PAKISTAN- SRI LANKA SCENE

Pakistan gives duds to Sri Lanka, creates a stinking scandal for Rajpakse govt
By M Rama Rao in The National Herald, India
New Delhi, Dec 23, 2006: Pakistan making a killing in arms supplies to Sri Lanka but these deals are proving to be a costly embarrassment to Colombo. Cluster bombs have turned out to be duds while 200 of the 500 electronic fuses have been found to be defective and hence of no use. Several others are either of substandard quality or second hand items. According to a report the situation turned grim at the air headquarters when it was noticed that the bombed dropped by Lankan Air Force fell like stones in the target area.

Pakistan finds in the desperation of Rajapakse government for arms and spares a lucrative market worth $ 250 million, which is almost equivalent to the total Pak defence exports in a year. Islamabad is going the extra mile to help Colombo by sourcing the supplies from Ukraine and a few other Central Asian Republics. It is making a huge profit even after paying heavy kick backs and heft agent commissions.

Pakistan reluctantly provided replacement s for the entire lot of fuses. These were flown in by a chartered An-32 transport plane. "God only knows if the specially flown material will work", rues a Lankan source.

If one goes by a local version, Pakistani supplies are actually killing the troops more than the LTTE. The dummy heavy ammunition is no match to the powerful and precision oriented small arms in the Tigers’ armoury.

HEFTY KICK BACKS
Sources familiar with dealings aver that Pakistan defence companies have paid kick backs worth $ 5 million. More bribe money, estimated to be around $ 20 million has been promised on the latest orders. While there is no clear picture as to who are the recipients of the kick backs, informed sources said the ‘grease’ money was deposited in bank accounts in tax havens like St Kitts. Now that the scandal is about hit the headlines, the government is likely to be ordered soon

Interestingly, Pakistan doesn’t produce all that Sri Lanka urgently needs. They are procuring the spares Colombo wants from Ukraine and few other central Asian countries. For instance spares' supplies of $6.9 million made to Lanka in the last few weeks were actually sourced by Heavy Industries Taxila (HIT-Pakistan) from Ukraine. It made a neat profit of $ 3 million in the deal.

Colombo’s shopping list right now is General purpose bombs (MK-80 series), fuses (AB-103, AB-100, AB-100 variety), cluster bombs like 250 Kg pre-fragmented, fuel air bombs, deep penetration bombs, Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), ammunition for tanks, small arms and its ammunition. This order is worth $ 30 million. Some of these items will be up for repeat orders.

Sri Lanka is also looking for ‘refitted’ tanks (22 Al Zarar) besides armoured vehicles and jeeps. The order for tanks alone is valued at 80 million dollars prompting arms agents from Pakistan make frequent trips to Colombo.

Sources in Colombo and elsewhere say Pakistan companies have paid 20-25 per cent of the listed price as upfront commissions to their local agents, who, in turn parted with 15-20 per cent of the money as bribes to their contacts. There is no independent verification of these claims. Top Sri Lankan sources say, some of the sleaze money actually flows back to Pak officials. Again difficult to verify!

Justifying their buying from Pakistan, Sri Lankan officials say they had scouted around the world but very few were willing to supply. This is probably because of the because of the LTTE factor. Lankan armed forces are also accused of giving a go-by to human rights in their operations against the Tigers.

For Pakistan it is a win-win situation. It also gives it a tow hold to operate in India’s backyard with impunity. More over, such a huge order - estimated at over $100 million at present and expected to go up to $250 million in one and a half years – from a single country is lucrative enough for the entire Pakistan government machinery to become hyper active.