• Crisis talks with India tomorrow
• Palaly, KKS disrupted
• CV probe still blank
• Cricket's big match today amidst tight security
• Ombudsman raps Govt. officials

Censorship In line with a blanket censorship  imposed through an emergency gazette notification   on May 3, the news stories, columns, pictures,   maps and cartoons in this newspaper have been   subjected to censorship by the Competent   Authority. In most instances we have left the   censored sections blank. We hope our readers will   bear with us.

Crisis talks with India tomorrow

By Our Diplomatic Editor

Indian External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh and his senior officials will arrive today in a special flight for these talks — the first official exchange between Colombo and New Delhi since fighting escalated in the North in April, forcing troops to withdraw from the Elephant Pass Defence Complex. 

With the LTTE making a push for the Jaffna peninsula thereafter, there has been much speculation, both in the media and diplomatic circles, about India's role. 

A review of these developments prompted President Chandrika Kumaratunga and Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar to initiate a dialogue at the highest levels to have a frank exchange of views on all issues arising from the recent fighting between government troops and the LTTE in the North. 

Early this week, the government extended an invitation to Mr. Singh through India's High Commissioner in Colombo, Shiv Shankar Menon. The Indian External Affairs Minister who had just returned to New Delhi after a tour of Singapore had readily agreed soon after consulting Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, who was away from the Indian capital on holiday. 

Government sources explained that talks will not be on a "structured agenda" but will cover all issues and matters that are of concern both to Colombo and New Delhi. They, however, dismissed a popular misconception that Sri Lanka would make use of the opportunity to ask for military assistance to combat the LTTE. 

There is no question of such assistance being sought or discussed, moreover India has also made it clear that it will not militarily involve itself in the conflict in Sri Lanka, they said. 

Mr. Kadirgamar told The Sunday Times last night: "We asked for the Indian External Affairs Minister to come. We are pleased that he will be able to come." 

One of the main areas of focus is expected to be peace initiatives to end the current conflict. 

Mr. Singh declared last month during a TV interview that India was willing to play the role of an "honest broker", if both the governments and the LTTE, agreed to that role. Soon after, the Foreign Office in Colombo obtained formal confirmation from their counterparts in New Delhi that such a statement had in fact been made as a formal official position. 

The subject has gained greater significance after Norway, which is playing the role of facilitator, informed Colombo that it would be happy to work with India. Norway has driven the point further by asserting that it would even pull out if India felt it had a bigger role to play. 

Political analysts say it would be advantageous for India to allow Norway to continue to play a lead role at this juncture. This is particularly in view of the fact that India, which has proscribed the LTTE, will find Norway as a suitable via media with the LTTE. 

Diplomatic sources say the LTTE has not shown any keenness at present to engage in peace talks believing that it has seized the initiative in the battle field. 

The government is expected to seek detailed clarification on reported offers by the Indian government to provide humanitarian assistance to both the troops and civilians in the North. The idea is to ascertain the forms of assistance and the areas to which it will extend. 

The government is expected to raise a number of issues which have been a matter of concern. Once such issue is the recent remarks by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, Mutuvel Karunanidhi, that there should be a "bloodless territorial separation" of the Tamil areas of Sri Lanka. 

Another issue, which is of concern security wise, is reports that the LTTE was still receiving logistic supplies from Tamil Nadu and ferrying some of its casualties for medical attention to the Southern Indian State.

There has been concerns in the security establishment about the lack of co-operation by the Indian Navy in apprehending LTTE ships smuggling military hardware into Sri Lanka. This is despite assurances to the contrary.

Palaly, KKS disrupted

Compounding the situation further is the closure of the Palaly airfield for fixed-wing aircraft following heavy artillery and mortar attacks. As a result of these developments, the two main supply routes to the Jaffna peninsula — Kankesanthurai Port and Palaly airfield remain disrupted. 

Censored

These developments came as troops destroyed a row of rebel bunkers in the Sarasalai area as fresh fighting on Friday left 24 soldiers dead and 50 wounded while the LTTE also suffered heavy casualties, a government statement said. The government said the security forces had launched a limited operation on Friday to destroy LTTE positions. 

Censored 

Military spokesman Palitha Fernando said the LTTE wanted to evacuate its own casualties into the uncleared areas and not the civilians. 

Brig. Fernando said the army agreed for civilians to move in from uncleared areas to the cleared areas. 

