.

Transitional provisions subject to discussion
Executive presidency will go

The constituents of the People’s Alliance have decided that the executive presidency will be abolished as promised in 1994 and provided for in the constitutional reforms presented to parliament in October 1997, but transitional provisions will be discussed with other political parties, Justice, Constitutional Affairs and National Integration Minister G.L. Peiris said yesterday.

Prof. Peiris said that the discussions among the constituent parties of the PA on the new constitution were completed in the middle of last week and the first stage of the consultation is now over.

Stage 2 will begin this week when discussions will begin with the Tamil parties who have been invited to talks. They have been requested to bring two participants each for these meetings which analysts see as more difficult than the previous stage in the context of the complexity of the problem.

"The UNP is expected to come on board on February 14," the minister said. "We have been able to adhere to the time-frame that was set thus far."

Asked at what stage the LTTE will come into the process, the minister explained that the idea was to present the Tigers with a consensus of all the other parties including the Tamil parties "so that the prospects of implementation are significantly enhanced." The LTTE will therefore come in after the consultations with the UNP are concluded.

"They will join the process after the discussions with the UNP," the minister said. "The president is keen on a breakthrough of achieving a consensus with all the other parties to be presented to the LTTE."

Well informed political sources said that the present proportional representation (PR) electoral system will be retained for the next parliamentary election as a transitional measure.

The sub-committee on electoral reforms favours a fifty-fifty arrangement of parliamentary elections based on the German model with half the seats determined on the basis of territorial constituencies and the rest on PR.

These sources said that as there has been no national census for the past two decades, it would not be possible to have a Delimitation Commission to demarcate new constituencies just now. The sub-committee has therefore recommended that the delimitation be done after a national census next year.

No rest until Ranil is ousted from UNP leadership — Amunugama

by Shamindra Ferdinando
In the aftermath of last week’s Supreme Court decision to quash the expulsion of UNP dissidents, the leading rebel and the Special Assignment Minister Dr. Sarath Amunugama yesterday said that they would not rest until UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe steps down from the leadership.

Gampaha district parliamentarian and perhaps the senior most UNP MP Wijeyapala Mendis has already announced his candidature for the party’s top post. Wijeyapala Mendis last week wrote to party seniors revealing his intention of challenging Wickremesinghe’s leadership.

Former party General Secretary and a strong critic of Wickremesinghe, Sirisena Cooray too said that the party was facing a leadership crisis and there was a need to take measures to correct the situation. However, he did not want to go into details.

"We are confident of forcing him out of the leadership," minister Amunugama said unless he leaves honourably. His ouster, the minister claimed would help the party to effect crucial changes in the party constitution and re-build the organisation, reeling under a series of electoral defeats in the past five years.

Amunugama said that they intended to aggressively campaign for drastic changes in the party constitution that allows the party leader to act like a dictator and appoint his "people" to the decision making Working Committee.

That committee, Amunugama said had been packed with the leader’s friends who haven’t done a thing for the party except for giving wrong advice and taking the leadership up the garden path.

Asked whether he intends to visit Sirikotha, Amunugama pointed out that Wickremesinghe’s supporters could not prevent them from going there. "We are free to go there whenever we want," he said pointing out that the Supreme Court decision paved the way for that.

An aide to Wickremesinghe yesterday said that the party would discuss the situation caused by the Supreme Court decision when the Parliamentary Group and the Working Committee meet in a joint session on Monday afternoon.

Amunugama said that the party could not prevent the rebels from attending that meeting if they want to attend as the Supreme Court had declared that their expulsion was invalid, for the want of procedural propriety.

The aide said that the party has no alternative but to take fresh disciplinary action against the dissidents and ensure that they don’t come back and upset ongoing efforts to prepare for the parliamentary election scheduled to take place within the next six and half months.

UNP National List MP and legal expert K. N. Choksy was not available for comment.

Kalpage to seek restoration of UNP membership

Prof. Stanley Kalpage who did not contest his expulsion from the UNP alongside five party MPs who risked their seats will write to the UNP to restore his party membership in the light of last week’s Supreme Court decision.

