Sri Lankan minister quits over arms scandal

In a setback to Sri Lanka’s ruling coalition, an influential minister on Monday resigned from the Cabinet for allegedly shielding a private security firm which is under probe for gun running and money laundering.

Law and order and prisons reform minister Tilak Marapana sent his resignation to President Maithripala Sirisena amid intense pressure from his colleagues who demanded his sacking. Mr Marapana had defended the Avant Garde’s armoury scandal in Parliament by saying that there was nothing illegal about the company’s operation that involved using government weapons and hiring them out to foreigners.

Mr Marapana was under pressure to resign after his comments. Explaining the reasons behind his resignation, he said there were doubts in the minds of MPs and members of the public that the Avant Garde probe would not be conducted properly if he continued to remain as the minister. However, he insisted that he would continue to rem-ain in Parliament as an MP. Mr Marapana’s statement regarding the Avant Garde issue drew strong criticism even from some of his ministerial colleagues in the government.

At one point, Mr Marapana even claimed that the police, which is now under his purview, had raided the Avant Garde floating armoury docked at the Galle harbour in January to “score points”.

Prior to being appointed as a minister, Mr Marapana had in fact rendered legal services to Avant Garde, further fuelling the anger against his statement.

Mr Marapana’s statement led to a heated cabinet meeting last Thursday, where some ministers vehemently criticised his conduct. This prompted Mr Sirisena to call for the special Cabinet meeting on Monday in a bid to resolve differences. Avant Garde was granted permission to operate floating armouries by former President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s then defence secretary brother Gotabhaya.

Mr Gotabhaya is now under investigation for his role in transferring state weapons to Avant Garde. Investigators are still trying to locate thousands of weapons they say have disappeared from state inventories after they were transferred to third parties. Avant Garde maintains that it legally obtained weapons and operated floating armouries following authorisation from Mr Gotabhaya. The present government had ordered a probe following the discovery of a ship carrying arms in the Galle harbour.