By Shamindra Ferdinando
The Sri Lankan military and the Prague headquartered armaments firm MPi that promptly responded to Lanka’s call for emergency weapons supplies last year, believe that a certain interested party made a determined bid to block the supplies.

"If they succeeded, the LTTE would have captured the entire Jaffna peninsula," an authoritative official said last week stressing that LTTE sympathisers did their best to prevent the army from deploying these weapons in the Jaffna theatre in time to prevent the LTTE advance on the town.

The fall of Jaffna and the possible surrender of over 20,000 personnel would have forced the government to agree to whatever "peace" proposals put forward by the LTTE and their international supporters, the sources said.

These attempts came to light during last week’s visits to Colombo by two top level Czechoslovakian defence delegations that explored ways and means of further improving relations between the two countries.

When the peninsula was about to fall to the LTTE in April-May, MPi has offered to help the Sri Lankan forces.

The MPi promptly offered a certain number of powerful GRAD RM 70 Multi Barrel Rocket Launcher [MBRL] vehicles free if Sri Lanka purchased expensive rockets for these mobile "weapons systems" from them.

But trouble erupted after they made arrangements to airlift these MBRLs in chartered aircraft. The first aircraft that left a Czech airport carrying two MBRLs disappeared for several days. It was later observed at an airport in a former Soviet republic.

After representations were made, the aircraft was released and on arrival at Katunayaka, a group of Czech officials were horrified to see wires of both MBRLs cut. The Czech officials with the help of SLAF technicians had managed to repair the damage and make arrangements for the immediate transportation of these vehicles to Jaffna.

The second aircraft that left Czechoslovakia carrying two more MBRLs were intercepted by fighters of a Middle Eastern country and forced to land in a military airport. The aircraft was detained for three weeks, the sources said adding that it was released only after the governments of Sri Lanka and another East European country [not Czechoslovakia] made representations to the ruler of that particular country.

They said that a certain interested party that wanted the LTTE to seize Jaffna was responsible for sabotaging the operation in its initial stages.

However, within weeks, MPi succeeded in airlifting half of the mobile MBRLs promised by them. Their deployment in the Jaffna theatre sharply increased the army’s firepower and allowed the forces to carry out a series of ground operations that forced the LTTE out of the salient then held near the Jaffna town.

The sources said that rest of the MBRLs will be delivered within the next couple of weeks.

They said that there was evidence to suggest that certain Czech politicians too co-operated with LTTE sympathisers to block the transfer of these weapons. At one stage, MPi was forced to seek legal help to continue with the operation that sharply bolstered the firepower of the Jaffna security forces, the sources said.

Details of these previously unknown incidents came to light during last week’s visits by two Czechoslovakian defence delegations. One of the delegations comprised a group of senior officials of the privately owned Prague headquartered firm, MPi. It was led by Pavel Jerabek, Chairman and Managing Director of one of Czechoslovakia’s biggest armaments companies.

The other delegation led by Lieutenant General Jiri Sedivy, Chief of the General Staff of the Czechoslovakian armed forces, a highly decorated officer who was involved in NATO operations in Eastern Europe held meetings with Chief of Defence Staff General Rohan de S. Daluwatte and the three service commanders. The Lieutenant General’s delegation included Colonel Josef Proks, Chief of Military Academy.

The MPi delegation held talks with several other senior army officials based at Army headquarters.

At the end of their visit, the two delegations had dinner at Minister S. B. Dissanayake’s residence, the sources said adding that the minister played a key role in persuading Czech authorities to go ahead with weapons sales last year when they were under tremendous pressure to end co-operation with Colombo.

Michael Smrz, MPi director and administrator in an interview with ‘The Sunday Island’ last week stressed that they had been supplying armaments to the security forces since 1994. "We sold T-55 main battle tanks then," he said adding that since last year’s developments in the Jaffna peninsula, MPi has increased its role here.

Smrz said that powerful T-55 AM2 main battle tanks were delivered to the army recently. "They were already in Jaffna," he said adding Tatra 815 all terrain tanker transporters too had been provided. He expressed hope that Colombo and MPi would continue to do "business". Jerabek agreed while briefly commenting on the difficulties faced by them in airlifting the required equipment to Colombo in time.

The MPi, he said, intends to maintain adequate spares for Czech supplied "weapons systems" here and also send in regular "technical" groups to Colombo as part of the efforts to guarantee continued support for the military effort in the north.

The Czech supplied Multi Barrel Rocket Launchers [MBRLs] played a crucial role in halting LTTE’s advance on Jaffna and then forcing them out of the 140 square km salient they held near the town in a series of offensives beginning September last year. "Crisis" purchases made soon after the fall of the strategic Elephant Pass base in April last year, sharply increased government’s fire. But, senior military officials believe that they should further increase firepower and acquire equipment needed to maintain pressure on the LTTE.

President Kumaratunga last year sent Minister Mangala Samaraweera especially to thank the Czech leadership after troops halted the LTTE advance on Jaffna.

Czechoslovakia, formerly a key member of the then USSR dominated Warsaw Pact, joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation [NATO] some time ago.

Defence sources said that the 19-member NATO have strict rules on the deployment of forces and equipment. In view of this all East European countries which joined NATO have started selling their standard Warsaw Pact arms, ammunition and equipment.

Norway, engaged in an attempt to bring the government and the LTTE back to the negotiating table too, was a NATO member.

The Czechosl-ovakian Defence Minister was expected to visit Colombo in two weeks’ time, the sources said.

The sources said that the army sought to acquire MBRLs only after the LTTE deployed a few 12-barrel MBRLs and immediately succeeded in inflicting heavy losses on the security forces.