Embargo relaxed as truce begins
By Chris Kamalendran
Security forces commanders yesterday issued detailed instructions to troops
on how to observe the month-long 'cessation of hostilities' from midnight
tomorrow while the government finalise plans to relax the trade embargo
imposed on uncleared areas.
Military spokesman Sanath Karunaratne told The Sunday Times troops were
under orders to halt offensive, ambush or cordon-and-search operations
after the Wickremesinghe government on Friday agreed to observe a month
long cessation of hostilities in response to a similar declaration made
by the LTTE.
"Troops have been told not to engage in activities that might provoke
the enemy. But in case the LTTE provokes the soldiers, we will have the
right to respond," Brig. Karunaratne said.
In the north and east, the LTTE was also reported to be making its own
arrangements to maintain the truce and was likely to call for international
monitors.
Meanwhile, the government has set up a special unit in Vavuniya headed
by District Secretary K. Ganesh to oversee the distribution of food and
medicine in uncleared areas.
The District Secretary early this week made a visit to the LTTE controlled
area where he had met LTTE members.
Rehabilitation Minister Jayalath Jayawardena told The Sunday Times that
as an immediate measure they would relax restriction on certain items such
as kerosene, biscuits, canned fish, photocopy papers and printing material.
He said the government was also studying the situation regarding other
items which had been totally banned. These include motorcycles, motor vehicles,
generators, water pumps, vehicle batteries, outboard motors, diving equipment,
typewriters, Roneo machines, photocopy machines, printing machines, video
equipment, cameras, medicines, fertilizer and agro chemicals.
In a related development , Dr. Jayewardena had a detailed discussion
with the Kilinochchi District Secretary E. Ayathurai about the displaced
people and the supply of dry rations to the uncleared areas.
The Government has decided to lift fishing restrictions in the north
and east. The previous limit of two nautical miles has been increased to
five nautical miles while the engine power of boats has been increased
from eight horse power to 10 horse power.
Meanwhile, Tamil National Alliance leader R. Sampanthan said yesterday
they had met the prime minister on Friday and he had promised to expedite
matters relating to the lifting of the economic embargo, travel and fishing
restrictions.
He said they hoped to continue the dialogue with Mr. Wickremesinghe
after he returned from India.
Ranil arrives for talks with Indian leaders
Dinith Karunaratne reporting from New Delhi
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe arrived in New Delhi last night for
talks with Indian leaders following a meeting in Chennai with Tamil Nadu
former Chief Minister and AIADMK leader Jayalalitha Jeyaram.
The meeting with Ms. Jeyaram took place during a two-hour stopover in
Chennai.
Mr. Wickremesinghe is expected to seek India's assistance for the now-stalled
Norwegian-facilitated peace initiatives with the LTTE.
He will explain his own approach to the 20-year-old northern insurgency
in Sri Lanka and outline his stance for a negotiate settlement with the
LTTE. Mr. Wickreme-singhe will hold preliminary talks today with Home Minister
L. K. Advani and External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh before he meets
Premier Atal Behari Vajpayee. He will also meet Congress Party leader Sonia
Gandhi and other Indian leaders.
Foreign Minister Tyronne Fernando who is accompanying the premier told
The Sunday Times the Sri Lankan government was keen to revive the Norwegian
peace process and stressed that the Colombo government would decide on
what course of action it would take after the talks in New Delhi.
Christmas in London for CBK
President Chandrika Kumaratunga has left for Britain to spend the Christmas
vacation with her two children who are residing there, Presidential Secretariat
sources said.
Last year, too, the President spent her Chrismas vacation in London.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's visit to India has
raised questions as to who is the acting head of state in the absence of
the President and the Premier.
Criminal defamation to be repealed in Feb.
The new United National Front Government will repeal criminal defamation
laws by February next year, highly placed sources told The Sunday Times
on Friday.
The decision to repeal the obnoxious 19th century law has been granted
high priority in the new Government's efforts to redefine the role of the
country's media and will be placed on top of the parliamentary agenda when
the Legislature reconvenes on January 8, 2002.
Publishers, editors and journalists from nearly every non-state independent
national media organisation were indicted by the previous People's Alliance
Government on charges of criminal defamation during the past seven years,
triggering an international outcry from global media and human rights groups
to have the law repealed.
The Colombo Declaration on Media Freedom and Social Responsibility (1998)
signed by the Newspaper Society of Sri Lanka, The Editors Guild of Sri
Lanka and the Free Media Movement supported by the Paris- based World Association
of Newspapers, the London- based Commonwealth Press Union, Article 19 ,
the New York- based Committee for the Protection of Journalists, and the
Vienna- based International Press Institute urged the PA Government to
stop using criminal defamation laws to harass journalists and called for
the repeal of the law.
Several local and international media and civil liberties groups lobbied
an all-party Parliamentary select committee appointed by the previous Government
to implement media law reforms, but the committee headed by former media
minister Mangala Samaraweera folded up without making any recommendations.
An earlier media committee appointd by one-time PA media minister Dharmasiri
Senanayake and headed by senior constitutional lawyer R.K.W. Goonasekera
also recommended changes to criminal defamation laws, but the then Government
ignored its recommendations and instead opted to vigourously enforce the
law.
In August 2000, Prime Minister Ranil Wickreme-singhe as Leader of the
Opposition moved a private member's motion calling for the repeal of criminal
defamation laws among other issues enhancing media freedom. The motion
was seconded by ex-LSSP MP Vasudeva Nanayakkara, but Parliament was dissolved
before the motion was put to vote.
The new Government's decision to repeal the law comes in the wake of
a decision to liberalise state advertising to private media without making
it a monopoly of state media.
