UNP injecting young blood amidst party infighting

By Dilrukshi Handunnetti

The UNP is poised to replace 50% of its old guard and inject young blood, mostly comprising professionals when finalizing nominations for the general elections.

However, there is trouble again with intra-party bickering taking place, highly placed sources said.

The main opposition has already commenced screening potential candidates including some popular provincial council members and offspring of eminent past UNP leaders. Hambantota Organizer Sajith Premadasa and Nuwara Eliya organizer Navin Dissanayake are both tipped to be given the ticket for the first time this August.

Sources confirmed that ground work has already started with several names including party Chairman Karu Jayasuriya, Hemakumara Nanayakkara, Keheliya Rambukwella, Johnston Fernando, Sagala Ratnayake and the like being included in the possible list.

Meanwhile, an inner committee of the party is also supposed to be studying individual performances of each parliamentarian prior to giving nomination. The preliminary reports have already arrived, the source confirmed.

In this backdrop, a difficult scene has erupted embarrassing Hambantota based leading politicians.

With nine leading politicians expected to vie for three positions in the legislature, sources confirmed that Ananda Kularatne, sitting member of parliament and Mulkirigala organizer has offered to step down if so many are contesting from the same district which would cause friction within the party.

The Hambantota situation has always been a tricky one with parliamentarian Mervyn Silva and Sajith Premadasa having a running battle for supremacy.

With the UNP leader appointing Mr. Premadasa as the organizer trouble started anew.

Southern sources confirmed that while Mr. Premadasa could be relocated anywhere as he has no direct links with the electorate, with Ananda Kularatne, Mervyn Silva, Dr. Ranjith Atapattu and Dr. P.M. B. Cyril expected to receive nominations for the same district to secure three seats possibly, chances are that some seniors would be disgruntled with the UNP leader's stance to 'plant' others in electorates.

Tamil parties welcome India

By Roshan Peiris

Tamil parties told The Sunday Times that they all unequivocally welcome India's mediation in the ongoing conflict between the government and the LTTE.

Dharmalingam Siddarthan, the leader of PLOTE said "We in PLOTE think that India should come in as a mediator now, since India has a moral responsibility after signing the 1987 Accord."

He also said because of the war a large a number of Tamils have gone to Tamilnadu as refugees causing much inconvenience to the people there, and to themselves.

"Somebody must mediate to broker peace talks and end the fighting.

India is the best country to bring about any serious negotiation between the government and the LTTE. India must consider the time now is right to get involved," he said.

Suresh Premachandra, Secretary General of the EPRLF said, "We welcome India's mediation since it is our closest neighbour and a respected regional power.

Joseph Pararajasingham, TULF parliamenatry group leader said, "In my opinion India undoubtedly has a responsibility to safeguard the Tamil people over here.

"India also has the responsibility to seek out a negotiated political settlement which would fulfill the aspirations of the Tamil people."

EPDP leader Douglas Devananda said.

Minister Arumugam Thondaman, leader of the Ceylon Workers' Congress said "India's mediation in the present conflict would be ideal since India knows the problems involved, having been involved before."

N. Kumaraguruparan, General Secretary of the All Ceylon Tamil Congress (ACTC) "Should India mediate or broker a peace, India should seek then to fulfil the aspirations of the Tamil people here."

"India must also seek to bring the LTTE to the negotiating table, otherwise there won't be a lasting solution to the conflict.

India should not only mediate but implement the decisions taken, unlike last time with the Indo-Ceylon talks."

Lankan labour to Malaysia on hold

By Tania Fernando

The Sri Lanka Foreign Employment Bureau (SLFEB) has suspended the recruitment of Sri Lankans for jobs in Malaysia until a strike involving Lankan migrant workers is solved.

Foreign Employment Bureau chairman Jayantha Liyanage said this decision had been taken due to the strike by some Lankan workers who were demanding better living conditions, medical facilities and a salary increase.

The SLFEB decided to suspend sending workers to Malaysia as it wants to streamline the procedure and assess how workers are treated there, he said.

Sending locals to Malaysia was commenced recently and there are about 400 unskilled male workers and 250 housemaids in Malaysia at present.

Three employment agents had sent 170 Sri Lankans of whom 26 have been deported due to breaking the law. Prior to their departure the 26 men had signed an agreement for a salary of 15 to 18 Malaysian ringgits a day, but subsequently wanting an increase to 1000 ringgits, they had decided to strike against their employer.

"It is illegal to have strikes in Malaysia and these people who worked in a furniture factory had held a strike requesting a salary increase, medical and better living conditions" said Mr. Liyanage.

