them. Co-chir countries will not going to support this. Indial will definetely against the deals. Also US might have learned about this chinese deals before the Jeff's talk. Roger said many things correct. It is going to be though, if GOSL is not going to give the federal solution earler.

THE_ACA_USR wrote:

The US ambassador's talk should be taken on opposite site. Jeff''s talk is to indicate that since the GOSL militery is not strong enough to take the LTTE attack, it is going to be though on both sides.
US is not going to offer any assistance to SL militery. It has been told during Mangal's visit.
Now the Chinese findings are comming from JVP and again as usual going to be a failure for them. Co-chir countries will not going to support this. Indial will definetely against the deals. Also US might have learned about this chinese deals before the Jeff's talk. Roger said many things correct. It is going to be though, if GOSL is not going to give the federal solution earler.

it seems you see all in upside down. I think you better remove your color glasses wearing at the moment.
Government can buy weapons from anywhere they wish to buy as far as they give money for that. if GOSL give money even USA provide arms requires for the government. This is the main fact that LTTE also survive so far as they are spending lot of money that collected in the name of Tamil for weapons.
You can see this anywhere in the world.

Buying arms: LTTE is not a govt. they can buy the arms wherever it is cheap and it is available only in the black market label. But when GOSL is going to buy arms it should deal with the political pressures. Even during the Indian visit, India told MR about the Pakistan arms deal (at that time Pak has agreed to provide arms to SL, but it was not consider by SL after the Indian visit).
As usual you can talk anything you like (like JVP does), but you should be living in the international political net. Even if you arrest mass Tamils, you should be answarable (like the last co-chair's meeting - but you can tell lies). As I said US will not go to anywhere if they don't get benifet (even now India is like that, $$ matters). So, if GOSL is buying arms from China, they tend to loose that. You get the point? Don't see anything blindly. If US wanted to warn LTTE, they can just send a message through co-chirs. If some top officil is talking publicly like this means something else. You can wait till the analyst's  report on this matter.

Hi RogerThis

RogerThis wrote:

Tigers will NOT attack Jaffna. That is a ruse. They will attack Trinco because they are smarter and  think at least 10 years ahead of the sycophantic corrupt officers who surround politicians.

I myself predicted that Trinco would be a major target in Eelam War IV and I am waiting to see how things turn out.  Most of the experts like Iqbal Athas are looking at Jaffna for a wide variety of good reasons.  However I predict that LTTE will not invade the peninsula the same way it did after the fall of Elephant Pass.  It ran into a problem when the security forces concentrated in the urban areas of Valigamam where the LTTE could not use artillery and faced specter of urban war.  I believe that the LTTE will focus on demoralizing the soldiers there further and creating more civil unrest.  It will also attack the vulnerable supply lines to the peninsula.  With so many soldiers in Jaffna, it would make much more sense to render them ineffective through demoralization rather than directly fight them leading to many civilian casualties.  

The LTTE's first target when Eelam War III broke out in April 1995 was Trincomalee.  It ended the ceasefire after sinking 2 Dvora FACs in Trinco Harbor, and at the same time guerrillas in the jungles north of the city began to attack the police and army.  However, they ran into a huge amount of problems, mostly logistical.  They had no sources of food or medicine in the jungles and had to enter villages to obtain them.  The security forces were ready for them and attacked them in the villages.  In many ways we can show that the 1995 Trinco campaign was a flop, which is one reason why the LTTE did not advertise it (and why most Srilankans are ignorant of it).  It accomplished nothing, and in any case the guerrillas had to retreat after the security forces entered Jaffna.

If the LTTE makes another major move in Trinco then we can only watch to see if they've learned from their mistakes.  We also have the opportunity to see what the LTTE values more- the North or the East.  Jaffna has a great deal of symbolic importance but historically a lot of its manpower came from Eastern Province.  If the LTTE focuses too much on Jaffna alone it can lose the East and all the little Eastern Tamil children it wants to exploit.  

Regarding your other comments- it is good to be realistic and critical but you also must have a solution in mind if you want to express an opinion.  You correctly believe that corruption in the Srilankan system will lead to the defeat of the security forces but you don't offer a solution to combat the corruption.  This is very important as the corrupt nature of Southern politics is a major reason why Tamils are hesitant to support the Government.  It is true that Mahinda is no JR but the current system of governance is no different from JR's time.  So before you continue to deliver doom-&-gloom apocalyptic sermons I suggest you offer something for the rest of us to consider and follow.