The Sunday Times learns that the Government will next move for the independent
audit of circulation, listener and viewer figures of newspapers, radio
and television to distribute state advertising among media organisations.
Kandy carnage: vigilante group detains suspects
By Shane Seneviratne
The Udatalawinna massacre — the bloodiest incident in the most violent
election campaign — has taken another bizarre turn with two of the suspects
being held, handcuffed and blindfolded, not by the police but by a secret
group.
The Sunday Times learns that the two suspects, an Army corporal and
a sergeant, are being grilled and moved from place to place as a precaution.
The vigilante group has indicated it will release the suspects to the
police after full information is obtained to expose the full story behind
the massacre in which ten supporters of the SLMC were brutally gunned down
when they were escorting a bus transporting ballot boxes to the counting
centre.
The vigilante group had indicated that it took this illegal action of
abducting and detaining the two suspects because the group feared there
was an attempt at covering up the massacre.
The Sunday Times learns that one of the soldiers is believed to have
been directly involved and was the driver of the Defender jeep which followed
the victims and gunned them down. The other is believed to have driven
away another Defender vehicle which had been used in the massacre.
The Sunday Times learns that the group holding the two suspects includes
a top Central Province politician of the ruling party.
The two suspects had been taken in at Uthuwankanda in Mawanella while
they were driving two Defender vehicles and heading towards Colombo the
day after elections. They were blocked by a group of persons who had been
following them from Kandy.
According to reports, the suspects had earlier attempted to obtain curfew
passes for the two vehicles owned by the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC)
the day after elections. They had gone to the Kandy police for the passes
but they were turned down and the vigilante group is believed to have been
tipped off at that point.
The vehicles had proceeded towards Colombo without the pass, but had
been followed by the group who later took them into 'custody'.
The suspects were driven back to Kandy and the two vehicles had been
abandoned in a tea estate. The Theldeniya police later recovered the jeeps.
The two Defender vehicles had earlier been spotted near the Mahaiyawa
residence of former minister Anuruddha Ratwatte who has denied allegations
that he or his two sons Lohan and Chanuka were involved in the killings.
The damaged windscreen of one of the jeeps was reportedly found in Mr.
Ratwatte's house.
Dark days after bright Christmas
By Shelani Perera.
As a small Christmas offer, the Ceylon Electricity Board will not impose
power cuts tomorrow and on Christmas day.
Daily one hour power cuts will be reimposed on Wednesday and will be
extended to three hours daily from January.
Meanwhile, a CEB official said a 110 MW Kelanitissa power plant, hastily
declared open before the elections, was still on a test run. He said the
previous government had lifted the power cuts, claiming that additional
supplies could be obtained from Kelanitissa but that had not happened yet.
CEB Engineers Union leader Susantha Perera told The Sunday Times the
Board had been warned of the consequences when the power cuts were lifted
last month in the run up to the general elections.
Power and Energy Ministry's new secretary K.K.Y.W Perera told The Sunday
Times they were urgently moving to repair all generators.
He reiterated Minister Karu Jayasuriya's plea for all people to cooperate
by reducing the consumption of electricity.
Summit on despite Indo-Pak tension
KATHMANDU, Saturday (AFP) - A summit of South Asian leaders here early
next month will go ahead despite mounting tension between India and Pakistan
following an attack on parliament in New Delhi, the head of the regional
bloc said today.
Nihal Rodrigo, secretary general of the South Asian Association for
Regional Cooperation (SAARC), said he had personally received assurances
from Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari
Vajpayee and other leaders that they would attend the summit from January
4 to 6 in Kathmandu.
"In spite of the high tension building up in India-Pakistan political
relations after the December 13 terrorist attack on the Indian parliament
... I am fully confident that the SAARC summit will be held," Mr. Rodrigo
told AFP.
India on Thursday ruled out a summit between Mr. Vajpayee and Gen. Musharraf
in Kathmandu and the next day recalled its ambassador from Islamabad to
protest what it sees as Pakistani inaction against militant groups behind
the deadly attack on parliament.
Mr. Rodrigo said terrorism was "obviously" a pertinent issue for the
summit and would be discussed in Kathmandu as "it has been troubling almost
all the member countries of the SAARC."
But Mr. Rodrigo, a senior Sri Lankan diplomat, said the major achievement
of the upcoming summit will be the signing of two conventions, one against
the trafficking of women and children for prostitution and the other on
the welfare of children.
He said discussions would also continue on creating a South Asian Free
Trade Agreement (SAFTA).
The South Asian leaders will set a new deadline for the creation of
SAFTA, said the spokesman, Gyan Chand Acharya.
A SAARC source also said the regional leaders may discuss allowing Afghanistan
and Myanmar to join the bloc.
SAARC, formed in 1985, groups Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives,
Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
The bloc's 11th summit had been scheduled to take place in Nepal in
November 1999 but was put on hold due to bickering between India and Pakistan
after General Musharraf took power in a coup.
SAARC foreign ministers are due to arrive in Kathmandu in late December
and the countries' leaders will hold their summit from January 4 to 6.
Meanwhile in Colombo, President Chandrika Kumaratunga conferred with
Foreign Minister Tyronne Fernando on the issues to be taken up at the SAARC
summit during a meeting at President's House this week.
Former Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar who was also present at
the meeting declined an invitation by President Kumaratunga to participate
at the SAARC summit on the footing that it was the new foreign minister's
first meeting with regional leaders and counterparts and it was improper
for him (Mr. Kadirgamar) to be present on the occasion.
An official release from the Foreign Ministry states that the new minister
Tyronne Fernando will be handing over the chairmanship (of SAARC's Council
of Foreign Ministers) to the Nepali Prime Minister who is also the Foreign
Minister. |
