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Saturday, 14 November 2015 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
By Dharisha Bastians
The Sri Lanka Navy commenced operations in the Galle Harbour to acquire the weapons onboard the vessel Mahanuwara registered to the controversial private security firm Avant Garde yesterday.
Navy Spokesman Captain Akram Alawi told Daily FT that the Navy had inspected the weapons and equipment onboard the vessel, assisted by local agents of private companies including Rakna Arakshaka Lanka Limited, which own some of the weapons onboard the Avant Garde armoury.
The weapons have been transferred to the Mihiri Armoury of the Dakshina Navy Base in Galle, he said.
“We expect the operation to take about four or five days, given the number of weapons onboard the Avant Garde vessel,” Captain Akram explained.
The Navy Spokesman said the operation had ended at nightfall yesterday and would recommence today.
Captain Akram said the Navy would only release details about the weapons seized after the ship is cleared. There were some “problems” with some of the weapons, including smudged serial numbers, the Navy Spokesman added.
The spokesman also dismissed rumours that the Sri Lanka Navy would take over the entire gamut of operations currently undertaken by sea-marshalling companies that provide security to commercial vessels.
“The Navy’s primary idea is to have strict control over the weapons and their storage. The sea marshals engaged in protecting ships from pirates embark and disembark from merchant vessels between the Galle Harbour and the Red Sea. The Sri Lanka Navy will store weapons onshore in its Galle base, and provide them to the marshals before they embark on the next mission,” Captain Akram explained at length.
The Sri Lanka Navy will not operate floating armouries the way Avant Garde conducted its operation, he said. Marshalls will disembark in Galle and offload their weapons at the Naval base and pick them up when they go back to sea, Captain Akram said.
This was an operation the Navy was conducting between 2009-2012, until Avant Garde and Rakna Arakshaka Lanka Limited (RALL) took over the operations and conducted them on a large scale, he added.
“Hereafter, whatever weapons are entering and leaving the country will be under naval supervision and naval custody. That will mean some control over weapons that enter or leave the country,” he said.
The Sri Lanka Navy took custody of the weapons onboard the Avant Garde vessel on directives from the President’s Office and the Ministry of Defence, following a special cabinet meeting held to resolve the Avant Garde controversy that has caused serious rifts in the cohabitation Government.
The naval operation resolves at least one contradictory report, after Justice Minister Wijedasa Rajapakse claimed on Thursday that the President had not issued these directives to the Navy, and only asked the Navy to look into the possibility of taking over the operations, contradicting his Cabinet colleague Rajitha Senaratne. Minister Rajapakse, who also put up a staunch defence of Avant Garde in Parliament last Wednesday and in several newspaper interviews subsequently, remains under a cloud after Minister Tilak Marapana, who performed similarly on behalf of the company, was forced to resign from Cabinet.
Meanwhile, Avant Garde Chairman and former Major Nissanka Senadhipathi suddenly cancelled a press briefing the company had scheduled for 10AM yesterday at the Monarch hotel in Thalawathugoda.
Senadhipathi who had threatened to “reveal all” at the press conference, released a statement saying his doctors were urging rest after abdominal surgery. The statement from Senadhipathi said he had undergone abdominal surgery in Singapore on 21 October, and had been ordered 41 days of bed rest following the surgery. However, because of business activities in Sri Lanka, he had been deprived of rest, the company said. The doctors have now ordered complete bed rest, due to a sudden pain Senadhipathi had suffered, the statement cancelling the news conference said.