``I will write and ask for my membership. It is only right that it be restored in the light of the court decision,’’ he said.

Kalpage who was a member of the UNP working committee joined five party MPs in supporting President Kumaratunga at the last election. A former ambassador and a senior official in the UNP administration from 1977 - 1994, he has also been a senator during the Dudley Senanayake government of 1965.

Negotiations with LTTE should not hamper strengthening of armed forces - Senior officers

By Shamindra Ferdinando
Current efforts to bring in the LTTE and the government back to the negotiating table must not upset the ongoing programmes aimed at strengthening the armed forces with more men and material, senior officers said last week. They pointed out that failure to enlist more men, acquire arms, ammunition and equipment thus boosting the forces and then continue with planned combined forces operations to keep the LTTE at bay would be disastrous.

‘The war effort should not be neglected," a senior officer said pointing out that while politicians in Colombo talk peace, terrorists continue to conscript hundreds of recruits, mostly students of both sexes to strengthen their depleted units.

Army headquarters on January 27 announced a five week long recruitment drive beginning February 1 to enlist 15,000 more youth to fight the LTTE. Senior officers admit privately that it would not be an easy task to recruit 15,000 even at peace time. However, government’s position that it would not resort to conscription had angered at least a section of the armed forces which believes that compulsory military service should help to raise the fighting strength to suitable levels.

Army Commander Lieutenant General Srilal Weerasuriya had repeatedly said that there would not be peace without crushing the LTTE’s military power. Weerasuriya and Chief of Staff Major General Lionel Balagalle told a press conference on January 27 that youth are needed to join the battle against the LTTE and bring peace to the country.

Officers said that both the ruling party and opposition should join hands to encourage the youth to come forward and serve the motherland. They point out that every time the headquarters, after consultations with the government mounts an ambitious programme to recruit youth, they don’t get any backing from politicians. "They must be involved in this," another officer said adding that all these peace talks, so called peace marches and satyagrayas have a negative impact on "everything we are trying to achieve."

The government, he said should distance itself from people trying to change its policy with regard to the LTTE and fresh negotiations. The government has so far resisted calls for international mediation [third party]. However, the peace lobby, defence sources said continue to press ahead with calls for third party mediation.

The former Indian premier Inder kumar Gujral who was here last week told the Colombo based Indian journalists that India remains on the position that the Sri Lanka’s North East problem is an internal issue. In the recent past Norway has increased its interests in the North East problem with a view to bringing the government and the LTTE back to the negotiating table.

However, the government, The Sunday Island learns is divided over these moves with a number of senior leaders pointing out that peace could not be achieved unless the forces manages to weaken the LTTE’s military capability.

LTTE frogman killed in Trinco harbour

The navy in the early hours of Friday killed an LTTE frogman probably on a suicide mission to blast Chinese built SLN Shakthi anchored at the Trincomalee harbour, senior security officials said.

Although the vessel carrying men and material from Trincomalee to Kankesanthurai had left the harbour on the afternoon of the previous day, the suicide cadre had entered the harbour without knowing the early departure of the ship.

The terrorist appeared to have been caught up in an underwater blast triggered off by naval units deployed to combat frogmen sent on destructive missions. Small groups of Navy personnel patrol the outer harbour and regularly conduct underwater explosions as part of the defences in place against possible attacks by frogmen on suicide missions.

Later, navy divers searched the area and found the lower body part of the frogman. The sources said that if he managed to breach the outer defences of the harbour and found out that Shakthi had left he would have definitely engaged some other vessel. There had been a number of other vessels, both military and civilian at the time of the frogman was caught up in the blast engineered by the navy.

LTTE frogmen had targeted vessels anchored both at Trincomalee and Colombo harbours. The most destructive infiltration took place on April 1995 when frogmen blew up two Chinese built gunboats at Trincomalee killing over a dozen officers and men.(SF)

Some Orient Club members seek special general meeting

A section of the membership of an old, prestigious but somnolent Orient Club has suddenly woken up like Rip Van Winkle and discovered that nothing has been done by them to rectify serious lapses in its financial management.