[it seems you see all in upside down. I think you better remove your color glasses wearing at the moment.
Government can buy weapons from anywhere they wish to buy as far as they give money for that. if GOSL give money even USA provide arms requires for the government. This is the main fact that LTTE also survive so far as they are spending lot of money that collected in the name of Tamil for weapons.
You can see this anywhere in the world.[/quote]

Sorry dear, you are wrong. The weapons are made by private enterprise but it is under government control as far as foreign countries concern. Each country and its belonging gp(such as NATO) has its own policy as to who to sell and which country is black listed. South Africa was black listed under apartheid by many but USA kept selling. Like wise Iraq and Iran was but China kept selling including silk worm missiles. The non-government organizations cannot buy under legal terms, but corrupt dealers and army officers sell it to the underworld which in turn end up in black market. Many Shoulder held missiles were given to Mujahideen in Afghan by non other than USA which still circulate in black market. When USSR disintegrate, many corrupt generals want to make quick money and sold some high powered weapons to the Russian Mafia so does to other black market. LTTE has very good contacts in those arena and it is a matter of money you need to but those weapons. Before a shipment of weapons leave the country officially, the company need certificate of clearance or need to ship to other country. However, many dealers create one through their local influence and create false documents and sell it to black market. Those companies cannot survive without having these illegal deals. Hollywood films are 99% fiction. But they make it from a fact. See the old movie ERASER by Arnold. Also the illegal deal with the blessings of government can happen such as Iran gate by Regan administration latter a general was scapegoat


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humanity is the best relegion

I think LTTE will concentrate on the Tank farm.

Ok you are right. I say it but I do n ot hope or wish that GOSL will lose to a fascist terorrist organization which ridiculously demands 45% of the land mass and 65% of coastal area for a minority. Not a single sane nation in the western hemisphere will agree to such ridiculous demands.

ON procurements.  It was CBK and primarily Kadi who was able to change SL's image in the world. Before that many nations stopped official supply of weapons to SL and SL had to procure all kinds of non-streamlined weapons systems from diverse back grounds.   There were were very FEW  g-to-g transactions.  Even today, US now allows only non-lethal weapons sales to SL.  Sadly only Pakistan and China supplied weapons along with purchases from the open markets in Eastern Europe.   India blocked SL's attempts to even purchase weapons from Singapore in g-to-g transactions. Now most procurements are market based between private suppliers, their middlemen like Access(Sumal P and Ratwatte boys had a field day) in SL.  There are hardly any aid packages that include combat weapons. For example US dumping refurbished gas guzzling Trucks because they are NON-LETHAL weapons. During JR's time where SL's image was shattered because of the ugly state sponsor massacre of 1983(innocent tamils targeted by mostly JSS thugs), they had to use secret channels and Ravi J and cronies to buy weapons and a lot people got rich off of that. That is why we had M-16s and landrovers from Singapore!! what a joke that was.  The T-56 and Ak-47 are far cheaper and low maintainence compared to the M-16s Ravi got for the STF.   Thusly SLA had a bunch of non-streamlined non-combatible weapons including small arms with totally different calibre ammunition that had to be purchased from different sources.  SL got good weapons on the cheap on extended credit(keep in mind, NO one gives anything free) but SLA lost quite a few of the long range artillery pieces and even tanks to the Tigers!! in fact for Tigers, their second biggest source of weapons after gun running using their drug money and ships is the "SLA donations" as some of their top commanders once said everytime they overran a camp! So what do we do now to prevent it?

Governments are limited compared to terrorist movements which do not  have the same limitations and accountability issues that GOSL  has. LTTE also has far more money than the GOSL to procure weapons because they dont have a country to run and jobs to create or schools to educate because even in so called Eelam terroritory it is GOSL Sinhala and Tamil tax payer money that pays salaries of even academics who are Tiger Terrorists.

They have a lot of money:   For example when their lower level cadre are captured they are seen to carry forty to sixty thousand rupees CASH on them..Compare that with the miniscule budgets of intelligence services even to re-locate informants.  Not enough to even make a monthly payment. Naval intelligence budget is said to be less than 25,000 rupees a month! What is the Commander driving?  Tiger cadre can bribe cops and buy intelligence easily at operational level and at top level there seem to be officers leaking info for a price or for other services and possibly blackmail too.  What is GOSL going to do to strengthen intelligence both electronic and ground?  It costs billions but the returns are far more than a fleet of Benzes for Top commanders and AC bungalows and butlers and Chalets. Those are facts. In some ways there was time in SLA the attitude was like the sinking South Vietnamese Army which did not care. But now it is different becasue there are people who take pride in the SLA and other services and can effectively fight if they are given the correct tools.
 
