Srimani to stay with PA

By Shelani de Silva

With eight days to go for nominations, political parties are trying to strengthen existing alliances or form new ones for the general election.

Lalith Front leader Srimani Athulathmudali –who had differences of opinion with the ruling PA over the new constitution- said the party would contest with the PA but the allocation of seats had yet to be decided upon.

The Sri Lanka Muslim Congress which earlier wanted to go it alone is to review the decision on a request made by President Kumaratunga.

Minister and party leader M.H.M. Ashraff said the politburo would meet tomorrow to decide.

Meanwhile a new alliance appeared to be in the making between the MEP and the Sihala Urumaya.

Sihala Urumaya general secretary Tilak Karunaratne said Mahanayakes had requested Sinhala Buddhist parties to stand together and the alliance was being worked out on that basis.

MEP leader Dinesh Gunewardene said the MEP would contest the election and was selecting candidates but now decision had been taken on an alliance.

Four out in clean up

In a move described by the party leadership as a clean up process, four members of the SLMC and the affiliated party the National United Alliance were sacked last week.

Parliamentarians I. M. Ilyas and M. Abu Bakr of the SLMC and Wasantha Bandara and Ven. Watalapahana Vajira Thera of the NUA were sacked largely due to defying party leader M. H. M. Ashraff, political sources said.

Dr. M Ilyas told The Sunday Times he was removed from the party because he refused to support an SLMC member who was facing corruption allegations.

"I was asked to promote him on an election platform, but I refused to do so. How can I support a member who has 45 charges against him. It is bad for the party," he said adding that he would not resign from the party and was consulting lawyers.

"I am a senior member, and one of those who formed the party. I am not going to stoop to anyone now," he said.

Meanwhile NUA President Ven. Vajira Thero told The Sunday Times the party leader had taken several important decisions without consulting the politburo.

" For the last few weeks the minister took decisions without consulting us. He even went public saying we were supporting the constitution which we were against," he said.

The monk added that their removal from the party was illegal since Minister Ashraff had not signed the letter.

Meanwhile minister Ashraff told The Sunday Times that he was cleaning up the party in the run- up to elections.

" With elections round the corner it is the duty of the leader to clean up the party. There are a lot of rotten eggs and I am doing the needful," he said.

Nowhere man

An Iraqi who has been remanded here for about 18 months for violating immigration laws is seeking a way to go to a third country while the immigration department and the Iraqi embassy here are disclaiming responsibility .

Mohamed Cassim Mouzan (37) now at the Mirihana detention centre claims he is in poor health and wants to be reunited with his brother in Sweden.

He has written to the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka and the UNHCR to help him.

Mr. Mozan who arrived in Sri Lanka in November, 1998 was arrested for carrying an invalid passport and subsequently sentenced to a year at the Welikada prison .

From there he was taken to the Mirihana detention centre where he has been for nearly ten months.

Mr. Mozan said he had to flee Iraq due to political reasons and his wife is in prison in Baghdad while his three children are staying with a relative in Turkey.

Doctors have said Mr. Mozan is suffering from depression and needs follow-up treatment .

Immigration Commissioner N. Bambarawanage said he had informed the Iraqi Embassy about Mr. Mozan and the mission should make arrangements to send him back.

He said many people were using Sri Lanka as a transit point to get to a third country as refugees.

A spokesperson for the Iraqi Embassy said they were unable to act as most of the Iraqi nationals detained here were not willing to return .

He said many Iraqi nationals were promised asylum in western countries and lured out of their country and then left stranded in some other place.

"Some of these people are not even Iraqi nationals, although they claim to be. We cannot confirm their nationality because they have no identity papers," the spokesperson said.

Work for peace and there will be prosperity

By Nilika de Silva

Highlighting Norway's role as an international peacemaker, former Norwegian Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik stressed the importance of bringing peace to Sri Lanka at a recent public gathering.

