The Jungle Telegraph

A first by an Army Chief
Outgoing Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) and Army Commander, Lt. Gen. Lionel Balagalle created history last Thursday. Soon after a felicitation dinner for the incoming Commander, Lt. Gen. Shantha Kottegoda, Lt. Gen. Balagalle quit his official residence. Instead of driving to the General's House at Bauddhaloka Mawatha, the official residence of the Army Commander, he drove straight to his partly-built private house in the outskirts of Colombo.

He had remained at the official residence only until Thursday night when he relinquished office. This is the first time an Army Commander had quit his official residence the day after he had quit office. Others had taken days, weeks or months.

Gen. Balagalle's predecessor, Lt. Gen. Srilal Weerasooria, remained at the General's House for nearly two and half months. Thereafter, his successor (Gen. Balagalle) had to wait another two months until repairs were effected. The General's House is now available for occupation by the new Commander, Lt. Gen. Kottegoda.

Hoax or real?
An anonymous warning of a possible attack has led to strengthening of security at the Central Bank. Insiders say there was a similar warning weeks before Tiger guerrillas exploded a bomb in 1990 killing nearly 90 people.

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