"We cannot agree to the LTTE demands on the routes which they wanted to be opened," he said. 

See also Situation Report

CV probe still blank

He said 59 students of the Katubedda University had been taken in for questioning but 55 were released and only four were still in detention. 

Cricket's big match today amidst tight security

By Ayesha R. Rafiq

Sports Director Milton Amarasinghe, officially designated as the presiding officer or 'umpire', for the highly-charged elections said all security measures were taken to prevent any thing like the violence and thuggery that ruined last year's elections. 

No one other than eligible members who had voting rights would be allowed to enter Cricket Board headquarters at the SSC grounds and no one would be allowed to bring in cellular phones, he said. 

The two main candidates, Thilanga Sumathipala and Jayantha Dharmadasa, have expressed confidence of being elected to the prestigious post as Cricket Board president. 

Clearing the way for Mr. Sumathipala, the Colombo District Court on Friday rejected a petition filed by a district cricket official seeking an enjoining order preventing Mr. Sumathipala from contesting. 

The petitioner, Badureliya Cricket Club President Sumith Perera claimed Mr. Sumathi-pala was disqualified because of his involvement in the betting industry. The election is scheduled to begin at 10. 30 a.m. and results may be known by 1 p.m. after some 140 members cast their votes. 

Ombudsman raps Govt. officials

"Unfortunately a few of these senior administrators are apparently deluded by their presumption into believing that they alone know and are infallible. 

"Among the public officers there has still not been the desirable proper appreciation of the role of the Ombudsman in regard to administration. This is essential if the Ombudsman's office is to function more effectively and be of greater use to the public," the Ombudsman Bertram Bastiampillai said in his latest report. 

In an outspoken report, Prof. Bastiampillai who has held this office since 1994 identified the Inland Revenue and Customs as departments where the people's lack of knowledge of the law and the English language was exploited and they were subjected to all sorts of harassment and intimidation.

He called for the appointment of special ombudsmen to probe and rectify grievances of the people against those two departments. 

The Ombudsman said he was empowered to probe injustices only in state institutions and therefore the trend towards privatisation was creating a situation where people had no one to go to when they were treated unfairly.

He referred especially to Telecom where there were many complaints but they could not be looked into as the institution was privatised. He therefore called for a special ombudsman to look into grievances in privatised institutions.

The Ombudsman said he had received 1825 petitions directly from the people last year and 42 through MPs. 

"The progress still was slower and below desirable expectations because I found that in many cases the inquiries took more than one session to complete. In addition, I regretfully noticed that some of the inquiries fixed could not be conducted because of the failure of senior officials to attend investigations of complaints in response to my summons," the Ombudsman said. 

The report added: 

"I would once again draw the attention of secretaries and heads of department, chairman of corporations and statutory authorities that they should either attend or ensure that attendance by delegates at inquiries is regular and punctual. The senior staff of an establishment who are deputed to participate in investigations should be thoroughly conversant with the subject of inquiry. I have been compelled to put off inquiries as officers are not familiar with the subject of examination or have no authority to reach decisions. 

"During the year we found out from our observations as well as from the inquiries we made, that some of the petitions which had been lying unattended and had been sent to us some time ago were now not being pursued by the petitioners. 

"They seem to have had their problems settled and often had failed to inform the Ombudsman's office of it. 

"In 1999 my office made some attempt to find out how the petitions were addressed on a district basis. It is interesting to note that even from rural areas there were a high number of petitions and the lesser number of petitions usually have been more from the areas affected by the on going ethnic conflict. 

"Based upon my experience in handling complaints since January 1995, I will draw attention to some special features that characterise the complaints and appeals lodged with the Ombudsman. The number of petitions from Sri Lankans residents abroad, a new phenomenon, is steadily increasing. Originally the need to address the Ombudsman via Parliament may have inhibited the diaspora of Sri Lankans from readily appealing to the Ombudsman for relief when aggrieved by public offices' mishandling of issues owing to maladministration. 

"The majority of these petitions from abroad complain of grievances associated with inaccuracies or failures in superannuation payments while a very few complain of non receipt of compensation for lands acquired by the State in terms of the Land Reform Act of 1972. 

"Another observation I gathered from my work is the unequal position that obviously prevails between complainants who are relatively illiterate and not conversant with English, and Heads of certain special departments like the Inland Revenue or Customs Department. 