Delivering the keynote address at the first year commemoration for A.C.S. Hameed at the BMICH he said:

"The Norwegian people know through bitter experience that peace is the basis for all human progress. We are therefore happy to be privileged to assist in solving several conflicts around the world," Dr. Bondevik said

"The fact that the Norwegian Parliament appoints the Nobel Peace Committee, and the Peace Prize is awarded in Oslo on an annual basis, has contributed to a political focus on peace issues," Dr. Bondevik said, adding, "In January next year, the Nobel Peace Institute will celebrate 100 years of continuous peace efforts. We have a long tradition in international peace activities."

Dr. Bondevik further said, "The day the war is over and a political settlement is completed, Sri Lanka will be poised for unprecedented progress.

"Sri Lanka has the potential to become resourceful enough to assist others, less fortunate countries in the future. This is all possible if peace can be restored.

Speaking about Dr. Hameed's commitment towards peace in Sri Lanka, Dr. Bondevik said, "Last when LTTE was the LTTE was approached to come to the negotiation table, Mr. Hameed got involved in the process in his private capacity, and contributed to create an environment for meaningful communication."

"As far as I know, there were hardly any other senior politician from the government or opposition, whom the LTTE was ready to listen to during that time," Dr. Bondevik said.

"What happened in Dr. Hameed's electorate during the last 39 years is an indication that the people of Sri Lanka are above narrow minded religious or ethnic issues. It shows great democratic maturity, that a predominant Buddhist, Sinha-lese community could elect a Muslim as their representative to parliament, time and again," the former Norwegian PM further said.

Others who addressed the gathering were Ranil Wickremesinghe, G.L. Peiris, M.H.M. Ashraff, and Karu Jayasuriya.

Phones do not reveal secrets

By Ranga Sirilal.

Investigators probing the assassination attempt on President Chandrika Kumaratunga and the Rajagiriya bomb blast are in a dilemma over tracing the origin of some of the telephone calls received by some of the LTTE suspects.

The investigators could not trace the numbers of the calls made to the mobile phones of several attackers. Investigations had shown that the attackers had received several overseas calls, but they had bypassed the Sri Lanka Telecom international gateway. Several private sector companies who provide internet service to the public are engaged in carrying the foreign calls to the country through the lease line which they have abroad bypassing the SLT international gateway. Telephone calls coming from foreign countries were carried by the SLT to the local parties. When foreign telephone calls come to the country through SLT international gateway, SLT can recognise the calling party and the callers should pay the SLT for carrying the telephone call locally.

Bringing foreign calls to the country by the private sector is causing losses to the government which is deprived of millions of rupees in foreign exchange, senior SLT officials said.

CWC wants Rs. 400 rise for estate workers also

By Chirs Kamalendran

The Ceylon Workers' Congress has warned it will resort to trade union action if the estate-management companies fail to grant plantations workers the 400 rupee increase which has been paid to private sector employees on the instruction of the government.

CWC spokesman Mutthu Sivalingam told The Sunday Times the union had already conveyed its demand to the government.

President Chandrika Kumaratunga on July 31 directed the private sector employers under emergency regulations that they effect the Rs. 400 increase or a rise of Rs. 16 for daily-paid workers

Mr. Sivalingam said he met Labour Minister John Seneviratne and also appealed to the Labour Commissioner to direct estate management companies to grant the Rs. 400 increase.

Labour Commissioner Mahinda Madihewa told The Sunday Times said the matter would have to be first sorted out between the employers and trade unions before the Labour Department stepped in.

Alleged vote-buying to be probed

A group of UNP MPs are to make a formal complaint to the Bribery and Corruption Commission, alleging they were offered money, luxury vehicles or houses to buy their votes in the recent battle for the new constitution.

UNP sources said they would present two audio tapes and several affidavits to the Commission.

Kurunegala district UNP parliamentarian A. H. M. Alavi said he had been offered several lakhs and claimed that the conversation for this deal was taped.

Meanwhile allegations have also been made that bribes were offered from the UNP side also to MPs who were tipped to cross over. This included the so-called Singapore group — a group of UNP MPs who were allegedly forced to go to Singapore to prevent them from voting with the government.