Now based on my experience in SL with politicians my steps are:

Step.  A.  Have a strategic plan with long  term goals that are devised independent of political intereference.  Do this by involving academics, engineers and scientists similar to how the LTTE does. The plan must encompass the BEST brains(tigers use scientists, engineers from Canada and norway) in SL to come up with designs and solutions that can be implemented locally.

  B.  Produce small easily produced weapons such as 80mm mortars locally. Example:Tigers manufacture mortars in SL why not the Army Corps of Engineers? Afterall they did well to emulate the Buffel locally.  Why not give them money?

  C. Standardize weapons procurements and have a well paid secret committee to evaluate and procure weapons systems including MBRLs and flame t hrowers etc without publicitiy.

  D.  Have a multi-party committee overseeing defence procurements and a govt oversight committee.  (Similar to the  US which has a Senate and Congress Defence committees).

  E.  Do not interfere with professional soldiers. Do not also have ridiculous bureaucracies which force good officers to retire early or able officers not to be promoted. Eisenhower was junior but was promoted because of ability and not time served. Change rules that just because some incompetent officer puts in time he is promoted or made commander, instead have a transparent points system based on annual evaluations and also battlefield performance.

 F.  For big weapons systems have a bi-partisan oversight committee that looks at tenders in secret.  They need to be well paid and well looked after by SL standards.

G. Strengthen the Navy, for long  term deployment.

H.  Have a Coast guard and Marine unit similar to commandos. Both Army and Navy should have their own combat air units for close support similar the Western models.  Airforce cannot be considered the be all and end all of all aerial operations.

I. Standardize weapons systems and do not go through middlemen in Israel. The jewish state will sell anything to anyone for a price and swindle people.

J.  Ask top officers to declare assets.  Expect some degree of corruption because no one can be absolutely honest. Take no-bid contracts in Iraq as an example.  There will always be some money passing between parties, but while doing so go after the blatant violations such as Sandagiri (CBK's crony) who is now alleged by his own Naval chief to done many deals.  They need to step down or removed temporarily until cleared or found guilty.  (Example: Scooter Libbi stepping down in the US ).  We cannot stop all corruption. But ACCOUNTABILITY when what they buy ends up harming the military's preparedness, it does call for swift accountability.

K.  Take Gen Daluwatte:  CBK made Gen(actual rank Lt. Col)Ratwatte's sidekick and drinking crony who he went on trips all over Sl and partied with was made Ambassador to Brazil by CBK even after disasters in Mulativu and Pooneryn.  WHAT A JOKE!!  

L. And take the man who opposed Ratwatte.  Gen. Asoka Jaywardene: he had to quit the army in disgust when he advised against Jayasikuiri.  But did anyone lose their jobs or was anyone demoted ?  NO HELL NO.

M. And take the other Born again evangelical Army commander: He wanted to put bibles everywhere! was he forcing soldiers to become Christian? or Daluwatte who allegeldy banned meat because he worshipped Sai Baba. What nonesense is that?

N. Compare them with Gen Sam Manekshaw of India.  Did he go to Sai Baba or look at auspicious times to launch battles again Pakistan?

O. India is said to be more traditional than us and Hindu but they have superb professional army that is Proud to be Indian. Sam Manekshaw did not consult astrologers and Sai Babas to defeat Pakistan in 1971.  What sort of asinine beliefs do these guys have?  

 P. Jayasikuri was launched at whose auspicious time ?  Why not look at Praba and his top guys inauspicious times first because is that not the time to launch a war?  And who in their right mind does that except in SL?

Q. and who launches set piece announced battles against the best guerilla force in the world? Who captures terrority instead of doing search and destroy missions? Who has static artillery emplacements which are static forever hence the LTTE knowing their locations?  Who waited till Tigers bought MBRLs to even talk about MBRLs?  What sort of thinking and information goes to their strategic planinng?

