The Island News

COLOMBO, March 24 (AFP) — Sri Lanka’s separatist Tamil Tiger rebels have called for an internationally monitored ceasefire and a pull back of troops before entering Norwegian-aided peace talks, a Tamil paper said Friday.

The ideologue of the LTTE, Anton Balasingham, expressed skepticism over the Colombo government’s willingness to talk peace and described it as an attempt to buy time and modernise the army.

"We suspect that the present peace drama and the willingness to bring the LTTE to peace talks are exercise in political duplicity to gain time and space to rebuilt and modernise the Sri Lankan armed forces", he said.

Balasingham who is recuperating from a kidney transplant at a Norwegian hospital, was quoted in the London-based Tamil Guardian that both sides should confine combatants to barracks if talks are to begin.

However, Balasingham made it clear in his interview they were not prepared to enter negotiations "under conditions of continuous war.

"It is absurd to continue the war and continue to kill each other and talk peace".

His remarks came as the new Norwegian administration said it will press ahead with attempts to bring both the LTTE and the Colombo government to the negotiating table in a bid to end the island’s drawn out separatist conflict.

"We are not against the presence of troops but opposed to the occupation of troops in civilian habitations, in schools, in colleges of education, in holy temples, in cultural centres and in every street corner turning the Tamil towns into open prisons and causing tension and turmoil in Tamil civilian life", Balasingham said.

He said the government of President Chandrika Kumaratunga must agree to their proposal and begin a de-escalation by removing the "repressive conditions that would be a sufficient basis for peace talks".

Efforts to subdue the Tigers militarily and force them to negotiate would fail, Balasingham said.

"We know that the government holds the view that military repression and economic oppression are necessary conditions to subdue the Tamils and force the Tigers to come to the negotiating table.

"I think this policy is fundamentally wrong and will not lead to a peace process", he said.

He said the conflict could be de-escalated through disengagement by both LTTE forces and the Sri Lankan military, a cessation of hostilities and the confining of combatants to barracks under international monitoring.

"We suggest a practical program of disengagement, of cessation of hostilities or ceasefire under international monitoring and re-allocation of troops to barracks to end military occupation", he said.

There was no immediate reaction from the government of Kumaratunga who 10 days ago said there will be de-escalation as talks progress.

LTTE’s Anton Balasingham has claimed a British involvement in his arrival in London after leaving Mullaitivu secretly.

Balasingham, in an interview with the London based Tamil Guardian International recently said that he and his wife had to embark on a hazardous voyage across the Indian ocean and reach a South East Asian country from where they were able to reach London with the help of the British government.

This is first time the LTTE has admitted that London has been aware of the plan to move Balasinghams secretely out of Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka’s defence sources said that Balasingham has confirmed what they believed happened when the LTTE spokesman suddenly turned up in London.

The British High Commission in Colombo last year denied any prior knowledge of Balasinghams arrival in London. The High Commission said that as a British passport holder Balasingham is free to enter the UK.

However, Balasingham has now admitted that the British had helped the LTTE in carrying out the operation which ensured his arrival in London.

However, Swiss authorities in August last year declined to issue a visa to Balasingham to travel from London to Switzerland. The Swiss embassy in Colombo said that their London embassy would not have turned down Balasingham’s visa application without consulting the Swiss police.

by Chittaranjan de Silva and our Katunayake corr.
The death toll in Friday evening’s Antonov-12 cargo plane crash at Kadirana had risen to ten by yesterday after two more of the injured residents of the area succumbed to their injuries, hospital sources said.

Of the eight-member crew of seven Russians and one Sri Lankan, two Russians who were rescued from the wreckage and admitted to the Negombo base hospital, were subsequently transferred to the Colombo National Hospital, the sources said.

The Sri Lankan crew member killed in the crash has been identified as T. H. J. Gunesekera, a resident of Katunayake.

Director General, Civil Aviation, Lal Liyanarachchi said that the Russian co-pilot of the plane survived the crash, but he sustained injuries and is in a critical condition. His survival is important to the aviation authorities for purposes of the investigation.

The wreckage of the Antonov-12 cargo plane which crashed into a residential area at Kadirana near the Bandaranaike Inter-national Airport (BIA) on Friday evening. The aircraft was carrying a consignment of textiles from Bangkok when it crashed in bad weather. (Picture by Eranga Jayawardena)

"We tried to speak to him but he was not in good condition", Liyanarachchi said.

He said that the black box of the plane has been found, but it will take time to ascertain the cause of the crash because the pilot had been communicating in Russian.

"Machines to decipher the tapes in the black box are also needed and we are awaiting assistance from Russia," he added.

The Civil Aviation Department along with the police have launched investigations into the plane crash, Liyanarachchchi said.

The department will be investigating into the cause of the crash and will also be studying all possible avenues on how catastrophes of this nature could be prevented, he further said.

The police will investigate into the loss of life and the damage caused to property, he added.