They have called for a special general meeting later this month to determine what action be taken in respect of a cash shortage of Rs. 25O,866.53 and an amount of Rs. 124,3O5.59 of "rubber" cheques issued by members which they claim are "fictitious assets", shown under current assets in the books of the club.

The institution is one of the few social clubs that is a limited liability company and all members are shareholders.

The now alert shareholders (or members) have also realised that Rs. 325,OOO has been written off in the income and expenditure account in the year ended March 31, 1998. Although this item appeared in the audited balance sheet of the company for 1997, it had gone unnoticed at the annual general meeting that year. They now want details of this write off be furnished to all members.

Since these financial lapses have been commented upon by the accountants of the company in an investigative report, some shareholders are of the view that these matters be brought to the notice of the Registrar of Companies and CID called in to check for possible fraud.

Upali Group founder remembered

Elaborate arrangements on an islandwide scale are being made by members of the public, sales agents and employees of Upali Group of Companies to commemorate the 17th anniversary of the disappearance of Mr. Upali Wijewardene, the Founder Chairman of Upali Group and others which falls on February 13.

The event will be commemorated by holding various religious ceremonies like Buddha poojas, sil and meditation campaigns in temples in both urban and rural areas.

Besides arrangements are being made to offer alms to the Maha Sangha and scholarships to needy children. At Kelaniya Raja Maha Vihare where one of the biggest commemoration ceremonies is scheduled to be held, the presentation of scholarships at 10 a.m. to five needy students of Helena Wijewardene Vidyalaya by the present Chairman of the Upali Group, Dr. Sivali H. Ratwatte.

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Employees of Upali Trading Company will provide meals the same afternoon to the inmates of the Boys’ Town Orphanage, Ja-Ela. There will be a series of religious ceremonies at the Kelaniya Raja Maha Vihara the same night.

They will include mal pahan and gilampasa poojas, religious discussions and a sermon.

Other venues where such ceremonies will be held with the participation of members of the public, directors, employees and agents of Upali Newspapers Ltd., Upali Trading Co. Ltd., Upali Electronic Co., Ltd. Upali Food and Beverages Ltd. are as follows:

Sri Dalada Maligawa Kandy, Sri Maha Bodhi Vihara Anuradhapura, Vajiraramaya Bambalapitiya, Attanagalla Raja Maha Vihara, Sapugoda Vihara Kamburupitiya, Sri Vishnu Maha Vihara Devinuwara, Senanayaka Aramaya Madampe, Mutiyangana Raja Maha Vihara Badulla, Katupota Raja Maha Vihara Wariyapola, Sri Saman Devala Ratnapura, Tissa Raja Maha Vihara Tissamaharama, Situlpauwa Raja Maha Vihara Situlpauwa, Kalutara Maha Bodhiya, Kalutara Purwaramaya Horana, Yatagala Raja Maha Vihara Galle, Munneswaram Kovil Chilaw, Getambe Raja Maha Vihara, Kandy, Sedawatta Veragoda Purana Maha Vihara Sedawatta.

On February 19, special pinkamas will also be held at the Sankapala Vihare, Makandana, Piliyandala and at the Sri Sumangala Vihare, Ampiligala, Horana.

On February 17, there will be Holy Mass at 9 a.m. at St. Lucia’s Cathedral, Colombo 13.

Two drug addicts arrested over Narahenpita businessman’s death

By Kalinga Weerakkody
Two drug addicts were arrested by the Crime Detective Bureau (CDB) last Thursday in connection with the strangling of millionaire businessman Samarawickrema Liyanage Somachandra (53). He was found dead at his palatial house at Narahenpita on January 8.

CDB Director, SSP Bandula Wickremesinghe said that the victim was the owner of ‘Empire Motor Stores’ at Panchikawatte.

The suspects in their mid 2Os are from Dabarewatte in Narahenpita. They had allegedly confessed that they entered the victim’s house and demanded Rs. 15,OOO. He had told them he didn’t have such an amount of money at that point of time and given them Rs. 8O, police said.