R. Who in the Airforce was punished for the attack at Katunayake? no one....

S. Lastly not a military matter, but make sure political ties with S.India are improved immediately and counter the negative impact in Madras.  This is the key to support.  Tamil Nadu is now reverting back to Tiger sympathy because of clever strategic planning by Tigers.  They want to make it a Tamil issue again like after 1983.  MR is wrongly I repeat WRONGLY painted as anti tamil when he is not.   If a serious diplomatic offensive is not launched(MR should use CBK in that role because she has a better history of good relations) we will have India wanting to sabotage THE GOSL And the SLA if they start to win because they will raise the "tamil civilians are being harmed" cry because Congress wants to be in power with the help of DMK.  

T. GOSL is already losing that propaganda  war  in India by 9 wickets and there are perhaps only 20 overs left.  There is a serious lack of understanding by Mangala the dress designer FM of ours.  He is a good spokesperson and dresses well, but he is no Kadi or not even AB. Kadi had a strategic vision and was under by AB and CBk at the end too. Kadi or even AB has better clout to deal with India.  Perhaps  the best choice is for MR not to be so antagonistic towards CBK no matter what she did, and use her for SL's sake internationally. She had the credibiity because she was the first to argue for a political settlement and the terras tried to kill her because of her role in exposing the LTTE in the world for what they really are. THe Jehan Pereras of the NPC world can go fly their NGO kites if they think LTTE wants anything other than a racially exclusive separate nation.  War maybe imminent and Tigers will make sure they provoke the forces to fire the first shots to break the ceasefire.

hi friends
Could u belief this
Sunday Leader Editor threatened with death by His Excellency.

He is completely stupuid.he is  himself like jvp.The family backround is very important.CBK was not too bad. She managed to steer thro' in this rough sea.
There was a  news that MR himself threatened Joseph Pararajasingham in one occasion to kill on the phone.

If these allegation are true,
I dont think He is going to take lanka forward.

RogerThis wrote:

Ok you are right. I say it but I do n ot hope or wish that GOSL will lose to a fascist terorrist organization which ridiculously demands 45% of the land mass and 65% of coastal area for a minority. Not a single sane nation in the western hemisphere will agree to such ridiculous demands.

ON procurements.  It was CBK and primarily Kadi who was able to change SL's image in the world.

I always enjoy RogerThis and Taraki's points / discussions on security and political matters. I have a few points to make as well.

1. You seems to give too much credit for Kadi who was not known to Sri Lankans before his retirement from the UN and never sat on any decent committees there. He was pretty much a person in the right place at the right time because Sep 11 happened and just then LTTE attacked Katunayake airbase / airport and destroyed Sri Lankan economy. At that time many of the world governments wanted to stall the LTTE and wanted to tilt some power to government and this is the only reason why they invited Kadi everywhere. Before this period 1996-2001 nothing much happened for Kadir when his job was mainly to keep other Governments not to protest against the War for Peace strategy, where the military carried out Jaya Sikiru, Agni Ghala and other adventures.

2. In addition somewhere it was quoted Gothabaya Rajapakse is a good military leader. Again only in Sri Lanka military officers well after retirement are promoted to a General. I thought Gothabaya was out of the military for well over 10 years and what can he do now other than being a trusted brother of the Prez.

3. I think what is missing from the military is the willingness to complete a task. Many in the military lower ranks are not convinced that they should be in the North and East other than for the salary.

This is one reason why LTTE was successful in capturing many artillery pieces from the military when they attacked camps. If the soldiers are committed then they would have at least made sure they destroy the artillery before they flee.

New toys given by US, China and other countries (as pointed by you for money) are good for keepin gin the army camps and will be helpful to inflict damage to large areas. However it may not be useful to inflict heavy toll on the LTTE when close fighting is the one usually encountered in Sri Lanka. Remember Sri Lanka is unique to have purchased arms from opposing countries US / China, India / Pakistan, Israel, South Africa, Zimbabwe etc.

If Srilanka can buy a war ship from China with large barrel  guns then NAvy can have a fleet surrounding that to protect.

Such a ship may be useful in hammering Mullativu.

But, LTTE 's manpover is about 15,000. Some of those are also new recruits. Therefore, if they go to war it will be heavy "SO CALLED" civilian casualties. Because civilians are trained for the war.

It is very probable what they are doing is just threatening GOSL in order to get the upper hand in CFA talks.

But what ever the cost GOSL should not allow that to happen.

If RanilW was intelliGeNt he would have done otherwise.

WILD ANIMALS OR BRUTAL AND SERIAL KILLERS CAN NEVER BE REHABILITATED. THEY NEED TO BE ERADICATED.