HNB chiefs' response sought in share-purchase

By S. S. Selvanayagam

The Colombo District Court has issued notice on the Hatton National Bank management, calling for its response to an application filed by the bank employees who are seeking an interim relief prohibiting the bank from using the EPF money to purchase Sampath Bank shares without their permission.

The application filed by S. B. Abeysekera, head of the HNB branch of the Ceylon Bank Employees Union, cites managing director Rienzie Wijetilleke and four others as respondents.

The court issued notice returnable on September 18.

Mr. Abeysekera in his petition said The Sunday Times of July 2 carried an article under the heading 'The bank bombshell: Business thriller behind Sampath drama,' stating that the HNB and the Stassen Group of a businessman Harry Jayawardena had launched a bid to take over the Sampath Bank and gave details of that take-over bid. The article also contained allegations that money belonging to the HNB Employees Provident Fund had been utilised to purchase 4.9% of the shares in Sampath Bank.

He alleged the bank's management had between May 8 to June 20 expended Rs 120,119,424 belonging to the Fund to purchase 2,201,400 shares in Sambath Bank. "The defendants being members of the Management Committee of the Fund and hence the trustees of all monies in the said Fund have knowingly and intentionally acted in breach of the said fiduciary duty and in breach of trust by utilising sums amounting to Rs. 120,199,424 belonging to the said Fund to advance the designs and/or the ambitions and/or desires and/or the perceived benefit of the HNB despite the fact that the purchase of the said shares was detrimental to the interests of the said Fund," he said.

Mr. Abeysekera told court he was seeking a mandatory order directing the defendants to return the fund Rs 120,119,424 with legal interest thereon.

Ballot papers roll in

Returning Officers for the upcoming polls have been asked to strictly adhere to procedures regarding spoilt ballot papers, Government Printer Neville Nanayakkara said yesterday.

He said spoilt ballot papers would have to be returned in three days to avoid a recurrence of what occured during the last Presidential elections where 100 000 spoilt ballot papers were detected in Gampaha shortly before elections.

The Government Printer had to take emergency measures then to print fresh ballot papers during a short notice as proper procedure had not been followed he said.

Meanwhile with the Government announcing the date for elections as October 10 the Government Printer has finalised all preparations for the printing of ballot papers with special paper with security features being imported for it he said.

Mr. Nanayakkara also said there would be tight security during the printing of ballot papers, with nearly 100 security personnel from the Army, police, airforce or Navy being deployed.

Insurance claim paid

The vessel Mercs Uhana that sank in June following a terrorist attack was paid an insurance claim amounting to Rs. 60 million against those traders who had insured their cargo.

The ship was attacked North East of Point Pedro around 2.30 a.m. on June 26 by an LTTE suicide boat. Mercs Uhana, a merchant vessel chartered by private traders of Jaffna to ship food and commercial items for the civilians in the province suffered severe losses as a result of the attack.

The attack hindered shipment of certain equipments by the Education Department in fear that it might be destroyed.

The Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation paid the insurance claims within three weeks to enable traders to transport essential commodities to Jaffna.

Apply for postal vote

Those eligible for postal voting at the upcoming general election have been asked to apply to the Returning Officers of their electoral districts.

Voters wishing to use this facility must make their applications between August 26 and September 1, Elections Commissioner Day-ananda Dissanayake said. While electoral registers pertaining to all electoral districts will be displayed in the District Secretariats, locations other than those at which such registers are due to be displayed have been notified in the press.

SAARC seminar on broadcasting

The sub-regional (SAARC) seminar on "Public Service Broadcasting" will be inaugurated by Media Minister Mangala Samaraweera tomorrow at 9.30 a.m. at the Grand Oriental Hotel under the auspices of the Asia-Pacific Institute for Broadcasting Development (AIBD) in cooperation with UNESCO.

The AIBD is an inter-governmental organisation set up in 1977 under the auspices of the United Nations to foster broadcasting development in the Asia-Pacific Region.

All public service broadcasting institutions in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Maldives, Bhutan and Sri Lanka will be represented at the South Asia regional seminar.

There will be resource persons and media experts from several international organisations including UNESCO. Amongst participants are local media practitioners, media lawyers and academics.