The duo had then threatened the victim at knife point and through fear he had given them Rs. 5OOO, police said.

Police believe that the two drug addicts had killed the businessman fearing that he would identify them. They had then forcibly taken the victim to his bed and attempted to tie his arms and legs with wires. In the struggle he had fallen to the floor. At that time one suspect, had placed his foot on the victim’s neck and pressed it hard. After that the two intruders had removed the wires and had laid the lifeless body on the bed and covered it with a bedsheet to mislead the police, SSP Wickremesinghe said.

Millionaires scarce - according to income tax returns

Despite money having dramatically lost value in recent years and conspicuous consumption becoming increasingly evident, Sri Lanka has less than 1,500 millionaires in income terms according to the latest published figures of the Commissioner General of Inland Revenue.

The 1998 Administration Report of the Commissioner General has stated that there are 1,352 resident individuals with an assessable income of between Rs. 1 million and Rs. 5 million and 122 people with assessable income of over Rs. 5 million.

Where non-resident individuals are concerned, there are 70 people with incomes of between Rs. 1 to 5 million and 5 with incomes of over Rs. 5 million.

The Commissioner General has published a list of 76 persons on whom penalties of over Rs. 25,000 and over had been imposed under terms of the Inland Revenue Act. The largest penalty imposed was Rs. 231,229.

The vast majority of resident taxpayers on a roll, excluding pay-as-you-earn (PAYE) employees, is incredibly small at 71,243 at the end of 1998. PAYE registrations total 176,516 and Rs. 4.5 billion in taxes was collected from this sector.

Resident persons with an annual income exceeding Rs. 144,000 are liable to inocme tax.

Among the 70,000 plus taxpayers with income tax files, the most numerous are those in the income category of Rs. 1 lakh and Rs. 150,000 (12,432) and those with assessable incomes of Rs. 1.5 lakhs and Rs. 2 lakhs (13,571).

The Administration Report reveals that the total revenue collected by the department in 1998 was Rs. 95.5 billion of which Rs. 31.7 billion comprised Goods and Services Taxes (GST) of which Rs. 7.8 million was refunded on account of deferred taxes. The net collection was therefore Rs. 87.7 billion.

GST yielded the lion’s share of taxes collected amounting to 32.99% of the total. The National Security Levy followed with a contribution of 22.2% Income tax came third with 20.72%.

Of income tax collected, corporate taxation yielded 59% and non-corporate taxes the balance.

Over 92% of income tax collected was on the basis of self-assessment yielding Rs. 18.5 billion while official assessment comprised 5.2% netting Rs. 1.1 billion.

Mendis throws hat into the ring

Mr. Wijeyapala Mendis, MP, who has announced a bid for the party leadership requesting that "all modalities be initiated without delay for the conducting of an election for the post of leader of the UNP for which I have announced my candidature."

Mendis who described himself as a UNP member since 1948 and one of its longest serving active members who has held high political office as a cabinet minister and served subsequently as chief opposition whip, said that he had contributed much to the party he served for the greater part of his life.

Saying that he cannot remain indifferent when the UNP had hit its lowest point in recent times under Wickremesinghe’s leadership, he said that he had decided to accede to the requests from UNP MPs, other elected representatives and members of the party and offer himself as a candidate for party leadership.

He has said in his letter that Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe’s defeat at the presidential election by over 700,000 votes was the eleventh successive defeat the UNP has faced under his leadership. The defeat at the presidential election last December is of ‘’singular importance because it established that the vast majority of the people of Sri Lanka do not want to entrust the leadership of the country to him."

The result of the last election had exposed a fundamental flaw in the projection of the UNP and its future by Wickremesinghe which was rejected by the voters, particularly rural people demonstrating that the UNP had lost its rural base and support carefully built over the years.

Ordinarily in democratic parties the leader who loses a major election offers to step down or is replaced affording the party the opportunity of electing a new leader who can lead it back to power. The UNP has followed this practice, the late Mr. Gamini Dissanayake successfully challenging Wickremesinghe, the defeated prime ministerial candidate, for the deputy leadership of the party in 1994.