The three agents and a representative from the SLFEB visited Malaysia to try and intervene on behalf of the workers, after which the factory owners agreed to improve the living conditions, and medical facilities, but not to the increase in wages. The owners of the factory had identified the 26 deportees as the persons who had commenced the strike, while the rest of the workers had agreed to stay on under the present conditions.

Tribute

Amitha, comic with a conscience

Amitha Abeysekera, the celebrated columnist and newspaper cartoonist is dead. As a columnist, albeit of a different vintage, and as Amitha Abeysekera's nephew – his mother's brother's grandson — I'd say by the use of a somewhat irreverent idiom that I had a slightly more ringside view of his life than some of his readers and fans (and perhaps even his fellow scribes.)

Amitha Abeysekera's home away from home at Ettampitiya, not far from Bandarawela, where he was teaching as a young man, was vacation home for my folks when Amitha came down to Colombo with his considerable family for the school holidays. If anything bore testimony to his maverick ways, and his immense talent for art and life, it was this house. From kitchen to kids' room to living room, the walls were festooned with caricatures of family members. The toilets contained the racier work. The next thing I remember about the man, was his ability to hold an audience. On many days, he was at our house before the sun was up, at that hour when "the bird's were chirping'', as he used to say in the distinct "Abeysekera stentorian.''. But, at any hour, Amitha Uncle ( to use the easy idiom ) was in his element. He played raconteur on many platforms; at several houses in Mt. Lavinia and its environs, S. Thomas' College and the Old Thomians' Swimming Club in particular, in his column 'This is My Island', ( which was undoubtedly his second greatest success story, next to his family that is…) and in the office - rooms of The Island Editorial. His jokes were racy, and his manner flamboyant, but yet, he was, in his habitat, a natural. No pretences and artifice, and he didn't suffer those otherwise disposed very gladly either.

This absence of malice was perhaps mirrored best in his columns . He was amused by the foibles of the human condition, particularly the Sri Lankan version, and quintessentially Amitha was the man of the Island in the sun. Which is I guess, why he passed up many opportunities to migrate to the more developed world in which half his children lived.

Career journalism, with all its backroom intrigues and often petty squabbling was not his cup of tea either. The man, like the reclining figure in the headpiece of his column, was laid-back and content in his uncomplicated but immensely interesting life. If he didn't end up as a cartoonist and a columnist, he would have ended up as an actor, but also, it was some measure of his life's philosophy that he was in fact a teacher, though he doubled as a journalist.

Teaching gave him the space to be the irreverent spirit, the good neighbour (on Hill Street), and then in his later years, doting grandfather.

Also, it freed him to disengage anytime, so that he could sketch for art's sake, or imbibe the customary drink or two beside a rural stream, enjoy his buth and curry — relax — and generally "lotus-eat'', ( …a favourite phrase that appeared more than occasionally in the Amitha columns.)

He was more Johnny Carson than Buchwald, more stand-up than subtle. That fitted in with his up-front ways, his left leaning humane tendencies, and his generally altruistic live and let live credo. In my reckoning at least, that's how he would best like to be remembered.

But yet, the contradiction of sorts was that he was utterly colourful, and left in most people's memories thousands of anecdotes in which he was chief player and protagonist.

That was besides his journalistic contribution of a whole portfolio of cartoons columns and sketches. Small wonder he had no regrets in life.

- Rajpal Abeynayake

Karunanidhi's Tiger circus

• Karunanidhi distancing himself from LTTE
• "My heart is with LTTE" says Karunanidhi

Tamilnadu Chief Minister Mutuvel Karunanidhi appears to be doing full-scale political somersault on the Sri Lankan ethnic crisis.

Earlier this week, he told the state assembly the ruling DMK was distancing itself from the LTTE which he said had killed several Tamil leaders and thus had no right to claim to represent the Tamil people.

But in another speech on Friday he confessed his heart was with the LTTE and that he supported the Eelam demand.

We publish below the two reports which expose the contradictions, confusion and conflict of interest.

Karunanidhi distancing himself from LTTE

THE DMK has come out openly against the LTTE, asking how an organisation which had killed prominent Tamil leaders in Sri Lanka could claim to be the saviour of the ethnic minority community there, a Hindustan Times report said yesterday.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK leader M. Karunanidhi asserted in the Tamilnadu Assembly that the DMK had "distanced" itself from the LTTE after it murdered important "Tamil Eelam" movement leaders such as , A. Amirthalingam of the TULF, Sabarathinam (TELO), K. Padmanabha (EPRLF) and Uma Maheswaran of the PLOTE.

"How can a movement, which had killed the leaders of its own race, save Tamils from annihilation," the Chief Minister asked. He said after the 1983 genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka, four or five groups had been fighting for their cause.

