Secured to the teeth

Gayan Kumara Weerasinghe

The authorities in charge of the security in the island have taken a series of steps by to beef up security arrangements for the 15th SAARC conference to be held at the Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall (BMICH), Colombo, from July 27 to August 03 this year.

The security plan will go down in history as the strongest/meanest ever organised in Sri Lanka.
The security network consists of nearly 25000 Army, Navy, Air Force, Police and the Civil Defence Force personnel in addition to 40 official sniffer dogs specially trained to detect explosives. In addition, the Government has imported the latest technology and equipment including personal and travelling bag search scanners, explosive identification machines, ante remote control devices and inter communication mobile phones on an emergency order, as revealed by a very reliable source.

Security measures

Coordination of security measures in connection with the SAARC conference has been entrusted to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Ministry sources say the estimated total expenditure in respect of the conference is Rs.2880 million. 75 percent of the total expenditure is allocated for security measures.

As disclosed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the conference of the Senior Foreign Affairs Ministry Officials of Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Maldiv islands and Afghanistan is scheduled to be held on 27th and 28th of July, while the Secretaries of the said eight countries will parley on the 29th and 30th July. July 31 and August 01 is allocated to the conference of Foreign Ministers. Heads of States summit, which is the final Conference, is scheduled to be held on August 2nd and 3rd.

In the entire duration of these parleys, Sri Lanka will host the Heads of States of the seven guest countries and their retinue, who form a large group of VVIPs who have to be wined and dined and provided with tight security at an estimated cost of Rs.2160 million. Of the 25000 secrurity personnel about 3000 will be deployed for the security of the visiting VIPPs. This security team is drawn from the elite of the Presidential Security Division, Prime Minister’s Security Division, VIP security Division, STF, and the CID who were given a month’s special training at STF Training School, Katunayaka and Presidential Security Training Camp, Kumbuka, Gonapola, Horana.

Security authorities have taken steps to organise the security network under four zones. First of these is in the landing and exit points at the Bandaranaike International Airport.
The Second Zone is the BMICH and the surrounding roads, Bauddhaloka Mawatha, Sarana Road, and Malalasekera Mawatha.

The third and fourth zones include the environs of Hotel Intercontinental, Hilton, Trans Asia, Cinnamon Grand, Galle Face Hotel, the hotels reserved for summit guests. In addition, the Marine Drive running parallel to the coast, Colombo Harbour, Colombo Continental Hotel, Galadhari Hotel, Ceylinco building, Navy Headquarters, and Police Headquarters come under one of these two Security Zones.

The other zone includes Galle Face Road from Colpetty Junction upto the Old Parliament building, Slave Island Railway station level crossing, and the Canal Bank where, the Army Headquarters and the Ministry of Defence are situated. This security zone will be operative from July 25. From 25 to 29th this area will be subjected to traffic barriers and thorough checks.
Out of the four security zones, other than in the first zone which includes the International Airport, passenger transport will be disallowed from July 30 to August 03.

Suspended

Railway service from Maradana to Bambalapitiya will be suspended during the conference period and the Railway stations Colombo Fort, Slave Island and Colpetty will be closed for the first time in Railway history.

Steps have been taken to remove the unauthorised constructions within the security zones and evacuate vagrants to the Veerawila beggar camp.
Heads of States attending the conference will use helicopters for their transport between Colombo and Bandaranaike International Airport.

In view of the international terrorist threats posed to the heads of the three countries, India, Pakistan and Afganistan, they are using their own helicopters as per security measures of the respective countries. Each of the three countries will use a minimum of three helicopters belonging to their own Air Force. The crews will arrive in the island 24 hours before the arrival of their heads of state. These heli-transport operations are to be conducted under the supervision of the Sri Lanka Air Force. Arrangements have been made to use alternate land routes in the event of any change in the weather condition. In that event roads in the alternate route will be closed when the Heads of states are using them.