"I note that although there have been repeated calls for Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe to step down as leader of the party, he has failed to respond favourably in the spirit of democracy," Mendis has said. He further said that there had been no denial to date by Wickremesinghe of allegations of sabotaging the presidential election campaign of the party candidate in 1994.

Additional funds for mine clearing project

Australia and Netherlands have pledged additional financial assistance to the ongoing United Nations Development Programme [UNDP] project to clear mines buried in selected areas of the Jaffna peninsula, officials said yesterday.

The signing of agreements with regard to additional funding will take place Tuesday [8] at the UN office, Bauddhaloka Mawatha.

The project launched in July 1999 suffered a setback in late last year when a member of the Harare headquartered Mine Tech firm was wounded in an accidental blast of a mine. However, work resumed a couple of weeks ago with Mine Tech increasing the number of de-miners in Jaffna by a further 16 personnel.

UNDP’s Information Officer Ms Lisa Hiller recently said that over 600 mines had been removed so far. The de-miners remove mines detected in residential areas and other places used by the civilian community while making off large areas that are identified as mine fields. - [SF]

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Provision for a Delimitation Commission in the new Constitution?

By Franklin. R. Satyapalan
A sub-committee of parliamentarians, officials and experts have recommended that provisions be made for a Delimitation Commission in the new Constitution that is now being drafted.

The sub-committee appointed by the president comprises Ministers Kingsley. T. Wickremaratne, Sarath Amunugama, Nanda Mathew, R. Yogarajan (CWC), Rauf Hakeem (SLMC), Prof. Tissa Vitharane (LSSP), M. I. Mohideen (SLMC), Raja Collure (CP), Prof. Kingsley Fernando, Prof. V. K. Samaranayake, Defence Secretary Chandrananda de Silva (a former Commissioner of Elections) and K. Balapatabendi, Secretary to the President.

Well informed sources said that the original drafting to make Sri Lanka a ‘’Union of Regions" has been modified to read ‘’Sri Lanka will comprise of Regions within a united Sri Lanka."

The sub-committee has said that the Delimitation Commission should carve out multimember constituencies and smaller electorates to give adequate representation to minorities and communities of interest.

It suggests that preference voting be eliminated and the voter given an opportunity of choosing both the parties and candidates at constituency and national level.

The sub-committee has recommended a second chamber to accommodate meaningful devolution and prevent legislation be enacted affecting interests of minority political groups and political and other interest groups.

The executive committee of the PA will be asked to determine the number of members in the National Parliament and the Senate which will be the second chamber.

RCGC murder suspect slain
Constable unlucky to be in lieutenant’s double cab says PA MP

by Shamindra Ferdinando
Police yesterday said that they have so far not made any headway into last Thursday night’s killing of reserve police constable P. B. Susantha and Lieutenant Wickrema Indika Dinesh de Silva near a filling station at Kotikawatte. Lieutenant de Silva, an accused in the Royal Colombo Golf Club murder case[killing of former Royal College cricketer S.S.Kumar a few years ago] had been shot in the head.

However, last week’s killings had not been linked to the Golf Club murder case, police said.

But PA MP [Colombo] Bharatha Lakshman Premachandra last night claimed that the constable, one of the two personnel allocated by Wellampitiya police for guard duty at his Wellampitiya residence had not been the target of the Thursday’s attack. "He was killed because he was with de Silva," Premachandra said adding that the policeman had got into the double cab numbered 54-8840 driven by the army officer after handing over his weapon to the Wellampitiya police station.

The vehicle had come under pistol fire near the filling station. The victims had made an abortive bid to get out of the vehicle and flee. But gunmen believed to be armed with 9mm pistols had fired at them at point blank range killing both on the spot.

He scotched speculation that de Silva had been among his personal bodyguards. "Indika used to visit my home," Premachandra said revealing that he was introduced to the army officer by the late deputy minister Y.P. de Silva.He was the son of the late minister’s wife’s brother, Premachandra said adding that the attack was definitely a contract killing.