The ill fated aircraft, owned by a Sri Lankan firm ‘Sky Cab Expo Aviation Company’, had been leased. It had made an attempt to land, but poor visibility due to bad weather conditions had aborted it. Probably, the plane crashed during the second attempt to land, Liyanarachchi said. Sky Cab Company declined to comment on the crash.

Four residents were killed and five houses at the site of the disaster were completely destroyed.

An old woman, a pregnant woman and a teenage boy were among those killed. The boy’s younger brother had sustained injuries.

Meanwhile, eyewitnesses said that the death toll from the disaster which flattened houses, would have been much higher if the crash had occurred at night. They said that most of the residents had not returned from work and had arrived home after the crash only to find that their homes were no more.

Though sources from the air control tower at Katunayake airport declined to give details, reports said that when the pilot had asked permission to land, he was asked by the control tower whether it was urgent. The pilot had said that it was not urgent and that he could wait a while.

The flight was scheduled to land at Katunayake airport at 4.30 p.m. the reports claimed. But after the AN-12 had asked permission to land, a Singaporean airliner had landed in adverse weather conditions amidst thunder and lightning, before the AN 12 crashed at about 6.00 p.m, the reports asserted.

Lloyd’s List, one of the world’s most respected shipping news publications, had undertaken a searching investigation into how the LTTE runs a fleet of general cargo ships and has published its findings in its "Insight and Opinion" column on March 20.

This report which says that while the Tigers’ convenience vessels spend much of their time on legitimate commercial work, "their real purpose is to provide a logistical capability to fuel a war that has claimed more than 50,000 lives."

"They also facilitate heroin smuggling and illegal immigration rackets that provide much of the finance for the struggle. Shipping is just a part of the bigger picture that includes stock and money market investments, real estate, restaurants, farms, shops and finance companies."

David Osler of Lloyd’s List who investigated Tigers’ shipping business has reported that because the Tiger vessels are legally owned and managed, classed and flagged, the paper has been able to piece many of the details of an intricate jigsaw together. Some of the vessels and associated companies have been named for the first time in its report.

The investigative report pieces together the Tiger shipping links and said that from a point of commanding only limited shuttle capability between India and Sri Lanka, the LTTE needed to ferry weapons supplies from such sources as North Korea and Myanmar and arms dealers in Europe and the Middle East and had progressed from ships charterers to shipowners in their own right.

The report says that Tiger vessels are believed to have carried consignments of heroin for resale on the streets of the developed world and also that a shipping base had been set up on a Thai island near the holiday resort of Phuket. An earlier naval base in the Myanmar island of Twante had been vacated in January 1996 following diplomatic pressure on Rangoon from Colombo, it said.

The report has followed shipowners histories and built up a picture of some of the Tigers shipping operations, tracing some of the vessels thought to have undertaken work for the Tigers.

It concludes with the history of some LTTE merchant vessels and asks the rhetorical questions: "Who controls the vessels now? How many others do the Tigers control? What missions have they undertaken? Do other insurgent movements also own fleets?"

Ceylon Tobacco Co Ltd (CTC) has announced that it was discontinuing all advertising of tobacco products in the print and electronic media with immediate effect under a wide ranging industry code of conduct it is introducing.

In addition to television, radio, cinema, newspaper and magazine advertising, the company said that advertising on billboards will be discontinued immediately. It will also cease sports sponsorships under its brand trademarks with immediate effect.

The company will continue to advertise its products at store level at outlets where cigarettes are sold, CTC said.

"The company has introduced this code of conduct to address public perceptions on tobacco advertising and to declare product information in line with international practice. It was doing so as a responsible company in an industry seen as controversial,’’ a news release said.

"Ceylon Tobacco is firmly of the view that cigarettes should not be sold to anybody under 18-years of age and restricts its marketing to those above this age although the Sri Lankan law currently stands at 16-years,’’ the company said.

In keeping with international standards, the company will also publish tar and nicotine levels on cigarette packs within a maximum time frame of 12 months, in consultation with the authorities, CTC said.

Ceylon Tobacco pledged that it will continue through meetings and other means, the practice of educating its retailers on the company’s marketing policies as enumerated in the code of conduct.

"By regulating the conduct of its marketing activities, the company will demonstrate to the public at large its sincerity of purpose in acting as a responsible company in an industry seen as controversial,’’ Ceylon Tobacco said.

The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Limited will recruit Indian journalists "to boost the rapidly declining circulation of its English publications,’’ the Times of India reported last week.

Running a Colombo datelined India Abroad News Service report, the paper quoted Lake House Chairman Aloy Ratnayake saying that Indian journalists would be employed by the group to lift the standards of the newspapers.

The newspaper also quoted Media Minister Mangala Samaraweera’s recent speech calling Lake House "a den of corruption.’’

