By M Rama Rao reporting from India
New Delhi, 23 December, 2006(asiantribune:Neither President Rajapakse nor any of his military advisors will like this story. And the story has all the ingredients of a masala film Bollywood is known to produce with unfailing regularity only to bomb at the box office.
Only in this case, the bombs procured at high cost are falling like duds, or to borrow the analogy one expert used, falling like stones from mid air on the targets. The electronic fuses are faring no different. At least 200 of the 500 electronic fuses failed to ignite and the supplier had to reluctantly ferry back home the whole consignment and provide replenishment through a chartered A-32 transport plane, going by what is being said in low whispers.
Informed sources are also speaking of a kick back angle to the unfolding story though there is no independent corroboration of such goings on. It is said that defence suppliers, agents and their points’ men are laughing all the way to their banks in safe tax havens. Again there is no independent corroborative evidence. But the sources contend that the whole exercise of shopping for military hardware and spares is slowly emerging as an embarrassment to Colombo.
Now some specifics as are available at present.
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.
Sri Lanka’s defence market potential is estimated at over $100 million. It is expected to more than double in about another year plus and take it to the $250 million bracket. Such a market potential from a single country is lucrative enough for market hungry new arms sellers to become hyper active.
And this is what Pakistan did since Sri Lanka buys are more than the value of total Pak defence exports in a year, which is at present pegged at $ 200 million. Defence trade sources say, 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 hefty agent commissions. For instance spares' supplies of $6.9 million made to Lanka in the last few weeks were said to have been actually sourced by Heavy Industries Taxila (HIT-Pakistan) from Ukraine. Profit in the deal: a neat profit of $ 3 million.
Why Colombo itself did not go directly shopping to Kiev is unclear.
Knowledgeable sources opine that these arms deals with Pakistan 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 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 Air Force fell like stones in the targeted LTTE area. Pakistan reluctantly provided replacements 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.
Says 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, informed sources said the ‘grease’ money was deposited in bank accounts in tax havens like St Kitts.
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. Usually reliable sources say some of the sleaze money actually flows back to Pak officials. But this claim is difficult to cross check!
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