C. A. Chandraprema, whose two-part essay in The Island, is entitled “The Avant Guard Affair: SL’s foray into the maritime security industry” … Emphasis via highlighting is the work of The Editor, Thuppahi.
Though much has been said and written in the past two years about the opaque operations of Avant Guard Maritime Services, most people know little or nothing of what it was all about – a classic case of a controversy creating more confusion than enlightenment. In this article, The Island staffer C. A. Chandraprema traces how Sri Lanka got drawn into the murky world of maritime security and the roles which the Rajapaksa government and the private sector played in the operation. If the world of maritime security was murky, the murkiest part of it was the floating armouries. In the second part of this essay The Island staffer C. A. Chandraprema examines the controversy surrounding the Galle floating armoury of Avant Guard Maritime Services.
In 2006 as the war intensified, the Defence Ministry set up Rakna Lanka Ltd, a fully government owned limited liability company to provide security services to important government installations and institutions such as the Mahaweli dams and the Petroleum Corporation etc. Made up entirely of ex-armed forces personnel this special security service was meant to eliminate the need to deploy army and police personnel to guard infrastructure and to release them for duties in the war zone. Rakna Lanka provided security services to 49 government institutions during and after the war. While Sri Lanka remained preoccupied with the war, a new development that took place in the Indian ocean region was the rise of piracy off the coast of Somalia. Continue reading
-tas-1.jpg)