The minister also said on that occasion that Lake House is over-staffed and is "saddled with inefficiency and unproductivity.’’ He promised to trim the number of employees in the company by half within the next three months.

The India Abroad report also quoted Information Director Ariya Rubasinghe saying that the government was considering the appointment of a few veteran journalists to revive the English newspapers of Lake House.

"We plan to appoint a few veterans as consultants and a few senior working journalists,’’ Rubasinghe is quoted to have said. "This is an attempt to upgrade journalism standards.’’

Ratnayake said that no decision on recruitment of Indians has yet been taken but they are looking at possibilities.

The wage hike demands made by the trade unions representing the tea and rubber plantation workers are unreasonable and the plantation companies would have to be closed down if the demands are met, a spokesman representing the plantation companies belonging to the Employers Federation said yesterday.

Colombo District Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC) Parliamentarian, R. Yogarajan, said that the representatives of the workers have asked the plantation companies that the daily wage for workers in the tea sector be increased from Rs. 101/- to Rs. 131/-, while the daily wage for rubber sector workers raised from Rs. 95/- to Rs. 115/-.

The substantial wage increase is demanded because the plantation companies are making heavy profits due to the rise in tea prices, while the workers, who have also to meet the increased cost of living, are not reaping any benefits through it, Mr. Yogarajan MP said.

He said that labourers working in other sectors have been categorised, for instance, as skilled workers etc. The plantation workers who are also skilled since many have more than 10 years experience, are not classified accordingly and therefore are not entitled to salary increases which other workers get, he further explained.

"We are asking that the wage increase be effected from January 1,2000 onwards," Mr. Yogarajan said.

"We hope that the wage demand will be agreed to during the next round of talks scheduled for April," he added.

According to him, the CWC and other unions are expected to discuss with representatives of 20 plantation companies and the Employers Federation during the forthcoming discussions.

Meanwhile, the spokesman for the Federation told ‘The Island’ that though it is impossible to provide the wage hike demanded by the plantation workers, it is however possible to connect the wage increases to tea prices.

He explained that during some periods the tea prices are high, and in some periods it dips according to the demand for tea in the world market.

The spokesman while stressing that it is impossible to grant the substantial fixed wage increase asked for by the unions, said that it would be possible to come to a settlement provided that CWC and other unions agree to the proposed linking of the wage hike to the tea prices.

"If the unions are willing to accept the principle of tying up the wage increase with tea prices, then there is hope of resolving the issue," he added. (C de S)

The National Movement Against Terrorism [NMAT] lobbying for international support for its campaign against LTTE terrorism, has written to heads of all Colombo based foreign missions, explaining its objectives and drawing their attention to the terrorist activities of the group.

The four-paged letter dated February 16 had been delivered to embassies as part of NMAT’s ongoing efforts to keep the international community aware of the situation in Sri Lanka.

A NMAT spokesman yesterday said that the Dutch Ambassador C. R. M. Princen and the Charge d’Affaires of the Iraq embassy, Riyadh A. Razzaq have both acknowledged the receipt of the letter. "Its contents have been read with great interest," says Ambassador Princen in his letter addressed to the NMAT’s Champika Ranawaka.

The LTTE is a terrorist organisation which made an attempt to kill our President and has killed a past President and many political leaders, law enforcement officers and more than 25,000 innocent civilians. The LTTE targets not only the destruction of democratic institutions but economy of other organisations as well.

We state unequivocally that what affects Sri Lanka is not an ethnic issue. After 1983, that is for the last 17 years there has been no rioting between the Sinhala and Tamil people. But it shall be noted that after 1983 the LTTE terrorists have carried out as many as 135 mass massacres against the Sinhala people.

On the other hand, not a single occasion did the Sinhala people indulge in violence against the ordinary Tamil people who live in their midst. The Muslim people too who are not Sinhala and the great majority of whom are Tamil speaking, have been subjected to 11 mass massacres during this period. Because of this murderous activity of ethnic cleansing the North of the country has been consecrated to a purely Tamil area. A similar process is being carried on in the Eastern province as well.

As against this, one very important fact should be noted. All the Tamil people who are made refugees because of military activity, come to areas where the Sinhala people are in the majority, seeking refuge. Between 1994 and 1999 a total of 400,000 Tamil people have come to reside in the city of Colombo alone. These people are able to do so without any fear of racial violence. As against this, the Sinhala and Muslim people are prevented from living in the areas of the country marked out by the LTTE for ethnic cleansing.

The Tamil leadership and the ordinary Tamil, people who do not agree with the LTTE are subjected to relentless ferocity by the LTTE. All democratic institutions of the Tamil people have been destroyed. By disrupting road, sea and air transport to areas where the Tamil people live, the LTTE has created an artificial scarcity of essential goods and medicines in certain Tamil areas. They have thereby deliberately brought hardship on the Tamil people.

