Colonel
R Hariharan Courtesy:
South Asia Security Trends, February 2017 issue www.security-risks.com
LTTE plot to kill Tamil MP
Sri Lanka police’s Terrorism Investigation Department
(TID) arrested in all five rehabilitated LTTE cadres for allegedly plotting to
assassinate MA Sumanthiran, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Member of Parliament,
known for his moderate views. The TID is reported to have recovered two Claymore mines and large quantities of cannabis from the homes of four of them
arrested on January 14 and produced before Kilinochchi district court on
January 20. According to Daily FT of Colombo a fifth person Vijayan was also
subsequently arrested in the same case.
Significantly, they were not arrested under the
infamous Prevention of Terrorism Act but charged with possession of explosives
and narcotics. They have been remanded to custody till February 13.
Well known columnist DBS Jeyaraj in his blog says a
former LTTE cadre Kulendran alias “Master” of Kilinochchi, one of the four
arrested persons, had cultivated ‘Nallavan’ (pseudonym) a rehabilitated LTTE
cadre in Kilinochchi; subsequently he offered Nallavan Rs 15 lakhs for
killing the Jaffna district MP
Sumanthiran. Kulendran told him that some LTTE leaders overseas who would pay
wanted this done and assured him safe passage overseas after he carried out the
task. Nallavan was horrified at the idea
of killing the TNA MP who had impressed him and refused to do so.
Subsequently, when Nallavan came to know the plan was
to kill Sumanthiran when the MP came to Jaffna to address a cultural festival
at Karaveddy on December 24. Nallavan
informed the police of the plot. President Sirisena was informed of the plot
and he advised the MP to cancel the visit. Police verified Nallavan’s
information and arrested the five persons based upon further investigations.
Though the political reaction to the alleged LTTE plot
and arrest of the conspirators was on in keeping with their known stand on release
of former LTTE cadres in particular and Tamil militancy in general, the
incident raises important issues regarding the scope for revival of LTTE
activities by its overseas echelons and supported by LTTE sympathizers among
Tamil Diaspora. They had been vociferous in celebrating the LTTE and its mentor
Prabhakaran to keep the Tamil Eelam demand alive. No doubt Sri Lanka government
would continue to keep a close watch on such developments; India would also be
vigilant to prevent such elements entering the country.
Progress of Chinese-aided mega projects
After wrestling with allegations of corruption,
violation of environmental norms and bending the rules to favour Chinese
investment companies investing and executing massive infrastructure projects
finalized during President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s rule, the Sirisena government
seems to have to come to terms with them, even as Rajapaksa’s ambitious
Hambantota port and Mattala airport projects continued to incur heavy loss.
Sri Lanka government formalized sweeping tax
concessions offered to the prestigious Port City project (renamed as the
Colombo International Financial City - CIFC) through gazette notifications
submitted to the parliament on January 27. The project aims at creating an off
shore financial centre to be constructed close to Galle Face Green, Colombo’s
famous landmark.
The concessions include exemption of income tax on the
earnings of the Chinese company from the project for a period of 25 years.
Foreigners working for the company also have been exempted from a number of
levies including customs duty.
The prestigious
$1.3 billion CIFC project was halted when President Sirisena came to power to
vet all Chinese aided projects for alleged corruption and violation of
environmental norms. This move annoyed the Chinese government. The Chinese made
clear the terms of agreement were not negotiable.
The Sirisena government reworked the CIFC’s master
plan and included it in the larger mega polis plan. A tripartite agreement for
the revised project was signed in August 2016 by the Megalapolis and Western
Development Ministry, Urban Development Authority and the China Harbour
Engineering Company (CHEC), exempting the Sri Lanka Port Authority which was a
party to the earlier agreement.
The new master plan is considered more environment
friendly as it will have 45 hectares of parks and 13 hectares of artificial
beaches available in the reclaimed land.
Indian projects
Indian government has aided and executed a number of
projects including infrastructure (rail, road, port and other public service facilities)
and housing projects mainly to benefit the people affected by the Eelam war in
Northern province. However, some of them also ran run into rough weather.
For instance, the Sampoor coal-fired 500 MW thermal
power project to be executed by the NTPC had been hanging fire for long. When
the work started after a lot of foot dragging, Sri Lanka government had a
relook at the project, when objections were raised on environmental grounds over
the use of coal. Now, it wants the project to be based on liquefied natural gas
instead of coal. The project is still pending approval from the Indian
government for the proposed changes.
Similarly, India’s involvement in the development of Trincomalee
port is a long story that never materialized. Prime Minister Ranil
Wickremesinghe has now clarified that the Trincomalee harbour area would be
developed as shipping, manufacturing and tourism complex with 175 sq km high
end tourist resort area in its environ. Subarna Jurong, a Singapore-based
infrastructure company is to prepare a master plan for the project.
Just like China’s CIFC project, Tata Housing
Development Ltd’s $429.5 million One Colombo Project (OCP) to build a modern
mixed development and housing project at Slave Island, a suburb of Colombo, also
ran into rough weather over contractual terms. After a period of suspense, the
project is now being executed after overcoming glitches in contractual terms. The
government has given an eight-acre land in Slave Island and an income tax
holiday for ten years and corporate tax exemption for six years for One Colombo
Project Ltd, formed by THD jointly with the Urban Development Authority.
Written
on January 31, 2017
Col R Hariharan, a
retired MI officer, served as the head of Intelligence of the Indian Peace
Keeping Force from 1987 to 90. He is associated with the Chennai Centre for
China Studies. E-mail: haridirect@gmail.com Blog: http://col.hariharan.info
No comments:
Post a Comment