He said the double cab in which Susantha and Indika were travelling did not belong to him. The police have not so far sought to speak with the MP regarding the incident.

Premachandra said that the constable was scheduled to join the Ministerial Security Division [MSD] on his recommendation in a few days time. Premachandra said that there was no truth in claims that the attack was mounted thinking he was travelling in it. This has nothing to do with me or the police constable who happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time.

Tamil parties invited to put forward proposals for constitutional reform

By Franklin R. Satyapalan
Tamil political parties TULF, EPDP, DPLF and TELO have been invited by Secretary to President Kusumsiri Balapa-tabendi to put forward their proposals for constitutional reforms to PA’s committee on preparing draft of new proposed constitutional reforms at Temple Trees next Tuesday.

The parties looked forward to a copy of the present draft of constitutional reforms before next Tuesday’s meeting and TULF vice President Ananda Sangari was hoping that they would receive copy of draft early today for discussions at the party’s central committee meeting tonight.

The constituent member committee on constitutional reforms included UNP’s alternate group led by Minister of Special Subjects Dr. Sarath Amunugama and also included CWC delegation led by Minister Arumugam Thon-daman met several times presided over by President Chandrika Kumaratunga at Temple Trees last fortnight.

PAs main committee on the preparing the draft of new constitutional reforms included PA General Secretary Minister D. M. Jayaratne, SLFP General Secretary Minister Dharmasiri Senanayake and Ministers G. L. Peiris, Ratnasiri Wickremanayake, Batty Weerakoon, M. H. M. Ashraff, Dr. Sarath Amunugama, Nanda Mathew and LSSP’s Prof. Tissa Vithana, CP’s Raja Collure, SLMP’s Somapala Kandavin-na, and M. Isath, SLMC General Secr-etary and Deputy Chairman of Parlia-mentary Sub Committees Rauf Hakeem, MP M. M. Zuhair, DVJP General Secretary P. M. Podiappuhamy and D. Kalansuriya and CWC leader and Minister Arumugam Thondaman and MPs P. P. Devaraj and R. Yogarajan.

The other sub committee on developing Colombo into a territorial city similar to New Delhi and Washington DC was led by Minister Indika Gunawardena submitted its report for the cabinet paper.

The PA’s Executive Committee had completed discussions on subjects as state, parliament, executive and legislative powers, judiciary, devolution of power and electoral reforms system securing the identity of small parties and nature of units was to meet the UNP led by Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe around mid February and discuss among other matters the UNP’s proposals for independent elections, public services and police commissions.

Killing of Kumar Ponnambalam
Police seek public assistance to trace get away vehicle of assailants

by Kalinga Weerakkody
Police probing the slaying of All Ceylon Tamil Congress (ACTC) leader Kumar Ponnambalam last month, are seeking public assistance to trace a black coloured Isuzu Trooper jeep, which they believe the assailants had used to carry out the shooting.

Crime Detective Bureau (CDB) Director, SSP Bandula Wickremesinghe told ‘The Sunday Island’ yesterday that according to information given by an eye witness, the two gunmen are suspected to be members of a Tamil militant group.

SSP Wickremesinghe said that the CDB will be, in due course, releasing to the media sketches portraying the features of the two assailants.

According to the eye witness, both men had been attired in trousers and bush shirts and wearing slippers. While one of them had been seated on the front seat with the victim, the other had been leaning onto the stationary Mercedes Benz from the right side of the half opened shutter where police suspect the shooting had taken place.

After the killing, the duo had walked very calmly towards Vivekananda road through a by-road where police suspect the get-away Trooper jeep was parked. Simultaneously, an annonymous caller had informed Wellawatte police that a suspicious vehicle had been parked near in the vicinity, SSP Wickremesinghe said. He said if that particular neighbour who telephoned the police that day is in a position to give the number of the particular vehicle, it can be conveyed to the nearest police station or to the CDB on numbers 685152/693173.