The LTTE has become a powerful political and propaganda organisation because of foreign assistance. We note with the gravest concern that operating freely with London as their headquarters they carry out arms purchases, collect funds and engage in false propaganda. It’s essential that their activities be made illegal and brought to an end if we are to destroy LTTE terrorism. Many LTTE cadres residing in the west are war criminals.

by Saman Indrajith
The National Movement Against Terrorism (NMAT) would fight against any attempt to distort the history of Sri Lanka, a spokesman for NMAT said yesterday.

The Convenor of the NMAT, Patali Champika Ranawaka yesterday told "The Island" that the Ceylon Tamil Teachers Union (CTTU) has once again said that they did not accept some facts relating to Sri Lankan history given in 7th grade text books on social studies and language. Campaigning against theses books and condemning the Ministry of Education, they have declared that they will not use these books in Tamil schools.

"Their refusal to do so is a clear sign that they do not accept the national history of this country," he said.

He further said that last year too this same association revealed their racist colours saying that the grade six social studies text book had omitted the fact that Tamils were in Sri Lanka before the arrival of Vijaya; that among the original inhabitants, the Nagas were in fact the ancestors of the Tamils. They condemned the book, and at the same time the Tamil Tigers banned the use of this book in schools in North and East. In areas under Tiger control the book was destroyed and a new book on Tamil history was introduced.

"Within one week of LTTE’s banning the text book, the CTTU reinforced their condemnation by rejecting the book in Tamil schools in other parts of the country," he said.

"By their behaviour they reveal themselves to be Tamil racists, protagonists of Eelam and henchmen of the Tamil Tigers. Such people must not be part of the national system of education, and must be removed," he said.

He said the conspiracy by the CTTU last year has again been activated on even stronger lines. The CTTU activists are motivated by Tamil racism and hatred.

"What they want is to ridicule the Sri Lankan history to support LTTE’s bogus claim for a separate homeland," he said.

The Co-ordinating Secretary NMAT Kamal Deshapriya said that the CTTU attempting to use the education system to foster anti-Sinhala sentiments in the Tamil student population by falsifying history.

"Their refusal to use the prescribed book in Tamil schools is a dangerous threat to national unity. Strong action must be taken against these persons for promoting discord," he said.

Ranawaka said that they urge the Ministry of Education not to submit to the racist demands of the CTTU to distort the country’s history. Any such attempt will be opposed by a massive and prolonged campaign incorporating teachers, students, parents, university students and the Maha Sangha.

"We shall oppose to the very end any attempt to destroy the Sinhala Buddhist ethos which is the sustaining life-blood of this nation," he added.

by Shamindra Ferdinando
President Chandrika Kumaratunga last week sent seven army officers including two majors general on compulsory retirement on the recommendation of the tri-services Court of Inquiry that inquired into last November’s humiliating Wanni military defeat.

The seven officers were blamed for the swift collapse of the frontlines leading to government’s biggest ever battle field defeat at the hands of the LTTE during the 17 year old conflict.

However, the prematurely retired officers were not linked to the so called political conspiracy allegedly hatched by the UNP to derail the PA’s presidential election campaign.

"The tri-services report did not make any references to the political conspiracy," an armed forces officer said adding that the seven were retired for failing to repulse the initial multi-pronged assault on the Oddusuddan frontlines and then allowing the enemy to advance.

The Criminal Investigation Department [CID] which probed the conspiracy theory failed to come up with evidence to support the government’s claim of army-UNP-LTTE link in inflicting the Wanni loss.

The army in this debacle lost over 1000 square kms of territory along with a massive quantity of arms, ammunition and equipment including armoured vehicles.

The then Wanni Security Forces Commander Major General Wasantha Perera, the General Officer Commanding [GOC] 56 Division Major General Gamini Gunasekera and the GOC 55 Division Brigadier T. M. Bohoran were the senior officers sent on compulsory leave.

Three officers of the Sri Lanka National Guard [SLNG] Colonel Lanka Athavuda, Colonel Manoj Peiris, Major Chandrasiri and Major Maligaspe of the Sri Lanka Sinha Regiment too had been sent on compulsory retirement.

Major General Gunasekera and Brigadier Bohoran were interdicted even before the Court of Inquiry began its probe. The government indicated at that time that Gunasekera and Bohoran were the seniormost officers in hot water for their negligence.

Major General Wasantha Perera was appointed the Commandant of the Army Command and Staff College, Batalanda. However, the tri-services inquiry has held him responsible for the defeat.

Army headquarters based officers said that except one or two the rest including the senior officers have completed the required number of years to obtain their pensions.

Over sixty armed forces officers appeared before the Court of Inquiry headed by Army Chief of Staff Major General Lionel Balagalle.

During the run up to the December 21, 1999 presidential election, the PA and the UNP traded charges and counter charges over the Wanni defeat. The PA accused a section of the Wanni top brass of collaborating with the UNP and the slain Major General Lucky Algama to lose huge chunks of territory to the LTTE ahead of the election.

