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President uses emergency powers to clip Ratwatte’s wings
Daluwatte given over-riding powers over services chiefs

by Our Defence Correspondent
President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga used the State of Emergency to give General Rohan Daluwatte sweeping powers over the three armed services and the police, effectively reducing the powers of her longtime confidante, Deputy Defence Minister Anuruddha Ratwatte.

Gen. Daluwatte now had the authority to directly issue orders to any member of the army, navy, air force and police who is engaged in anti-terrorist operations, powers which even the heads of the earlier Joint Operations Command did not have.

Gen. Daluwatte will be answerable only to the president, and not to the deputy defence minister.

Although he must also follow the instructions of the National Security Council, the president heads the NSC, except on rare occasions when the Prime Minister or another Cabinet minister chairs it when the president is absent.

However, parliament has the final say over the appointment, since all laws made by the president under the State of Emergency must be approved every month by a simple majority of MPs during the vote on the Emergency.

The move, which was expected by many in government and military circles, came in an unusually surreptitious manner, with senior army officers not being informed officially until more than a week had gone by, and even the state media being silent. Even the gazette notification contains errors in spelling which indicate that it was done in a hurried manner.

Daluwatte has been appointed to the post of Chief of Defence Staff of the Joint Operations Headquarters, a post which will allow him to return to uniform.

The top post was created specifically for him, boosting him from the earlier position of chief of the controversial Joint Operations Bureau, after he retired from the post of Commander of the Army in December 1998.

The massive change in command structure began last September, when the president took direct command of the armed forces, showing that she had given up on Ratwatte’s failed strategy of trying to capture the road to Jaffna, which had cost the lives of more than 3,000 soldiers.

Finding that she herself had insufficient knowledge to direct the military in its operations, she created the Joint Operations Bureau in January and appointed Daluwatte to head it.

However, the post was a civilian one, and its powers were not adequately defined. The three services and police virtually ignored the JOB, and continued with their own operations, liaising with each other directly.

But the president and Gen. Daluwatte were both clearly unhappy about this situation. Hence the creation of the new post, which can be officially justified by the fact that over the last two years, the army has shown a lack of strategy to finish off the war.

We publish below, the first of the president’s two regulations on the new appointment (with the mistakes included):

The Gazette of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka Extraordinary

No. 1081/19-Thursday, May 27, 1999.

(Published by Authority)

Part 1: Section (I) - General CF 1/64

Government Notifications

The Public Security Ordinance

Regulation made by the President under Section 5 of the Public Security Ordinance (Chapter 40)

Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga
President.
Colombo, 27th May, 1999

Regulation

1. These regulations may be cited as Emergency (National Security Council) Regulations No. 1 of 1999.

2. There shall be a council to be called the National Security Council (in these regulations referred to as ‘’The Council") charged with the maintenance of national security with authority to dirwect (sic) security operations and matters incidental to it.

3. The President shall as Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, be the Head of the National Security Council.

4. The National Security Council shall consist of the following members:

(a) a Minister or more than one Minister of the Cabinet of Ministers, if any, nominated by the President;

(b) the Deputy Minister of the Ministry of charge of the subject of Defence;

(c) he (sic) Secretary to the President;

(d) The Secretary to the Ministry of the Minister in charge of the subject of Defence;

(e) The Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) appointed under regulation 5;

(f) The Commander of the Army;

(g) The Commander of the Navy;

(h) The Commander of the Air Force;

(i) The Inspector General of Police;

(j) The Director General Internal Intelligence.

5. There shall be a Chief of Defence Staff Joint Operations who shall be appointed by, and be responsible to, the President.

6. The armed forces and such officers of the police force as are engaged in anti-terrorist operations shall be under the command of the Chief of Defence Staff, Joint Operations and for this purpose, the Commander of the Army, the Commander of the Navy, the Commander of the Air Force and the Inspector General of Police shall act under his command.

7. It shall be the duty of chief of Defence Staff, Joint Operations : (a) to implement directions issued to him by -

(i) the President; and

(ii) the National Security Council and conveyed to him on behalf of the President, by the Deputy Minister of the Ministry in charge of the subject of Defence and the Secretary to the Ministry of the Minister in charge of the subject of Defence.