The ACTC leader was shot dead while driving his car at Wellawatte by an unidentified gunman. It was revealed that the suspect gunman had visited Ponnambalam at his home at Queen’s road in the morning of the day he was shot dead.

Plan to clear backlog of university admissions

Faculty of Science, University of Peradeniya, has launched a programme to clear the backlog of University admissions. The following arrangements have now been made to admit the 1999/2000 batch early according to a Press release by Prof. R. P. Gunawardena, Dean of the Faculty:

• The Placement Test of the Intensive Course in English for the new entrants to the Faculty of Science will be held at 1.00 p.m. on Wednesday, 9th February 2000. All students should report to the Faculty by 12.30 p.m. on this day with the national identity card and the letter of admission. Letters have already been posted to all the students in this regard.

• The Intensive Course in English along with the introductory courses of the Science subjects will commence on 14th February, 2000.

• Please note that the Placement Test and the Intensive Course in English are compulsory for all students entering the Faculty of Science.

• The new entrants are requested to arrange their own accommodation during the period of the Intensive Course in English.

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Public telephone booths vandalised by vested interests?

By Suresh Perera
The country’s network of public telephone booths are taking a heavy battering from vandals and other elements with vested interests who attempt to hack into the system to disrupt services, telecommunication sources said.

Damaged or malfunctioning phone booths, the handiwork of these destructive forces, have posed a problem to their operators, who not only incur additional expenditure for repairs and replacements, but also suffer loss of revenue, the sources said.

‘This is a problem which cannot be eradicated. We can only try to minimise it’, says Priyantha Talwatte, General Manager (Business Sector), Tritel Services Pvt. Ltd.

‘Drug addicts are also contributing to this unhealthy trend by ripping out whatever they can sell for scrap value’, he said.

Tritel, a Rs. 500 million, Malaysian-owned BOI company, is a key player in the field, operating over 1,400 coin and card booths in various parts of the country, including the North-East.

Talwatte charged that certain operators of ‘communication centres’ were also behind attempts to short-circuit the system, employing devious methods. Kerosene and coconut oil had been found poured into the telephones in some booths in a bid to put them out of commission.

‘Call booths in isolated locations are more prone to vandalism. We expect this continuous effort to ease off after some time. Developing a civic-minded approach will help to overcome this problem as not only public phones, but all public utility services suffer as a result of vandalism’, he noted.

Tritel which commenced operations in July 1997 also markets ‘Sandeshaya’, an international calling card, operates a Voice Mail facility and runs two cybercafes in Colombo.

Local people, particularly in the outstations, have been recruited to service, maintain and look after these phone booths, the General Manager said.

In what could be described as ‘misguided creativity’, Talwatte displayed a range of perforated coins tied with thin nylon cord which had been used by insidious elements in abortive attempts to ‘trick the system’ and make calls free of charge. As they were obviously ignorant of how the set-up works, the coins and other improvised devices had been absorbed leaving no room for retrieval. Some of the objects found had been inserted to jam the network.

‘Whether in good times or bad, a public phone is an asset which should be protected’, said Asoka Gunasekera, Director, Lanka Pay Phones Ltd.

‘Whatever the emergency may be, it’s the pay phone that’s at hand at any time of the night. It’s a saviour and hence, has to be looked after,’ he stressed.

As the Secretary, Posts and Telecommunications Ministry at one time, Gunasekera said, he created an effective awareness campaign in this regard.

‘It’s a pity to see certain people ‘massacring the network’ by using telephone posts to tie flags during funerals and put up decorations and banners when political rallies are held’, he lamented.

SLT says sorry: no comment says directory publishers

Directories Lanka (Pvt) Ltd., (DLPL) the official directory publishers of the Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT) last week refused to comment on the delay in the delivery of the Greater Colombo Telephone Directory 2000.

‘We wish to refrain from making comments at this point of time’, said Suresh Fernandez, Director, DLPL.

In a Press notification, SLT ‘sincerely apologised’ to its subscribers for any inconvenience caused by the delay in the supply of the Greater Colombo directory 2000 by DLPL, its official publishers.