The UNP claimed that the losses were due to the politically motivated operations that resulted in the army being stretched beyond its capability to hold territory taken.

Army Headquarters said that no one has been appointed so far to the Command and the Staff College to succeed Major General Wasantha Perera, the brother-in-law of the persent Wanni Security Forces Commander Major General Neil Dias.

The premature retirement of two majors general and a brigadier who held a post generally held by a major general has created vacancies in the top. "Some promotions are likely," one officer said reminding that the four top officers in the army are on extension.

Army Commander Lieutenant General Srilal Weerasooriya was given an extension in the third week of December last year. The Chief of Staff Major General Lionel Balagalle, the Deputy Chief of Staff Major General Janaka Perera and the Wanni Security Forces Commander Major General Neil Dias have been given time to serve till they reach the retirement age.

Germany is expected to continue with more deportations of Sri Lankans despite objections by some Tamil political parties. Some parties have urged Germany to put on hold any further deportations until the security situation improves.

A group of 20 Sri Lankans comprised 19 Tamils and one Muslim arrived at Bandaranaike International Airport on March 16. Since then, Tamil politicians have been making desperate attempts to block further deportations.

Police officials said that the LTTE and many Tamil groups collect money from the expatriate community.

Approximately 5500 more Sri Lankans are expected to be deported from Germany in batches.

"It has been a long - standing practice to repatriate foreigners - who do not or no longer have a legal residence status in Germany - and who fail to leave the country within a certain time frame. Thus, the recent repatriation of 20 Sri Lankans is not a sign of a new asylum policy. It is merely the consequence of stringent law enforcement by the competent authorities of the federal state of Northrhine-Westfalia," the German Embassy said in a press release issued on Friday.

"The Federal Republic of Germany with a population of 82 million of which some 7.3 million are foreigners (9%) is an open society which welcomes foreigners. Foreign cultures have in the past had strong influence on German society and Germans are fully aware of the contributions and merits of foreigners who legally live and work in Germany, Germany has always been open for stimulants from other cultures.

"German immigration laws serve a twofold purpose: Travelling to Germany is to be made as easy as possible for the genuine bona fide traveller which implies that he return to his home country as assured in the visa application. Visa regulations have therefore been revised time and again to live up to the requirements of a fast changing world with increasing figures of tourists and business travellers and to improve services for the vast majority of visa applications. On the other hand, immigration laws also serve the purpose of preventing persons who do not have residence rights in Germany and who try to circumvent legal procedures from entering the country as a result of human smuggling.

"It is a matter of fact that for almost two decades, Germany has been a prime target of illegal immigration mostly under the pretext of alleged political persecution. The increasing influx of illegal immigrants in the early nineties, reached its peak with the figure reaching 450,000 persons in 1992. This constituted more than half of the German birth rate. In 1994 alone, social costs for immigrants resulted in over 10 billion Deutsch Marks (equivalent to Rs. 400 billion). This development laid a heavy burden on the social security system of the country and jeopardised the acceptance of asylum seekers into Germany as it became exceptionally obvious that even at an acceptance rate of much less than 10%, the liberal German asylum laws were being used for purposes they were not meant for. This fact sparked off a long, intensive and emotional debate about Germany’s asylum laws of the early nineties, bearing in mind the post-war tradition of Germany being a safe haven for political refugees from different parts of the world for over four decades.

"In 1993, the German Bundestag (Parliament) and Bundesrat (The Second Chamber) annexed an amendment to the regulations relating to," The Right to Asylum" as spelt out in the Constitution. The Bundestag also renewed the Asylum Procedure Act. The new legal provisions were meant to tighten asylum procedures without hindering genuine refugees in finding a safe haven from persecution. Accelerated asylum procedures were coupled with staff reinforcements of the authorities concerned, especially the Federal Bureau for the Recognition of Refugees. Various supportive measures such as reducing social allowances and shifting from granting social benefits in cash to providing free housing and food, accompanied with a consistent implementation of the Aliens’ Laws in respect of repatriation of rejected asylum seekers, lead to a drastic drop in illegal immigrants.

"In the meantime, the Embassy has learnt that all 20 returnees have been released by the Negombo Magistrate Courts and therefore, have been able to return to their homes and families."

By Franklin R. Satyapalan
The United National Party (UNP) will launch a campaign to mobilise support for free and fair elections and the abolition of the Executive Presidency, a party spokesman said yesterday.

A meeting in this connection was held last Friday in the office of Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesi-nghe.

In its islandwide campaign, the UNP will stress that the constitution should make definite provisions for an Independent Elec-tions, Public Services, Police Services and Judicial Services Commissions, the spokesman said.

Along with this campaign, the UNP will also launch a similar drive for the abolition of the Executive Presidency.

The UNP feels that free and fair elections are a necessary prerequisite for strengthening democracy in the country and that the abolition of the Executive Presidency will also strengthen Parliamentary democracy which flourished in from 1947 to 1978.

