By T Rusiripala
People are talking about one Udayanga Weeratunga. The most recent reference to him was in the context of a detection made by the Dubai International Airport authorities when Udayanga Weeratunga was trying to board a US bound plane and stopping him due to an INTERPOL alert they had received. It was also reported that a team of CID officials and emigration authorities leaving to Dubai to bring Udayanga Weeratunga to Sri Lanka as he was wanted for questioning by the Police over an alleged incident of a corrupt air craft deal.
Well known in the Sri Lanka news as the MiG Jet aircraft deal there have been several exposures and finally an indictment and an application to Courts for an arrest warrant against Udayanga Weeratunga. The sums involved and alleged as his beneficial gains as against huge losses to the state associated with the deal are running into millions of USD. It is believed that the loot is lying in some haven only to be brought in when the time is right for the culprits to commence the operation. The laws in the country are strangely getting relaxed for the plunder to arrive legally into the country safely despite the blacklisting we earned recently from the EU by placing our country among the worst such other states. We wonder whether the people who advocated the exchange control regulations have something to do with Udayangas! May be for special considerations , political as well as monetary.
Be that as it may, the incident reminds us of our good friend Lasantha who lost his life beaten and murdered in broad day light in the middle of a public road with heavy traffic movements, but unable to trace the killers. Unfortunately the Interpol does not undertake such assignments and hence the culprits are free as yet. Coming back to this Udayanga, I had the fortune of interacting with this gentlemen at a meeting I attended when Basil Rajapakse was a cabinet Minister. It was in the context of a review meeting of the Passikuda Hotel development project. I participated as a director of a company in the scheme constructing a Hotel. This Mr Udayanga attended that meeting on invitation by Minister basil Rajapakse, as the then ambassador of Sri Lanka in a foreign country and he was talking to the hotel developers how to canvass business there with is help to promote tourism. I remember him showing some photographs where he was attired as a Kandyan dancer and engaged in some road shows himself performing. I was accompanied for this meeting with a foreigner who was one of the investors of our Hotel Project. He was rather amused with the role of our ambassadors and I remember him telling me “ my god , I cannot even imagine how your country’s ambassadors are dancing in the middle of the road for the sake of your country”!
But this is a different performance that he is now charged with. Some small MiG jet deal amounting to couple of millions of USD. As there was much conjecture about the role of the Interpol and talking about red and blue alerts which our minister in charge of the Police did not explain properly for the benefit of the suspecting public I thought I should refer and find out what this is all about.
I learnt the following which I thought I should share with our limited readers with the permission of the editor.
Theletters INTERPOL stands for The International Criminal Police Organization and that it is an organization to facilitate international police cooperation. The Head Quarters of the Interpol is in France. In case any of our readers wish tocontact any body from this organization the name of the President is MengHongwei, ( sounds Chinese!)
There are 192 countries that have joined as members of Interpol and we are fortunately one of them. It is a politically neutral body and its main focus is mainly public safety and combating transnational crimes against humanity, child phonography, cybercrime, drugtrafficking,environmental crime, genocide, human trafficking, illicit drugs, money laundering,corruption , terrorism, weapon smuggling and white collar crime among others.
We in this country seem to be very fortunate in sending quite a number of eligible clients for their scrutiny provided the law authorities properly coordinate affairs with the Interpol. It appears from what is reported as happened that there have been some lapses and short comings in our dealings with them. That may be the reason why the much wanted arrest of Udayanga the renowned dancer and the former Diplomat escaped in a rather questionable manner.
At the request of member countries the Interpol helps to track Criminals. The much spoken Red Notice becomes relevant here. A red notice is a request to locate and provisionally arrest an individual pending extradition.It is not an international arrest warrant.Interpol cannot compel any member country to arrest a individual who is the subject of a Red Notice. When Interpol publishes a Red Notice this is simply to inform all member countries that the person is wanted based on an arrest warrant issued by the country.
Types of Notices
RED to seek the location and arrest of wanted persons
BLUE to collect additional informationa bout a person
GREEN To provide warnings and intelligence about persons
It appears that those in authority here has inadvertently issued a BLUE instead of a RED that was deserving on Udayanga.
We like to know who is responsible for this. At least under RIT Act we wish to know why Udayanga was given a BLUE label when he deserved a RED label? And who was behind the decision. And further how much it has cost our coffers to fulfill this mission? Should we not recover it from some one? Is it the reason why some in authority are trying to run away? May be they are under good advice by their mentors to do so? Let time find answers.