‘The directory distribution scheduled for January 29, 2000 has been shifted to February 21, 2000 due to this delay’, stated the media notice published last Tuesday.

‘The new collection procedures will remain unchanged, except that customers will now be required to forward their paid up January bill to collect the directory’, SLT said.

In a similar Press notification, DLPL apologised to SLT and its customers for any inconvenience caused due to the delay on its part.

The directory, it said, will not be available to the public from January 29, 2000, as planned. (Suresh)

Three Lankan schools participate in US sponsored IT project

Colombo, 3 February 2000 — In 1999 the United States government provided a grant to the International Education and Resource Network (I*EARN) to fund a six-country civic education project using computers, email and other basic elements of modern information technology. Sri Lanka, along with Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, India and Pakistan, is a participant in this cutting-edge educational experiment.

"Community Voices, Collaborative Solutions" (CIVICS) is the name of the project in which three Sri Lankan schools are participating. Working closely with the American Center in Colombo, special workshop for teachers were held last week at Isipathana College with participants from both Isipathana and Royal College and are currently underway at Nivaththaka Chethiya Maha Vidyalaya, Anuradhapura. These schools were chosen because of their interest and the electronic facilities they could make available to the I*EARN pilot project. Ideally, these schools could serve as models for other Sri Lankan school programs.

The Anuradhapura project is especially significant since the school only recently acquired its computer facilities — the result of efforts by the Lanka Academic Network (LAcNet), which is working in coordination with I*EARN and will provide the school with logistical and technical support for the school‘s new computer lab.

I*EARN helps teachers answer the question "Now what?" after they are connected to the Internet, by providing useful global connections and curriculum-based content. Anyone interested in learning more about I*EARN may contact the organization through their website - www.iearn.org —(USIS).

French ambassador hails work of George Keyt Foundation

‘Ever since I arrived in Sri Lanka, almost four years ago, it has been an honour and a pleasure for me to have been associated with the George Keyt Foundation’s endeavours to preserve and promote the visual arts in Sri Lanka. It’s a noble and essential mission to which my friends Sita and Cedric de Silva have devoted their time with cheerful energy and modest generosity’, observed French ambassador, Ms. Elisabeth Dahan at the opening of the ‘Kala Pola 2000’ recently. She further said;

‘’I have travelled up and down and across this beautiful island, and I have heard repeatedly the message that the ruins of Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa, the cave paintings of Sigiriya, and of so many famous or secret temples, whisper to us.

They tell us about the fragility of our individual and collective enterprises, they tell us about the vanity of power and of glory, and they tell us too about the eternity of art. They tell us that when all is said and done, when kingdoms have collapsed and civilisations have changed almost beyond recognition, a stroke of paint on a wall or on a carved column is enough to put us in touch with the people of the past, and to remind us that in spite of their imperfections, in spite of their vices and crimes, in spite of the absurd wars they waged, and the petty ambitions they nourished, still they had a feeling for beauty; they craved for it as we still do, and they sometimes managed to express it with exquisite elegance. And it is this craving and this creative gift that can make us proud or at least less ashamed of being human, when we are daily surrounded with so much proof of our collective cruelty and stupidity. In Art is the protest that from the depths of our souls, we oppose the forces of destruction and terror, of ugliness and corruption. It is the saving grace that makes life worthwhile after all. This grace is present here in Kala Pola.

All the more so because of the unpretentiousness, and cheerful simplicity of this market of shapes and colours. Here creation is not caught in the nets of snobbishness, it is not imprisoned in the glass coffins of museum categories, it is alive in its diversity. It grows from the pavement, it flows in the street, it overflows into the trivial decor of our daily routine. It tells us that there is another side to life, that the streets instead of being the prey of diesel fumes, and the soiled arenas for senseless races or sometimes barbaric violence and permeated sacrifice, can become again the joyful path towards more awareness of what the world and our fellow human beings have to offer.

Thank you to the George Keyt Foundation, and to all the artists present today, for providing us with this joyful antidote to the bitter poison of human folly. Thank you for the hopes they sow in our hearts on the dawn of this new century.’’

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