In 1986, when he wanted to distribute some money, collected in connection with his birthday, equally among all the Sri Lankan Tamil groups, LTTE refused to receive its share, he said, adding "this is the kind of link, we had with the LTTE."

Mr Karunanidhi sought to clarify the statement he had made in the House on May 12 supporting the demand of a separate homeland for Tamils in Sri Lanka. "I had only pointed out that I would be happy if 'Tamil Eelam' was achieved through negotiations," he said.

The State Government had banned a conference by the LTTE supporters at Chidambaram on May 7, he said, adding it showed government's commitment to prevent LTTE supporters from holding such meetings in support of the outlawed rebel outfit.

The organisers, who had originally stated that the meet was for supporting the cause of the Sri Lankan Tamils, had tried to change the agenda into one for hailing the LTTE victory at Elephant Pass. "Such activities of LTTE supporters will not be tolerated," Mr Karunanidhi said.

"My heart is with LTTE" says Karunanidhi

CHENNAI Friday, (AFP) - The chief minister of the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, a partner in Premier Atal Behari Vajpayee's coalition government, said today he backed Sri Lankan Tamil rebels in their fight for an independent homeland.

Muthivel Karunanidhi told the state assembly in the Tamil Nadu capital that his heart was with the LTTE rebel group.

"Not just today, we have always held the view that we will be happy if they win their Eelam (Tamil for homeland), either by battle or by means of negotiations," he said.

Mr. Karunanidhi, however, said he would not let the LTTE use Tamil Nadu, a state of 55 million people separated from Sri Lanka by a narrow strip of water, as a base.

"The LTTE is a banned organisation. The government will not permit it to function here. There is no change in that position," he said. Mr. Karunanidhi had recently advised Prime Minister Vajpayee not to intervene militarily in Sri Lanka.

His statements are embarrassing for Vajpayee, whose government has adopted a prudent stance over the Sri Lankan military crisis, saying it could consider humanitarian aid and mediate only if asked by both sides.

Newspapers in Tamil Nadu are slowly echoing chief minister Karuna-nidhi's views.

Full-scale civil defence soon

Civil defence committees are to be set up throughout the country to bring about an awareness of the need for unity and cooperation in this time of war, to increase civil vigilance and to prevent any communal violence.

Top-level teams which looked into guidelines and functions of the CDCs have submitted reports to Minister Dharmasiri Senanayake who is in charge of the operation. He in turn will consult President Kumaratunga before the CDCs are officially set up.

The study teams included six ministers and two former service commanders underlining the importance and the security dimensions of the proposed CDCs. The study teams will propose way to streamline them or overcome practical problems.

Anura flies away

MP Anura Bandaranaike left for Europe and the United States. Mr. Bandaranaike who was accompanied by Laj Wickremasinghe is expected to return in a fortnight.

Give assurance in writing, say PoW relatives

By Shelani de Silva

Family members of servicemen missing in action are to write to President Kumaratunga requesting for written permission to visit the soldiers held captive by the LTTE.

The request follows last week's meeting with the President who gave the family members permission to visit their loved ones.

However the group is unable to proceed to the North without written permission from the Government.

President of the association of relatives of servicemen missing in action, E. P. Nanayakkara told The Sunday Times more than 1000 people want to visit the PoWs.

"The President gave us the green light but there are logistical problems. We will write to the President this week asking for written permission. We need it to present it to the ICRC who can then arrange our trip," he said.

He added that following the President's written permission for the relatives to visit the North, the Association will write to the LTTE to arrange a date.

"We have to inform the LTTE officially and ask them how many of us will be allowed to visit the prisoners.We are positive that the LTTE will grant us the visit specially after promising us a visit a few weeks back," he said.

The Association is to inform the LTTE that the Government is not willing to send a representative as requested by the LTTE.

"We asked the President to send a Government representative but it was turned down. The President however showed interest in releasing LTTE captives and said it was being worked out,"

Last week's meeting was arranged by Government MPs who had volunteered to visit the North and were refused permission.

Meanwhile the members have decided to carry out a campaign calling on the Sinhala groups and other anti-peace groups to urge the Government to come to the negotiating table with the LTTE.

"We will be meeting the Mahanayakas and other religious organisations . We want the clergy to call for peace talks as we firmly believe that even after such a military setback, the problem should be solved politically," he said.

The stab of retribution after 5 years

By Ayesha R. Rafiq

In a gory tale of retribution, a wounded man was this week stabbed to death in his hospital bed, the same bed in which he had killed an injured man in the same hospital five years ago.

The victim, a notorious thug in Negombo had destroyed the house and belongings of an enemy valued at about Rs. 150,000.

The same night a gang had attacked him with swords and caused severe injuries to him. He was admitted to the Negombo Base Hospital that night, but early next morning a group of three had entered the hospital and stabbed him fatally in his stomach.

