Sri Lankan Air Defence Upgrades

PK Balachandran

Colombo, March 15, 2005|15:32 IST

An alleged offer of a sophisticated radar system by Pakistan to Sri Lanka has irked a section of the Tamils in the island country.

In an exclusive front-page report on Monday, the leading Colombo-based Tamil daily Sudar Oli said that in the context of Sri Lanka’s concern over the acquisition of an aircraft by the LTTE, Pakistan had offered Sri Lanka a sophisticated radar defence system.

The paper, which reflects the LTTE’s thinking on most matters, further said that the Pakistani “offer” had the blessings of the United States.

According to the daily, Pakistan made the offer through its Air Force chief, Air Chief Marshal, Kaleem Saadat, who was in the island on a goodwill visit last week.

He had taken up the matter with the Sri Lankan Air Force Commander, Air Marshal Donald Perera, and also President Chandrika Kumaratunga, who is also Defence Minister.

In an editorial on the subject on Tuesday, Sudar Oli went a step further and said that India should sit up and take notice, because setting up such a surveillance system in Sri Lanka would pose a threat to India’s security as well.

The editorial said that the blessings of the United States to the proposal should be of concern to India.

India ought to be wary about the increasing influence of the US in Sri Lanka, it pointed out.

The paper quoted from a recent editorial in the respected Chennai-based Tamil daily Dinamani to say that India, as a regional power, should not allow other foreign powers to get a foothold in Sri Lanka.

The LTTE and the Tamils supporting it, see the United States as a threat, especially since the latter launched its anti-terror crusade following 9/11.

Hindustan Times could not confirm the Pakistani offer. But reliable sources said that it could not be ruled out, given Pakistan’s eagerness to enhance military ties with Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka is also keen on enhancing its military ties with Pakistan which Sri Lankans like to describe as the “time tested ally” which had come to the island’s aid in times of peril, as in 2000, when 30,000 government troops were under siege in Jaffna.

It is widely accepted that Pakistan will be eager to fill gaps created by India’s reluctance to sell sophisticated military equipment to Sri Lanka.

India’s reluctance is due to the impact such military aid may have on the Tamil question, about which it has certain views and commitments, and in regard to which there are certain Indian domestic compulsions.

After all, India is home to 60 million ethnic Tamils, and Tamil parties are part of the Central Government in New Delhi.

Pakistan may like to replicate in Sri Lanka what it is doing in Nepal, namely, fill the gap left by an Indian withdrawal.

When India said that it was stopping military cooperation with Nepal after the Royal coup, Pakistan stepped in and offered military aid to King Gyanendra’s regime.

LTTE’s air capability

The question of supplying radars to Sri Lanka arose after a Sri Lankan Air Force UAV discovered an aircraft parked on the runway in Iranamadu in the LTTE-controlled area of the Wanni on January 12 this year.

Reporting this exclusively, The Sunday Times said that the US confirmed the presence of the propeller driver aircraft, which was identified as the Czech-made civilian Zlin Z143.

The LTTE has, till now, neither denied nor accepted the acquisition of the plane.

Though a civilian aircraft, the Zlin Z143 can be used as a bomber and also put on a kamikaze or suicide mission, military experts say. Following 9/11, there is a basis for this fear.

According to Iqbal Athas, Sri Lanka correspondent of the defence journal Jane’s, the Zlin Z143 can carry an explosive load of 240 kg.

“Imagine what impact this will have, considering the fact that the bomb that brought down the Central Bank building in Colombo was only 50 kg!” Athas told Hindustan Times.

The plane could also be used to train pilots and aircraft technicians, he said. It could be the nucleus of a Tiger air force. And if that came into being, the military balance in Sri Lanka could change completely.

Athas believes that the LTTE may have smuggled the aircraft into Wanni in a knocked down condition and assembled it.

The smuggling could have taken place during the ceasefire, which came into affect in February 2002.

A worried Sri Lankan government has been seeing this as both a major threat to the security of its vital installations and as a violation of the ceasefire agreement.

According to the government, there is also an international dimension to the threat.

Such aircraft may pose a threat to neighbouring South India, which has vital defence and nuclear installations.

The Sri Lankan Foreign Minister, Lakshman Kadirgamar, took up this issue with the Indian Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, when he was in New Delhi last month. He has also briefed the US Secretary of State.

President Chandrika Kumaratunga has written to the Norwegian Prime Minister, Kjell Magne Bondevik, with an aide memoir giving all available information including pictures of the aircraft parked in Iranamadu.

She asked for Norway’s help to dismantle the LTTE’s air capability, which she argued, was disturbing the military balance in the island significantly.

Last week, the Norwegian Peace Envoy, Erik Solheim, raised this issue with the LTTE’s chief negotiator and political advisor, Anton Balasingham, in London. Balasingham told Solheim said that he was not aware of the existence of the aircraft.

About the airfield in Iranamadu, he said that it had been in existence even before the ceasefire agreement.