GET THE TERRORISTS ARRESTED
IN THE STATES DEPORTED AND TRIED IN SRI LANKA
A.A.M.NIZAM
MATARA.
The arrest of 8 arms procurement agents of LTTE terrorists in the
United States, and the amount of money they have offered for sophisticated
arms reiterate the fallacy of arguments and agitations being made
by the reactionary, pseudo-Marxist and political opportunist dollar
vultures and the cowardly UNP that solutions to the Sri Lanka’s
terrorist problem could be achieved through negotiations.
The immense planning and the wide network covering several western
countries involved in this arms procurement bid and the type of weapons
attempted to purchase confirm that the terrorist outfit would never
agree to a peaceful solution and are determined to achieve their secessionist
objective through military means which should be resolutely defeated
at any cost. As the activities of these 8 detained terrorists tantamount
to waging war against the independent sovereign State of Sri Lanka,
steps should be taken to get them deported from the United States
and try them under the laws of Sri Lanka for waging war against the
State and the people of Sri Lanka.
Exposure of this arms purchase attempt validates the admirable statement
made by the President to the so-called co-chairs who called upon him
on Tuesday. Deviating from the treacherous Ranil/Chandrika modus operandi
of conceding to their demands the President had daringly told them
the factual status and the objectives of the terrorist offensive.
The armory the terrorists detained in the United States attempted
to purchase authenticate that the terrorist outfit intends to paralyze
the Trincomalee Harbor and make a quick thrust to capture Jaffna as
divulged by the President to the Co-chairs delegation.
All these terrorists have visited Sri Lanka and had met the megalomaniac
terrorist leader and other key figures in the terrorist leadership.
The arms they have attempted to purchase include 50-100 Russian-made
SA-18 surface-to-air missiles, missile launchers, AK-47s, truck-mounted
missile systems and weaponry that could destroy boats.
Three of the terrorists who travelled from Canada have even examined
the surface-to-air missiles and have made arrangements for a trainer
to visit Wanni and train the terrorist cadres on the operation of
these missiles which they have planned mainly to target against the
Kfir fighter jet aircrafts. They have told the prospective vendors
that they were taking direction from the head of the intelligence
wing of the terrorist the notorious Pottu Amman.
The value of the deal negotiated amounts to over U.S.$ 900,000 and
they have advised that bank accounts in Switzerland, St.Croix or other
offshore locations would be used to finance the purchase. Apart from
the arms deal they have also made arrangements with the vendors involved
to purchase classified U.S.documents. They have already purchased
a document relating to investigations carried out by the United States
and another foreign government about fund raising activities of the
LTTE Front Organisation, Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO).
They have requested for more such documents and have assured they
would be paid lucrative amounts that would be decided by Prabhakaran
on the nature of the document. Another factor that exposes from these
arrangements is the immense resources of funds available to terrorists
and the need to take appropriate action to get these funds in offshore
accounts freezed.
The busting of this procurement group increase the suspicion that
many such groups may be operating in many parts of the world and our
Embassies throughout the world should be very much vigilant of possible
such groups operating in their areas. Already there is a known LTTE
arms purchasing network operated by Kumaran Pathmanathan, known as
KP and believed to be operating from Singapore and also connected
to the shipping operation of the terrorists. He is reported to be
a frequent visitor to clandestine arms markets in Ukraine, Russia,
Uzbekistan, Lebanon, Singapore, Yugoslavia, Thailand and Hong Kong.
This terrorist is also known to be well acquainted with clandestine
arms dealers such as Chandraswami, Ismail, Kashoggi, Miller, Verjee
and the like. During Ranil’s regime it was reported that the
terrorists smuggled in 14 shipments of arms purchased by this terrorist.
These shipments had been smuggled in terrorist owned vessels.
The investigations carried out by the United States for arresting
the
8 terrorists have been assisted by the intelligence officers from
Canada and Britain. In view of this it is possible that there may
be clandestine units operating in these two countries as well as these
two countries have powerful terrorist cells. The government should
request these two countries to carry out a thorough investigation
on the possible existence similar arms procurement tiger terrorist
units in their territories.
If convicted, the arrested terrorists will get a maximum sentence
of 15 years for conspiracy to provide material support to a designated
terrorist organization, 10 years for dealing in property of a specially
designated terrorist group, and five years for conspiracy to bribe
public officials.
The magnitude of crimes these arrested terrorists would have committed
by smuggling the listed destructive weapons hoping to massacre several
thousand people could in no way be subjected to this kind of soft
punishment. These crimes are more or less equivalent to crimes against
the humanity that deserves at least capital punishment as the maximum
possible punishment for their crimes.
While thanking the United States and other governments involved for
busting this criminal ring, the government should make every endeavour
to get these culprits deported to Sri Lanka and try them under the
Sri Lankan laws for waging war against the State and people or they
should be presented for trying in an International Court for war crimes
against the humanity.