It was decided that the support of all Buddhist, Christian, Muslim and Hindu clergy and other religious organisations, NGOs, civil society groups, university academics, public officials, trade unions, youth organisations and the mass media should all be mobilised to support the campaign for free and fair elections and the restoration of democracy in the country.

Former Finance Minister, Ronnie De Mel MP who has been in the forefront of the campaign for the establishment of these four Independent Commissions and the abolition of the Executive Presidency was appointed as convenor of the committee set up to launch this campaign, the spokesman said.

The other members of this committee which will be chaired by leader Ranil Wickremesinghe, includes UNP chairman Karu Jayasuriya, MPs M. H. Mohamed W. J. M. Lokubandara, General Secretary, Gamini Atukorale, Mahinda Samarasin-ghe, Ranjith Madduma Bandara, Mrs Rajam-anohari Pulendran and P. Dayaratne.

The committee will have its first sittings on Tuesday March 28 at the Opposition Leader’s office when further details of the proposed campaign world be discussed, the spokesman added.

KUALALUMPUR March 23-Malaysia has relaxed rules to encourage more Filipinos and Sri Lankans to work here as maids, a report said Thursday.

The Star newspaper said the cabinet had approved a plan under which couples with combined monthly income of 5,000 ringgit (1,316 dollars) can apply to employ domestic helpers from the two countries.

The previous minimum income was 10,000 ringgit. The Star said that the maids must be aged above 25.

Immigration Director-General Aseh Che Mat could not be reached for comment on the report.

The newspaper said a freeze on hiring maids from the Philippines and Sri Lanka was imposed three years ago to check the outflow of foreign exchange amid the Asian financial crisis.

Aseh was quoted by The Star as saying the aim of employing more Filipinos and Sri Lankans was because ‘’non-Muslim employers cannot employ Indonesian workers to perform certain tasks like bathing the dog or cooking certain dishes’’.

Most maids in the country are from neighbouring Muslim-dominated Indonesia. There have been a series of reported attacks in recent months by Malaysian employers on Indonesian maids. (AFP)

by Chittaranjan de Silva
President of the Court of Appeal Justice P. Edirisooriya and Justice Minister G. L. Peiris yesterday criticised recent public protests and attacks on lawyers representing accused in certain cases. They described these protests as a threat to justice and violation of the rights of the accused.

Addressing the 26th annual convocation of the Bar Association at which Upali A. Gooneratne was re-elected president, Justice Edirisooriya said that mass demonstrations by the public in protest of lawyers appearing for the accused is a threat to justice and a violation of the rights of the accused.

The event held at the BMICH was attended Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva, the Attorney General and Solicitor General.

It is the duty of the Bar Association to be active and thereby ensure that the lawyer’s right to appear for the accused be safeguarded, and the rights of the people upheld, Justice Edirisooriya said.

Justice and Constitutional Affairs Minister, Professor G.L. Peiris while reiterating Justice Edirisooriya’s remarks, said that there have been recent incidents where lawyers have been abused and man handled when they appeared for the accused.

Justice in the country is facing a crisis due to several issues affecting the system, Prof. Peiris said.

He said that there have been instances where people had taken the law into their own hands.

"I read in recent newspaper reports that seven vehicles and a house belonging to an accused in a murder case had been destroyed by an angry public," Prof. Peiris said.

While explaining that the public had taken the law into their own hands because they had partly lost faith in the legal system, Prof. Pieris stressed the need to arrest this trend shown by the people without delay.

He said that the legislation which were enacted in 1972 has been formulated so that the accused is well protected. But there is a need to change the existing legislation so that the needs of today’s society is served.

"Violent crime in society have to be addressed and we should be vigilant about army and police deserters who are able to use weapons," Prof. Peiris said.

By Suresh Perera
Perturbed over the government’s decision to restrict the import of ‘cut portions’ of used automobiles, the Used Motor Spareparts Importers Association (UMSIA) last week held discussions with two senior Cabinet Ministers in a bid to resolve the crisis.

The UMSIA earlier warned that the restriction is a crushing blow to the trade, which will ‘unfortunately result in loss of revenue and employment’.

The meetings with Ministers C. V. Gooneratne and Kingsley Tissa Wickremaratne were cordial and productive, UMSIA President, Buddhika de Silva said.

‘They assured us that this issue will be taken up with the government’, he said.

The decision to restrict the import of used automobile ‘cut portions’ is widely viewed as a move by the government to prevent the illegal fabrication of vehicles.

‘We call upon the government to enact specific legislation to deal with the illicit ‘budding’ of vehicles, which is done by welding two ‘half cuts’, de Silva noted.

The UMSIA is totally opposed to this illegal practice, but it’s unfair and unjust to have a sweeping restriction on other specific categories of ‘cut portions’ as, under any circumstances, they cannot be used in the assembly of a motor vehicle sans the other parts, he explained.

