The floating armoury and Avant Garde issue was debated in Parliament last week. Ministers who drew the attention of the House, Minister of Law and Order and Prison Reforms, Thilak Marapana, Minister of Justice Dr. Wijeyadasa Rajapakse, Cabinet Co-Spokesperson, Dr. Rajitha Senaratne Deputy Minister Ranjan Ramanayake, Deputy Minister of Power, Ajith Perera spoke to the Daily Mirror.The following are excerpts from the “Daily Mirror”Relating to Tilak Marapana.

You claimed that the Police was wrong in boarding the MV Mahanuwara as it was illegal for it to be berthed at the Galle Harbour. What is your justification?

This ship had asked permission to enter the Galle Harbour and had received blanket approval since they had to replace the ship due to rusting. And they got two extensions of time to be berthed since September 2014. Once they transfer their cargo they will return to international waters. To be anchored in the harbour they had acquired permission from the Customs Office, the Defence Ministry, the Sri Lankan Navy and I have seen these documents of approval. The weapons on board belong to foreign companies having been licensed and certified in those countries and need not be licensed in Sri Lanka. Then according to Navy and Defence Ministry protocols the containers are opened under supervision and a boat travels to the foreign ship and hands over the weapons. This process is monitored by the Customs officials throughout.

From September onwards the Harbour Police has been 200 yards away from this ship, forty Navy officers are involved in this operation and ten Navy officers are on the ship. I can’t believe that the police didn’t know about this operation until January and coincidentally raided the ship on the 10th of January after the Presidential Election. The Navy officers were on the ship when this raid happened. When these facts were reported to the courts, the courts allowed this operation to carry on. Obviously the courts will not allow the carrying out of illegal business.

One thing that has to be made clear is that Avant Garde has no control over any of these weapons. Its only role is to maintain the crew and the ship. Rakna Lanka also has weapons that they store inside a port warehouse but these are Sri Lankan government weapons managed by the Navy and therefore do not need a licence.

Due to this issue the Chairman of Avant Garde was prevented from travelling abroad. The reason he wanted to go abroad was to finalise several contracts with the Nigerian Government. These projects included the buying of boats of the Sri Lankan Navy and the training of the Nigerian Navy. However due to controversy over Avant Garde and by the Chairman not being allowed to travel abroad these projects have been jeopardized. Furthermore because of this mess, the revenue that Rakna Lanka has been receiving from Avant Garde has also dropped, as during the years of 2013 and 2014 Avant Garde had paid Rakna Lanka 3.8 billion rupees.

There has been an allegation of a conflict of interest by defending Avant Garde in Parliament having been their lawyer in the past. What is your comment on that?

I represented Avant Garde in January 2015 when I wasn’t a Member of Parliament but just a lawyer. Furthermore I have never been a member of any corruption committee. The only reason I spoke in Parliament regarding the issue was because by then the Attorney General himself had looked into the matter and had declared that there was no charge against Avant Garde. Therefore I do not see any conflict of interest.

Courtesy:Daily Mirror