POPULAR SINHALA NEWSPAPER REPORTS ON THE MALFUNCTIONED INDIAN RADAR SYSTEM AND SAME DAY ARRIVAL OF AIR TIGERS

By Walter Jayawardhana

Sri Lanka’s popular Sinhala language newspaper ‘the Divaina’ said that there is a probability that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) was working with a mole planted inside the main Sri Lanka Air Force base at Katunayaka in the attack by the Air Tigers.

The newspaper in its lead story said the light propeller driven attack aircraft arrived above the airbase on the same day the radar system of the air force was turned off for repairs.

The newspaper speculated the attack of the LTTE and the repairs of the radar system probably did not happen merely as a co-incidence.

The report written by staffer Hemantha Randunu said it is being investigated by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the police whether the information about the non-functioning of the radar system due to repairs had reached the LTTE in advance. The news report said the system had been under repairs for several days.

The sudden route over the airbase , the report said, the attack aircraft took had been well planned since prior knowledge was extremely necessary for the dropping of the bombs , without otherwise it could not have been possible.

The Air Tigers dropped three improvised Wanni made bombs out of which two exploded killing two airmen , injuring 17 others and slightly denting two military helicopters.

The newspaper contradicting the earlier statement of the government said the CID investigations have confirmed that seven attackers came in two airplanes.

Meanwhile the editorial of the newspaper of the same day accused India of selling an outdated radar system to the government under pressure while Sri Lanka was negotiating for a radar system from the People’s Republic of China of the 3D variety. The newspaper said the Indian radar system has been malfunctioning ever since and even on the day the LTTE attacked it was out of commission and under repairs.

The editorial alleged India forced on Sri Lanka as a big brother the malfunctioning outdated system putting out pseudo reasons of regional security with clumsy arguments against buying the Chinese one in 2002.

The strongly worded editorial said the only good thing the country got from India was Buddhism and almost every other thing the island nation received like Indian expansionism , Prabhakaran and Indo-Lanka Agreement was laced with nothing but venomous trouble.

The editorial said Prabhakaran was a pathogen introduced by India and the meaningless Provincial Council system was manufactured to sell to Prabhakaran for appeasement.

The newspaper sarcastically said, the Indian radar system should be melted into iron and should be put for better use by manufacturing mammoties for the rice farmers.