Outside Politics

26th September 1999

No special seat for Justice Minister

At the ceremonial sitting of the Supreme Court on September 16 Minister of Justice Professor G.L. Peiris was refused a special seat and instead had to contend himself with a seat reserved for VIP’s among the visitors’ seats.

The Minister’s security officers had reportedly visited the Supreme Court before the ceremonial sitting and asked that a special seat be reserved for the Minister.

The security division of the Supreme Court had however refused to do so on the basis that in the protocol of the seating arrangements for the ceremonial sittings of the Supreme Court there is no provision for a special seat to be reserved for the Minister of Justice.

The Minister’s security had then requested that a seat be reserved for Professor Peiris next to that of the Minister of Foreign Affairs and President’s Counsel Lakshman Kadirgamar.

This request too had been turned down on the basis that Minister Kadirgamar was afforded a seat not on the basis of being a Minister but because he was a President’s Counsel and a member of the inner bar and therefore entitled to sit among the seats reserved for President’s Counsel.

After the two requests were turned down, the Minister of Justice finally had to be content with seats reserved in the visitors section for VIPs among who are ex Supreme Court judges, ministers and ministry secretaries.

Meanwhile, Minister Kadirgamar was not present at the ceremonial sitting, reportedly due to being misinformed as to the time of the ceremonial sitting.

When the Minister was reportedly looking for his President’s Counsel wig at home his security officers had informed him that the ceremony had already begun.

Right of reply

Dear Sir

The Sinhala Veera Vidahana referring to the article titled “CBK pushes Equality Bill” which appeared in page 10 of “The Sunday Times” of 19/9/99 says: This article makes certain references to the Sinhala Veera Vidahana (SVV) apparently quoting Minister M.H.M. Ashraff. We wish to respond as follows:

1. One paragraph in the article says that a leaflet has been distributed in the Digavapi area

- alleging that majority of Buddhist monks in the area had been bribed and

- that Sinhalese in the area should not have any dealings with the Muslims.

It is not clear whether this section of the paragraph is quoting Minister Ashraff or whether it is a statement made by the writer. The final sentence of the said paragraph is quote “On September 14 at a ceremony held in the Digavapi area, Mr Ashraff came out strongly against a campaign purported to have been launched by the Sinhala Veera Vidahana” unquote.

The implication is that the leaflet described above has purportedly been distributed by the SVV as part of a campaign purportedly launched by the SVV as purported by Minister Ashraff.

We wish to categorically state that the SVV has distributed no such leaflets in Digavapi or any other part of Sri Lanka. The SVV has no campaign to tarnish the reputation of Buddhist monks or to create division among the Sinhalese and Muslim communities in Digavapi or any other part of Sri Lanka. We will be making our own inquiries to find out whether such a leaflet had ever existed, and if so, who had been responsible for it.

Yours faithfully

General Secretary

Jungle Telegraph

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