DPL visit gives new twist to estate crisis

An Indian diplomat based in Sri Lanka has sparked off a controversy by attending the Ceylon Worker's Congress protest campaign in the central province.

The diplomat, Deputy High Commissioner Achal Malhotra, based in the Indian High Commission office in Kandy had attended the protest campaign and taken part in the procession held in Hatton.

Mr. Malhotra told The Sunday Times he was only an observer of the events, but participants at the protest said the diplomat after being welcomed on his arrival was seen walking in the procession and was then seen on the stage for about one and half hours.

Mr. Malhotra explained that since he was based in Kandy he decided to visit the location where the protest was on.

But, CWC sources said they saw it as a sign of solidarity with the plantation workers who have been demanding a Rs. 400 increase in their monthly wages. Cabinet Minister and CWC leader Arumugam Thondaman said the Indian diplomat was present with them to look into the interests of the plantation workers of Indian origin.

The government-appointed committee on Friday night handed over a report about the feasibility of the plantation companies making the payment, but the companies had earlier said they cannot afford to pay the Rs. 400.

Son of a gun

A son of Minister S. B. Dissanayake is alleged to have tried to storm the annual Royal-Thomian cricket encounter with 20 others, eyewitnesses said.

They said the minister's son had tried to gatecrash with his friends. When he was told that they could not enter the grounds without tickets, he allegedly said "Do you know who I am? I can get this big match stopped."

The eyewitnesses said that after a rumpus at the gate, the Cricket Board Executive Secretary Anura Tennakoon had intervened and told officials to allow the minister's son and his friends to enter through the VIP gate.

Wounded at Fort

An Army officer who fought in the battle at Paranthan last year is said to have received shoddy treatment at the Fort Railway Station.

He had made a vow before the battle that if he came through and lived to fight another day, he would travel with his mother to Sri Pada to fulfil the vow.

His experience there, the officer (who spoke on grounds of anonymity), said was worse than the injuries he suffered at Paranthan. "I was humiliated and insulted," he told The Sunday Times.

"On February 27, I arrived at the railway station at 7.25 in the morning in order to reserve seats for myself and my mother for the trip to Sri Pada.

There were seven or eight people in the queue. Feeling that I should not stand in the queue as I was in uniform, I stood aside and waited.

"The counter opened at 8.40 a.m. I waited until two people made their reservations and then went up to the counter and handed my warrant. I was told that I must come in the queue.

When I attempted to take my place after the eighth person had made his reservation, as this was the position I occupied when I arrived in the morning, the official behind the counter spoke harshly and ordered me to come properly in the queue.

"I then went to the Station Master who directed me to the Station Superintendent. I requested a glass of water from him because I was so upset to see a soldier treated in this manner."

"There too I did not get a proper hearing and disgusted about the treatment given to a soldier in uniform at a time the government is speaking about felicitating soldiers, I left the place leaving even ticket warrant behind."

The officer has now decided to take up the issue through the Army authorities.

Mr. Tennyson Fernando , a Station Master at the Fort Railway Station when contacted about the incident confirmed that there was a complaint regarding the matter which has been forwarded to the Railway Department, on which no action has been taken so far.

Islamic anger at 'terrorist' list

Islamic groups yesterday responded angrily to the government's decision to brand 21 organisations as terrorist under a new act which for the first time enables the home secretary to proscribe those targeting foreign states.

More than half the 21 groups on the list of banned groups, announced on Wednesday, are of Muslim origin, though it also included the Kurdistan Workers Party (the PKK), which has thousands of supporters in Britain.

The London-based Islamic Human Rights Commission complained that Britain was effectively siding with friendly or "occupying regimes" responsible for oppression of Muslim populations. "Struggles in Palestine and Kashmir, for instance, are undertaken by the indigenous population against illegal occupation. International law accepts that such struggles are perfectly just," said Massoud Shadjareh, the group's chairman.

Yasser al-Serri, an Egyptian who runs the London-based Islamic Observation Centre, said the act would "poison relations between Britain and Islamists". Kurdish spokesmen who asked not to be identified criticised the inclusion on the list of the PKK.

The act defines terrorism as "the use or threat of action", including serious violence against property in Britain or abroad, to advance a political, religious or ideological cause. It also includes a new offence of "incitement".

Critics of the measure, including the civil rights group Liberty, claim it is so draconian as to make it an offence to help to organise a meeting to be addressed by someone who professes to belong to a proscribed organisation, even if the person is not really a member, and says nothing about the organisation.

Charles Clarke, the Home Office minister, said that what action might be taken against the proscribed groups was up to the police.

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