(b) to advise the National Security Council on the operational capability and preparedness of the armed forces and the police force under his command.

(c) To maintain a Joint Operations Headquarters in order to achieve above.

8. The provisions of these regulations shall have effect notwithstanding anything to the contrary in the Army Act, Navy Act, Air Force Act or any other written law.

9. In these regulations "amred (sic) forces" means the Sri Lanka Army, the Sri Lanka Navy and the Sri Lanka Air Force.

The National Security Council is a long existing body, with the president at its head, so its mention in this gazette notifications is merely to include Gen. Daluwatte.

Clause 5 is the first controversial point, where it clearly says that Gen. Daluwatte will only be responsible to the president.

Clause 6 is likely to ruffle many feathers among all three services and the police, since it gives Gen. Daluwatte powers to directly give orders to anyone in the forces or police. In fact, Gen. Daluwatte won’t have to involve the three service chiefs or the IGP at all, if he so wishes.

While there should be no problems with this arrangement as long as Gen. Daluwatte and the service chiefs and IGP co-operate with one another and keep in touch with one another, nasty situations could arise if there is any rivalry between these top officers. In such situations, Gen. Daluwatte could even completely ignore the service chiefs and the IGP.

The second regulation is as follows:

The Gazette of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka
Extraordinary

No. 1082/16-Thursday, June 03, 1999.

(Published by Authority)

Part 1: Section (I) - General

Appointment & C., by the President No.186/1 of 1999

Emergency (National Security Council) Regulations No. l of 1999.

It is hereby notified that in terms of Regulation 5 of the Emergency (National Security Council) Regulations No. 1 of 1999 General R de S. Daluwatte, WWV, RWP, RSP, VSV, USP has been appointed by the President to be the Chief of Defence Staff of the Joint Operations Headquarters with effect from 31st May, 1999.

By Her Excellency’s Command.
K. Balapatabendi,
Secretary to the President.
31st May, 1999.
Colombo.

Major General Patrick Fernando, who recently retired as Chief of Staff of the army, has already been appointed to head Gen. Daluwatte’s staff.

The president’s move clearly shows her dissatisfaction with the way the war is progressing. She is obviously hoping that bringing all of the country’s anti-terrorism forces under the direct command of one senior military officer will produce results.

But the sad fact is that this approach has been the desperate last gasp option of every president, from the time of J. R. Jayewardene, who created the Joint Operations Command.

Since then, a host of senior officers, all of them retired service commanders, have headed the JOC, the JOH and the JOB, but the war continues to drag on. Only time will tell if Gen. Daluwatte can do better than his tri-service command predecessors, who include Gen. Cyril Ranatunga, Lt. Gen. Tissa Weeratunga, and Gen. Hamilton Wanasinghe. The only officer outside the army who served as JOC chief was Air Marshal Walter Fernando, a former air force chief who had a three month stint in 1993.

The sad fact is that most of the previous JOC chiefs were hampered by a lack of co-operation and communication with their former colleagues in the army, especially since most senior officers are in fierce competition to get promoted to the next rank and stay on in service. Having to retire and go looking for another job, is rather difficult to do when one is in his fifties.

Cooperation between JOC chiefs and the other services, namely the air force and navy, as well as the police, hasn’t been what it should be. As army officers, the JOC chiefs have limited knowledge of air and naval warfare, and the needs and limitations of the police, and this causes resentment when JOC chiefs give orders to these services.

The selection of Gen. Daluwatte has also raised many eyebrows. Gen. Daluwatte had a reasonably successful career, rising to the post of commander of the army, but is not regarded by very many to be among the few generals who have distinguished themselves in battle. What many find most interesting about this week’ development, is the rise of one general and the fall of another one.

Most Sri Lankans will remember the glittering ceremony in December 1995, when Anuruddha Ratwatte proclaimed with much pomp and pageantry to President Kumaratunga, that Jaffna had been liberated. The ceremony, televised live, saw a beaming president awarding the rank of General to Ratwatte, a jump of four ranks from the Colonel position he was in when he retired in the early eighties.

But with the failure of Operation Jaya Sikuru, the only thing that was certain was that Ratwatte was on his way out from the sphere of decision making regarding the war.

It remains to be seen how Gen. Daluwatte will change the course of the war, or if he does so at all.

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