HSZ Announced in May!

18 June, 2007 - Published 16:29 GMT
HSZ "announced in May"

A new High Security Zone (HSZ) in eastern Sri Lanka was announced in May this year, the government has admitted.
Defence Affairs spokesman, Minister Keheliya Rambukwella, told the BBC that he did a mistake on Sunday when he said HSZ yet to be established.
"I was not communicated with the details when I was in Geneva," he told BBC Tamil Service.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa has signed a special Gazette notification HSZs in Muttur (east) and Sampur on 30 May.

Special Gazette notification

The LTTE-controlled areas were captured by Sri Lanka military, last year.
Sri Lanka government signed agreements to establish Coal Power Plants in the area in December, 2006.
The boundaries of the HSZs are as follows according to the government Gazette notification:
Residents in the areas have strongly protested government plans to establish HSZs in their ancestral lands.
"Now they say they have clered the areas from LTTE. So , those left should be civilians. Why don't they allow us to resettle now," a refugee from Sampur questioned.
Asked whether civilians will ever be allowed into the HSZs, minister Rambukwella said the government is still finalising their plans.
"As there some concerns, the modalities have not been decided yet," Keheliya Rambukwella said.

HSZs in Sampur and MutturEast :

From a line drawn along the Eastern Coast of Sri Lanka joining the villages of Foul Point,Illankanthai, Kalladichanei and Uppural ;South : From a line drawn joining the villages of Uppural, Selvanagar, Thoppur and Pachchanoor ;West : From a line drawn along the Western Bank of the Kaddaparichchan Aru, joining the villages ofPachchanoor, Kaddaparichchan South, Muttur and the Kaddaparichchan Aru Estuary ;North : From a line drawn along the the Southern Beach of Koddiyar Bay, joining Kaddaparichchan AruEstuary with the villages of Sampoor, shell Bay and Foul Point

HOAX: TIGER-HIT STORY
The Criminal Investigation Department toge-ther with top level government officials invented the story of a Tiger plot to attack the Colombo port and skillfully planted it in the media to justify the eviction of Tamil lodgers from Colombo, LAKBIMAnEWS learnt. They had passed the fabricated information to a private television channel generally considered anti-government. This TV station carried the story in its prime time news bulletin.

None of the top brass of the intelligence arms of the Army, Navy and Air Force were aware of an alleged guerrilla plot.Senior army and naval officials who were privy to sensitive security information ruled out the CID story that the guerrillas were planning a massive attack on the Colombo port using LTTE sleepers who have infiltrated Colombo. “This is a cleverly executed psychological operation,” said a senior Naval official. “It is anybody’s guess what their objective is. But the common contention is they simply want to justify the evictions.”Some others who were entrusted with the security arrangements for the city were clearly embarrassed by the planted information which they felt had let them down.

The CID confidently asserted that the guerrillas are planning a major attack on the Colombo Port in the middle of this year. The CID claim further went to state Sea Tiger boats will be launched from Wellawatta, Mount Lavinia and Dehiwala to confront two Dovra fast attack boats (FACs) providing security to the port, thus enabling two Tiger divers to execute an underwater attack on the boats. While the sea borne attack is in progress, guerrilla sleepers in the city would conduct raids on the security forces positioned in the port, it was said. The CID also claimed guerilla aircraft would bomb the port. They went on to report that the Tiger plan was to ram a port entrance with a truck laden with explosives. It was claimed the C.I.D. had extracted this information from a Tiger guerrilla who claimed he attended a rehearsal of the attack.The Defence Secretary confirmed the story that guerrillas had infiltrated the city. He also said last week: “We can’t arrest 300 people and detain them....So you can tell them, if you don’t have any legal business in Colombo, we don’t want to detain you. You go back to your homes.”
Lakbimanews 01