‘The representations made by the UMSIA will be taken up with the Treasury’, Industrial Development Minister, C. V. Gooneratne told the ‘Sunday Island’.

The UMSIA which has a membership of over 100, has urged all authorised personnel such as the police and the Registrar of Motor Vehicles to take necessary action to stop illegally fabricated vehicles being used on the road.

‘Producing a vehicle by welding two ‘half cuts’ is not only an unethical business practice, but it’s illegal as well’, it said in a statement.

‘Minister Wickremaratne who displayed a remarkable understanding of the problem, promised to take it up at Cabinet level’, de Silva said.

The UMSIA delegation which met the Minister comprised Buddhika De Silva (President), Awthad Riyal (Secretary), Hiran Vithakshana (Treasurer) and committee members F. R. Lindsay White and Wasala Thalif.

The UMSIA which submitted a memorandum to the two Ministers, has also sought a meeting with Deputy Minister of Finance, Prof. G. L. Peiris.

by Shamindra Ferdinando
The newly appointed prisons chief Upali Samaraweera whose department is under fire for allowing well over 400 remand and convicted prisoners to escape over the past three years admitted that unless drastic changes are made in the prisoner-handling procedures, the situation would continue to deteriorate.

He had made representations to higher authorities with a view to effecting changes necessary to prevent both remand and convicted prisoners staging regular escapes.

He replaced K. W. E. Karalliyade on March 1. Samaraweera, a former District judge is the first judicial officer appointed the Commissioner General of Prisons.

Samaraweera placed the exact number of prisoner escapes at 420 saying that there were only a few hardcore criminals among them. However, police and other prison sources said that there were many convicts among those who escaped over the past three years.

He said that the majority of the escapees were remand prisoners. There were many cases of remand prisoners walking out of Pallakele, Weerawila and other Open Prison Camps where there was no deployment of armed personnel.

Samaraweera said that groups of prisoners are regularly sent to the BMICH, the national museum and other government institutions to engage in hard labour. Some prisoners manage to escape during these regular visits. He admitted that despite continuing waves of escapes, the department has not stopped sending groups of prisoners out to work free of charge.

He said that prisoners continue to run away while being taken to courts. He said that under the existing law all remand prisoners have to be produced before a magistrate every two weeks. The prisoners, he said, use these regular visits to plan their escape. "They are successful most of the time," the prisons chief said adding that unarmed security guards have repeatedly failed to foil these attempts.

He said hundreds of terrorist suspects too have to be produced before magistrates every two weeks. They have to be taken in convoys, he said pointing out that the department takes a big risk in taking terrorist suspects out in view of the increased threat posed by the LTTE.

However, convicted LTTE’ers or those on remand were not among the escapees, Samaraweera said.

There are approximately 14,000 remand prisoners and over 4,000 convicted prisoners. He placed the total number of convicted LTTE’ers and those on remand at 900. Only a very few of them had been convicted, he said adding the New Kalutara Prison holds the largest number of terrorist suspects. There are about 600 Tamils there.

Samaraweera since taking over the top prisons job had visited number of prisons including the maximum security jail at Kalutara.

Road widening activities under the Kukule Hydro Power Project in the south of the country has resulted in the cutting down of the last roadside stands of the southern rain forests, Cridak Sri Lanka, an NGO concerned with the environment said.

It said that these rain forests contained valuable orchids like the Vesak orchid and ferns like the ribbon fern amongst many other plants.

"A drive down the Horana-Athweltota road will illustrate the enormity of this problem. All along this road in Athweltota itself, huge boulders, freshly exploded from the face of the mountain lie scattered below the road. The destruction is also affecting the quality of the water in the streams below, no doubt causing hardship to the endemic fresh water fish," it said in a news release.

Although this destruction cannot be stopped, many members of the Sangha led by Ven. Kiranthidiye Pragnasekera Thero and several conservationists are attempting the first ever rescue of the non-timber biodiversity of the southern rain forest.

This rescue involves collection of whatever non-timber biodiversity to be conserved at the holding centre set up at the Athweltota Buddhist Temple. The Nayaka Thera of this temple will be the chief custodian of the collected biodiversity, Cridak Rani said.

by Amal Jayasinghe
COLOMBO (AFP)-Sri Lanka was about to toast the record number of foreigners spending holidays in this island republic when a fresh wave of bombings dashed hopes of an early revival of the battered tourism industry.

Hoteliers were cheering as figures showed that the number of tourists visiting the island last year was at a level enjoyed by the tourism industry before the island’s violent Tamil separatist conflict erupted in 1983.

However the daring suicide assassination attempt against President Chandrika Kumaratunga on December 18 and several other devastating bombings and a street gun battle here may have turned he tide against the industry.

‘’The situation is very bad,’’ said Stefan Pfeiffer, the general manager of the de luxe Lanka Oberoi hotel here. The Oberoi has suffered cancellations following the recent bombings.