The man was stabbed in the same hospital bed in which he had five years earlier stabbed to death a man who had been admitted to the Negombo Base Hospital after he had attacked him. Seven suspects produced by the Negombo police on charges of mischief were remanded by the Negombo Magistrate until May 22. Meanwhile President's Counsel Daya Perera produced on Friday two suspects in connection with the murder.

Cut up over cut-off

Hundreds of angry subscribers are accusing Sri Lanka Telecom of disconnecting telephone lines arbitrarily, unfairly and illegally and even with ulterior motives.

Recently a rumpus erupted in the Telecom office in Ratmalana when up to 300 subscribers stormed in after more than 100 lines were cut.

One subscriber from Dehiwela said the March bill dated April 11 had reached him only on May 3 and when he went to the Telecom office to pay the bill the next day, he was told that his line had already been cut. The subscriber charged that the Telecom action was unfair and illegal as the law required that at least two weeks be given after a red notice before a line is cut.

Other subscribers complain their lines had been cut without any notice and they were forced to pay Rs. 500 for reconnection in addition to the inconvenience and other difficulties. The new tactics being adopted by Telecom have also led to charges whether someone within is trying to discredit the Government by antagonising subscribers at a time when Parliamentary elections are on the cards.

Other subscribers alleged someone in Telecom may even be trying to drive subscribers to private operators by these methods.

One of the subscribers in Kollupitiya had received his telephone bill for March in mid-April and in the next week the facility for outgoing calls was disconnected.

The subscriber had paid all his bills until March.

He was told by SL Telecom that they had received instructions to disconnect phones where there were arrears of more than Rs. 1000, even if it was for one month.

However when the subscriber had questioned whether had they done away with the practice of sending a 'Red Notice' the officer had not responded.

Similar complaints have been made from other areas in Colombo.

However, Mr. Christy Alwis, Head of Group Customer Service of SLT denies this claim, and states that Sri Lanka Telecom does allow four and a half months before a line is being disconnected.

"If someone has not paid their December phone bill by March, he will get a red notice in March, and if it is not paid by April out-going calls are barred and if by 15th May it is still not settled, the line will be totally disconnected", he said.

According to Mr. Alwis, even if all bills have been settled and due to an oversight a particular month has been missed out, then the line will be disconnected.

If any customer does have a dispute he could contact SLT to sort out his problem, he said.

Pupil nurses get training in handling drugs

By Faraza Farook

For the first time, an all round management programme for pupil nurses was begun by the Drug Regulatory Authority (DRA) at Badulla yesterday.

The two day programme which started yesterday was aimed at improving the services rendered by nurses, DRA Director Ajith Mendis said. "The seminar will provide overall information about the management and administration of drugs," he said.

The participants will be final year pupil nurses who will take up appointments soon in many of the state hospitals in the country. Around 125 nurses from the Nurses Training Institute in Badulla will take part in the seminar, Dr. Mendis said.

The seminar will be a continuous feature that would be held regularly in different districts for final year pupil nurses.

Management of drugs, the legal aspect, management and storage, indenting, quality assurances of drugs are some of the topics that are addressed at the seminar.

Officials of the National Drug Quality Assurance Lab, the Medical Supplies Division, the Cosmetics and Devices Authority etc. will speak on the various subjects they handle.

Dr. Mendis said the Medical Superintendent and Matron at the Badulla Hospital are also participating in the programme to brief the pupil nurses on the general work at the hospital. Around 500 nurses are expected to pass out this year from some 15 training institutes.

Setting up child friendly courts

The National Child Protection Authority (NCPA) will hold a seminar for judges in July this year on creating a 'child friendly court procedure' when taking up child abuse cases, as an initial step in implementing the Inquisitorial system, official sources said.

The seminar will be part of the ongoing process of changing the current system of inquiry and formal procedures that can mentally torment the child victim during cross-examinations, Fr. Noel Dias from the Law Faculty said.

Fr. Dias who on a special committee appointed last month by the NCPA to study the existing laws and draw up recommendations for a child friendly procedure said the seminar would focus on handling children who could either be victims or accused.

Initially, only a representative group from the Judges Institute will participate, he said.

"The present system is not mandatory," says Fr. Dias adding, "therefore the committee is expected to study the systems in other countries and adapt suitable procedures according to the existing law".

The committee is mainly concentrating on the Inquisitorial system where the judge can play the dual role of being the inquirer and be also involved in fact finding.

The amendments to the law related to child abuse, the elements of the inquisitorial system, practical procedures that can be adopted and how the inquisitorial system has been adopted in other countries are topics that are being studied by the committee.

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