Gotabhaya on what made it possible
Secrecy was the name of the game leading to KP’s arrestBy Shamindra Ferdinando
Kumaran Pathmanathan alias as KP, now in Sri Lankan government custody has claimed that his attempts to convince his predecessor Velupillai Prabhakaran to lay down arms and come to a negotiated settlement with the Rajapaksa government hadn’t been successful.
Disassociating himself from Prabhakaran-led military campaign, Pathmanathan has said that he told the LTTE leader there would be no ``military solution’’ in the Tigers’ favour.
Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa yesterday told The Sunday Island that the government wasn’t interested in what Pathmanathan told Prabhakaran in the run up to the final battle on the Nanthikadal lagoon. He had briefly spoken to KP immediately after the LTTE leader was brought to Colombo, Rajapaksa said.
He said that KP was playing a different tune now. Their priority was to identify persons, both here and abroad, involved with the LTTE over the past two decades. Though Sri Lankan intelligence services had received information about overseas LTTE networks over the past three years, the current investigation would focus on procurement of arms, ships, fund raising and international fund transfers, drugs trade as well as possible links with other international terrorist groups.
He asserted that foreign government officials, particularly involved in international arms trade, could be identified.
Under former navy chief Admiral Wasantha Karannagoda’s leadership, the navy destroyed KP’s supply network comprising eight floating arsenals on the high seas. Interrogation of several LTTE cadres captured by the Maldivian Coast Guard in May 2007, too, helped the navy to target the supply network.
The Defence Secretary declined to comment on the circumstances in which KP was arrested and brought in to Colombo under Sri Lankan guard. He emphasized that the Sri Lankan government wouldn’t respond to press reports on the terrorist leader’s arrest in Thailand and Malaysia.
It wasn’t in Sri Lanka’s interest to discuss where KP was being detained or any other sensitive issue. The war wouldn’t have lasted three decades had successive governments approached the issue in a sensible manner, he said.
Sri Lanka was eternally grateful for the support extended by several South East Asian countries in this regard, he stressed.
"We couldn’t have trapped KP without their support," he said recalling efforts to involve South East countries in the Tiger hunt after an operation to take KP went awry in September 2007.
It was as part of this effort to win over countries of the region to assist the war against the LTTE that both he and Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake undertook several overseas visits in the region last year, Rajapaksa said.
KP’s arrest would give a mega boost to our efforts aimed at destroying the enemy once and for all, he said.
Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama told The Sunday Island on Thursday night, shortly after an aircraft carrying KP touched down at the Bandaranaike International Airport, that the government had inquired about KP from about a dozen countries where the terrorist was believed to be operating.
Bogollagama said that the country could be rightfully proud of winning cooperation of the South East Asian region to track down KP.
The Defence Secretary said that the West should take note of the support extended by South East Asia to the government of Sri Lanka to finish off the LTTE. The arrest of KP was a fine example of international cooperation to combat cross border terrorism.
Citing intelligence reports, he said that KP had received the appointment as Tigers’ international relations chief last January when they knew the army couldn’t be stopped on the Vanni front. In the last two months, the Diaspora with the support of a section of the international community made a determined attempt to iron out differences among various factions.
"KP was promoted as undisputed successor to Prabhakaran and if we turned a blind eye to overseas developments, in matter of months he would have been a major threat," Rajapaksa said.
He said that the success of their operation hinged on total secrecy. "We were committed, confident and had the correct officers and men handling the operation," he said.
Acknowledging that many countries, including India could be interested in having access to KP, he said that Sri Lankan authorities were still in the initial stages of the investigation. All Sri Lankan agencies relevant to the investigation would be given access to the terrorist whose interrogation could expose many international links.
Speaking on the condition of anonymity, another official told The Sunday Island that KP had passports issued from several countries. According to him, KP had been one of the terrorists involved in the transfer of arms and ammunition from India to Sri Lanka in the pre-1987 period before moving to Europe.
Married to a Thai, the international terrorist is believed to have traveled frequently within South East Asia and also to other parts of the world.
"Obviously he underestimated our resolve to get him," the official said.
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