Pfeiffer said a travel advisory issued by Germany was adding to the woes caused by similar warnings to their respective nationals by the US and Japan discouraging visits to the island once regarded as a paradise resort.

The Oberoi was to welcome some 1,000 Japanese tourists throughout this year but after the assassination attempt on President Kumaratunga the deal was off. President Kumaratunga was injured while 28 others were killed in the attack.

Problems run deeper for the industry which was banking on a revival this year after seeing a record 436,000 holiday makers visit the island last year, up 15 percent from the previous year.

This year’s target of attracting 500,000 tourists may be hard to achieve unless hoteliers trim the margins already cut to the bone and make the island one of the cheapest destinations in the world.

‘’The bigger problem we have is that the high spending tourists are few are far between,’’ said a manager of a resort hotel in the southern coastal town of Bentota. ‘’We seem to be attracting the lower end of the market as we are increasingly seen as a bargain destination.’’

Most of those who go on package holidays are reluctant to even buy lunch that is not included in the cut price deal and instead help themselves to extra food from the breakfast buffet, managers said.

De luxe hotel rooms in Colombo are advertised for about 70 dollars a day but the real rates can be much lower. A price war among hoteliers is on despite attempts to maintain minimum prices.

Despite the bomb blasts the official Tourist Board which is responsible for promoting the island as a holiday destination for foreigners is upbeat.

The Ceylon Tourist Board is spending more money this year to boost its promotions and counter the negative effects of the violence that has been plaguing the island in the past 16 years.

The separatist war led by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has helped charter companies to negotiate rock bottom room rates with hotels in Colombo and in the resorts since 1983.

So far, more than 55,000 people have died in the conflict which continues to claim a daily death toll in the embattled northern and eastern regions but the authorities point out that tourists have not been targeted.

‘’In Sri Lanka even the terrorists are tourist friendly,’’ tourism minister Dharamasiri Senanayake remarked recently.

The number of tourist arrivals in the peak month of January this year registered a 2.5 percent drop compared to January 1999’s figures.

The slide was attributed to the December 18 assassination attempt on the President. On January 5, another woman suicide bomber staged an attack here, killing 11 people and wounding many more.

On March 10 eight LTTE suicide bombers made a daring rush-hour attack on a major highway leading to Parliament with an as yet unnamed politician as their likely target. However, 29 people were killed and 75 wounded.

Most hoteliers and tour operators believe it is the messenger who is to blame for their problems. The Tourist Board’s website has this to add: ‘’While only the bad news makes it to the television screens, for the most part life in the majority of the island continues undisturbed and in a peaceful manner.’’

The efforts being made to facilitate the dialogue between the government and the LTTE through the good offices of the Norwegian government are also a useful contribution to creating suitable conditions for the progress of the peace process. The ultimate solution depends on a mutual agreement between the government and the LTTE and it cannot be imposed from outside, delegates from organizations in society that support the peaceful resolution of the ethnic conflict within the framework of a united Sri Lanka, said in an appeal.

Representatives from religious, peace, human rights, women’s and students’ organisations and trade unions who met at the Mahaweli Centre, Colombo on March 18 decided to make an appeal to the political leaders of the country particularly of the PA, UNP and the LTTE.

‘We welcome the process of dialogue that is now taking place among the leaders of the political parties in the democratic stream. In particular we strongly support the direct discussions between the leaders of the PA and the UNP, the two main contenders for political power in the country. We appeal to these leaders to reach a consensus, particularly on the questions of importance to the Tamil people in relation to the devolution of power. The reaching of such a consensus as soon as possible is a vital precondition for the peace process to go ahead. To facilitate this process, the PA and the UNP should scale down the prevailling practice of confrontational politics and if possible stop it altogether during this period of negotiation’s, it said.

In the meantime a favorable national and international environment should be created to keep the process in motion. We welcome the release of some prisoners by the LTTE and request the government to respond in a similar manner. We deplore the continuing violence in many parts of the island against civilians and particularly the recent attempt by the LTTE on the lives of Minister and members of parliament which, though it did not succeed, led to the death of over 20 persons and injury to several more. Most of them were innocent civilians. The duly elected representatives of the people must be protected and the LTTE and armed forces must refrain from attacks on civilian targets. The military conflict should also be progressively scaled down, reaching cease-fire eventually, depending on the progress of the talks. In this way the condition for the peace process to progress can be established; the appeal added.

This meeting was convened by Ven. Prof. Kumburugamuwe Vajira Nayake Thero, Archbishop Nicholas Marcus Fernando, Bishop Kenneth Fernando. Prof. Tissa Vitarana, Mr. K. Neelakanthan, (Secretary of the All Ceylon Hindu Congress) and Mr. J. Wijekoon (National Organizer, National Peace Movement). The National Peace Movement organized the meeting.