Curtailing terror funds

Yesterday's terrorist attack on the Anuradhapura airbase once again shows the destructive nature of terrorists. Having spurned many peace efforts, conflict is the only language they understand.

Increased vigilance by the public and the Security Forces has prevented a number of catastrophes in Colombo and elsewhere. But as the saying goes, terrorists have to be lucky only once and Governments have to be lucky all the time. It is necessarily a battle against terror on many fronts, not just on the battlefield.

One way of strangling terrorists is cutting off their funds and weapons. The recent anti-terrorism confab held in Colombo was told by experts that nearly 70 per cent of the Tiger funding has dried up in the face of concerted international action against terrorist financing and money laundering.

The Sri Lanka Navy has also intercepted and sunk several LTTE weapons ships on the high seas, depriving the terrorists of a regular supply of arms. All these point to a vast international operation by terror groups, who maintain close links.

The terrorists tend to use the most unlikely avenues to raise funds and buy weapons. Our lead story yesterday stated that the Tigers were using a Guyana based forgery ring to turn out authentic-looking US, UK and Canadian passports to enable their operatives to enter the Caribbean and Canada illegally and raise funds for arms purchases.

This is a very disturbing development not only for Sri Lanka but also for these countries which have already witnessed violence by LTTE-linked gangs. The US has already arrested several key LTTE suspects who were attempting to procure weapons including anti-aircraft missiles. But there could be many more LTTE cadres in Western countries who are trying to buy weapons for their terror outfit.

Increased vigilance and global cooperation are vital to stem the flow of funds and weapons to terror groups worldwide.

In this context, the Caribbean countries have shown the way by forming a tight barrier around their islands to prevent the entry of terrorists, drug traffickers and other undesirable elements. Other regional blocs including SAARC countries, themselves affected by terrorism, must take similar action to keep terrorists at bay.

The Caribbean episode has also exposed another facet of terror networks - hiring specialised forgers to assume various identities to make cross-border travel easier.

The world must keep an eye on these alarming developments and take concrete action to negate their adverse effects. In the meantime, the Security Forces must intensify the campaign against the LTTE in the wake of the Anuradhapura incident.

Rain havoc

The city of Colombo was once again its usual familiar sight under a heavy downpour that the public has now come to accept with stoic resilience.

As usual there were long traffic snarls as vehicles moved bumper to bumper at a snail's pace wading through the swirling waters at key points in the capital city.

The suburbs too were similarly affected with motorists having a nightmare to manoeuvre their vehicles on inundated roads. Some roads were virtually impassable with water levels at over there feet or more. The entire picture was one of utter chaos as is the case every time a mini deluge lashes the city.

No one will be able to gauge the amount of man hours lost due to late attendance or absenteeism at workplaces or the overall economic cost by this gross negligence of authorities to overhaul the outdated city sewerage system.

It is high time that the authorities shed their indifference and attend to this problem with utmost urgency. We talk about airports and ports that are in the pipeline but still haven't devised an effective method to deal with the problem of overflowing city sewerage that gets clogged up even in a minor downpour.

There have been talk of replacing the moribund city sewerage network on many an occasion but nothing seems to have happened. Instead the public has been forced to endure the consequences of a derelict colonial era drainage network which had long lost its usefulness.

Today with the Colombo city's population bursting at the seams in addition to another estimated one million floating population on any given day how could an archaic drainage system withstand such an overwhelming volume is the question that has to posed to the authorities.

The city of Colombo which was once described as the Garden City of Asia is today an eyesore during a torrent. Areas such as Pettah are veritable hell holes and a picture of squalor with mountains of rotting vegetables and piles of garbage.

The Government should pay prompt attention towards replacing the present drainage system and build a network that can withstand the demand of modernisation.

A comprehensive master plan is needed for the redevelopment of the Colombo city to its former pristine state.