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SRI LANKA’S MEDIA MINISTER SAYS THERE WAS NOTHING WRONG IN LETTING THE TAMIL TIGERS HAVE RADIO TRANSMISSION EQUIPMENT
By Walter Jayawardhana reporting from Los Angeles While admitting there had been a delivery of equipment for the Voice of Tigers to acquire radio transmission facilities through Colombo’s Norwegian embassy and government of Sri Lanka the Media Minister of the Colombo government said, there was nothing wrong with it. Justifying the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam acquiring radio transmission capabilities Imitiaz Bakeer Markar, Media Minister of the Ranil Wickremesinghe administration said for a group that was fighting with weapons it was always better to express ideas in words, indicating they would use the radio equipment to debate ideas in place of the violent war waged over the twenty years.
While indicating he had no personal knowledge of the transaction where the Prime Minister’s office was directly involved Imitiaz Bakeer Markar said if any applicant fulfilled the pre-requisites there was no necessity of any such matter coming up for his personal attention and approval for the import of radio transmission equipment. While replying to a BBC Sinhala language interviewer’s question whether any body examined the technological capabilities of the equipment imported for the LTTE, the Media Minister said there was no necessity such matters be usually presented to him, indicating he had no personal knowledge of it. But he said it was better for the LTTE to import the equipment with the government’s approval without smuggling them into the country. The statement that there was nothing wrong in letting a terrorist organization banned in India accused of murdering a former Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi and having separatist ambitions in Tamil Nadu to install such equipment to broadcast is expected to create some more complications in Indo-Lanka relations, opposition sources pointed out. Imitaz Bakeer Markar was replying to opposition accusations that the government’s facilitation of Norway’s import of radio transmission equipment for the LTTE’s Voice of Tigers had undermined the country’s security and violated the Indo-Lanka Pact. Bakeer Markar said even the Sri Lanka Freedom Party, the country’s main opposition party would be issued a license to run a radio station in Sri Lanka if they applied for one.. The Media Minister’s statement to the London broadcasting station broke the silence of the Ranil Wickremesinghe government to charges that the consignment brought to the Norwegian embassy in Colombo was transported to Muhamalai, in the LTTE controlled area, to be finally installed at the clandestine radio station run by the Tamil terrorist group without any license from the Sri lanka government. The chief spokesman of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party, Dr. Sarath Amunugama, at a Colombo press conference charged that the equipment could be used to transmit into Southern India propaganda that could violate the Indo-Lanka agreement. The annexure to the Indo Lanka agreement says, that India and Sri Lanka , “reaffirm their decision not to allow our respective territories to be used for activities prejudicial to each other’s unity, territorial integrity and security.” During the regime of the late President Junius Richard Jayewardene, the uncle of the present Prime Minister who allegedly led Sri Lanka to the biggest conflict with India , the Voice of America facilities allowed in Sri Lanka and very much feared by India figured out very prominently. So, the Indo-Lanka accord said, “Sri Lanka’s agreement with foreign broadcasting organizations will be reviewed to ensure that any facilities set up by them in Sri Lanka are used solely as public broadcasting facilities and not for any military or intelligence purposes.” Dr. Sarath Amunugama said, there was a possibility that the LTTE would be using the Norway supplied equipment for military purposes and the matter would be raised in parliament soon. By importing the equipment to Norway’s embassy in Colombo the equipment was exempted from taxes. But by handing that over to a third party, the LTTE, the exemption lapsed the Opposition press conference pointed out. It was stated that Norway by importing the equipment was involved in an illegal activity. Dr. Sarath Amunugama charged the Prime Minister’s Secretary, Bradman Weerakoon, a man considered a close friend of the LTTE, for clearing the equipment and sending them without any inspection to the LTTE. He said the custom inspection was bypassed on the specific instruction of Weerakoon. “What right,” Amunugama asked, “has he got? He had no business to do that. It is completely against the law of the country.” Dr. Amunugama charged that the government was acting against the Sri lanka Broadcasting Corporation Act, Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation Act and the Telecommunications Ordinance. Dr. Amunugama said that the Sea Tiger leader Soosai had said that Al-Qaeda learned from the LTTE. He questioned what links were there between Al-Qaeda and the LTTE. But none of the above charges were addressed by Imitiaz Bakeer Markar in his interview with the BBC’s Sandeshaya. (EOM) (02/12/15 go2lanka.com) |