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By Way of Deception

By Way of Deception

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BY WAY OF DECEPTION 68forces for both sides, without either side knowing about the other,*and helped Sri Lanka cheat the World Bank and other investorsout <strong>of</strong> millions <strong>of</strong> dollars to pay for all the arms they were buyingfrom them.The Sri Lankan government was worried about unrest among thefarmers — the country has a long history <strong>of</strong> economic problems —so it wanted to split them up somewhat by moving them from oneside <strong>of</strong> the island to the other. But it needed an acceptable reasonto do this. That's where Amy Yaar came in. He was the one whodreamed up the great "Mahaweli Project," a massive engineeringscheme to divert the Mahaweli River from its natural course to dryareas on the other side <strong>of</strong> the country. The claim was that thiswould double the country's hydro-electric power and open up750,000 acres <strong>of</strong> newly irrigated land. Besides the World Bank,Sweden, Canada, Japan, Germany, the European EconomicCommunity, and the United States all invested in the $2.5 billion(U.S.) project.From the beginning, it was an overly ambitious project, but theWorld Bank and the other investors did not understand that, andas far as they are concerned, it's still going on. Originally a 30-yearproject, it was suddenly escalated in 1977 when Sri Lanka'spresident, Junius Jayawardene, discovered that with a little helpfrom the Mossad, it could become most significant.In order to convince the World Bank especially (with its $250million commitment) that the project was feasible — and wouldalso serve as a convenient excuse for moving the farmers fromtheir land — the Mossad had two Israeli academics, one aneconomist from Jerusalem University, the other a pr<strong>of</strong>essor <strong>of</strong>agriculture, write scholarly papers explaining its importance andits cost. A major Israeli construction company, Solel Bonah, wasgiven a large contract for part <strong>of</strong> the job.Periodically, World Bank representatives would go to Sri Lanka forspot checks, but the locals had been taught how to fool theseinspectors by taking them on circuitous routes —* See Chapter 6: THE BELGIAN TABLE

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