"The petitioner is unfamiliar with some of the complexities of the intricacies of legislation embodied in semi-legalistic jargon or the subtle nuances concealed in some regulations of these departments. Officials tend to exploit such illiteracy and unfamiliarity with the ramifications of regulations to deny a fair dispensation towards these hapless citizens.

"The average Sri Lankan is 'at sea' while the ordinary Sinhala/Tamil educated businessman is virtually 'in mid ocean' when confronted by departmental officials during exchanges over issues regarding inland revenue or customs matters. 

"It is worse when the race for reaching targets to earn incentives may impel officials. There is a likely temptation perhaps to disregard scruples. They verbally intimidate and formidably obfuscate the helpless taxpayer or traveller who may have missed out, not necessarily deliberately, on disclosing wholly some detail. In such circumstances the Ombudsman is reluctantly compelled really to metamorphose into the citizens defender. 

"Perhaps, special Ombudsman, for the Inland Revenue or Customs department may be better although I have comfortably handled these issues. They are fortunately seldom and very few. 

"Yet, another problem that has caused me consternation and a dilemma arises when ill conceived schemes of recruitment or promotion of staff are adopted by some statutory public sector establishments. I have experienced enough challenge in trying to sort out grievances provoked by the usage of two completely diverse schemes of testing applicants in their aptitude or competence for promotion from the clerical to the supervisory grade in a State Bank. 

"One scheme of promotion was based entirely on merit achieved in a written test while the other was on gaining marks up to 33% for an interview. In the latter scheme the interview was neither held, nor the marks for service were ultimately allotted. Selection was only on performance at the test for which only 33% of the marks was allotted. I still wonder how these two completely divergent types of selection processes were placed on par, and to worsen the issue two essential elements of one type of the contrasting schemes of selection were later ignored. 

"The stipulation to observe secrecy in regard to the operations of the Ombudsman's office has inhibited the Ombudsman of proclaiming the success that has followed his endeavour to resolve disputes or redress grievances. 

"The office receives letters of gratitude at times whenever a problem is satisfactorily solved, sometimes for even concerning itself in resolving a dispute thereby getting a settlement. Then there are, as it was evident from responses to inquiries, grievances that have been satisfactorily settled following the Ombudsman's intervention but no acknowledgement of them had followed even though the Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration (Amendment) Act No. 26 of 1994 Section 5 Subsections (3) (c) requires Heads of Authorities to inform the Ombudsman of their compliance with his determination following the completion of investigations. 

"In the years one salient feature I regretfully noticed is that secretaries of ministries and senior heads are reluctant to acknowledge that the Ombudsman does help in ensuring the growth of better and fair administration which in turn enhances the development of good governance. 

"Unfortunately a few of these senior administrators are apparently deluded by their presumption into believing that they alone know and are infallible. 

"Among the public officers there has still not been the desirable proper appreciation of the role of the Ombudsman in regard to administration. This is essential if the Ombudsman's office is to function more effectively and be of greater use to the public. 

"In the types of complaints that have been coming in now there are allegations of harassing of students, sometimes of girls by teachers. In the same way we are also receiving more and more cases of a different nature than in the past. We have had in recent times a petition about medical negligence in a National Hospital and a complaint of Police abusing their authority by exploiting labour for which no payment, was made by them. 

"In regard to admissions to the Universities petitions have been received of discriminatory treatment accorded to favoured and socially better placed students at the cost of others although the claims of one and the other should be established as on an equal basis. 

"In respect of defaults in repayment of Bank loans, recruitment of graduates into special training or employment schemes, issues of licenses of motor vehicles and guns, and environmental pollution complaints do come in. In most cases although the complaint does not explicitly state so it has been found that the authority which has caused the grievance has in the process violated human and fundamental rights. 

"Some subjects like problems regarding deficient telecommunication facilities are now not within the purview of the Ombudsman to investigate because telecommunication services are now managed by a private registered company. This brings into issue an important problem. Where do the people who could formerly appeal to the Ombudsman now find the means of gaining redress or relief if they had suffered grievances? 

"With the transference of more and more government managed functions to the private sector this is a problem toward which the State must address itself. I would suggest the creation of specialist Ombudsman to look into such areas as a way of providing a mechanism by which people still could highlight grievances and obtain remedies despite privatization. 

"During the course of my investigations into land disputes I found that the 3rd schedule of the Land Development Ordinance is still observed. This is anachronistic. It follows the law of primogeniture and favours the male, and it needs to be revised.

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