The Importance of being Douglas

By Chandani Kirinde and Hiranthi Fernando

As the Douglas Peiris episode unfurled last week, a number of actors connected with the drama were arrested or questioned by the police while the others allegedly involved in the case went into hiding or left the country.

Mr. Milinda Moragoda who was implicated in the case was yesterday summoned for a further round of questioning by the Criminal Investigations Department (CID).

The Sunday Times learns that when Mr. Moragoda was questioned earlier this week the CID inquired whether UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe had asked Mr. Moragoda to help Mr. Peiris to travel to Malaysia.

Mr. Moragoda who was questioned for two hours had told the CID that Mr. Wickremesinghe had not made such request.

Assistant secretary to the leader of the opposition Bodhi Ranasinghe and UNP Colombo Central organiser Mohamed Maharoof who are currently out of the country are due to return shortly.

Amidst allegations by the UNP that the former SSP was brought down to sling mud at party leader Ranil Wickremesinghe, the CID turned its focus on illegal detention and torture surrounding the now infamous Batalanda camp.

When the case against Mr. Peiris was taken up on Wednesday, Chief Magistrate Iranganie Perera said she could not continue to hear the case due to personal reasons and had requested the Judicial Service Commission to appoint another magistrate to handle the case.

In this legal-political drama, names of prominent politicians, businessmen, policemen and media personnel have surfaced.

The state media alleged Mr. Ranasinghe had not left the country but was hiding somewhere in the country. Family members, however said that he had indeed left the country on an official pre-planned business trip and that be will be returning shortly. Family members of Mr. Maharoof said he had gone on a pilgrimage to Mecca.

UNP's Colombo East organiser Milinda Moragoda has also been named in the affidavit along with Mr. Maharoof and Mr. Ranasinghe as having helped Mr. Peiris to obtain a forged passport and stay abroad. On Wednesday, he was questioned by the CID for about two hours.

Early this month, Mr. Peiris was arrested on his arrival at the Colombo airport when he returned to the country, ending a four year-old self-imposed exile.

Some political observers say they believe that Mr. Peiris episode has been a carefully timed political drama to coincide with the upcoming general elections to discredit the UNP.

Last week, the Colombo High Court rejected his bail application, directing him to file a fresh application at Gampaha High Court.

On Wednesday, amidst unprecedented security Mr. Peiris who is alleged to have been enjoying a luxury life in custody, was brought to the Gampaha magistrate's courts where he was expected to make a confession.

He arrived at the court house with a large number of policemen standing by to see him through the court proceedings which lasted less than half an hour.

It is believed that Mr. Peiris and his family have been taken to a secure location as he fears for his safety as well as the safety of his family members.

There is speculation in political circles that Puravesi Peramuna leader Sirisena Cooray, a minister during the 1988-89 terror period, was the mastermind behind the Peiris episode. But Mr. Cooray, who, according to the affidavit, had allegedly spoken to Mr. Peiris while he was in India, said: "I had nothing to do with it. If I was behind it, I will be the smartest person around."

But he said the government must investigate the allegations of murder and torture and bring to justice all those who were responsible for the dastardly crimes witnessed in the 1988-89 terror period. "No man is above the law. If someone has done wrong, they must be dealt with under the law," he said.

Following the Peiris affidavit, free-lance journalist C. A. Chandraprema alias Thadi Priyantha was arrested in connection with the murders of lawyers Kanchana Abeyapala and Charitha Lankapura during the terror period. It is said that during this period he was a member of the Bahujana Nidahas Pakshaya, which was then headed by Chandrika Kumaratunga.

He had also contested the 1988 provincial council elections on the ticket of the United Left Alliance (ULA) which included the BNP.

UNP Parliamentarian Rajitha Senaratne said that President Kumaratunga knew Mr. Chandraprema very well.

During the questioning by the CID Mr. Chandraprema was confronted with Mr. Peiris.

Mr. Peiris alleges in his affidavit that Mr. Chadraprema was serving in the publicity unit of Mr. Wickremesinghe during the late 1980s and had participated in discussions he had with Mr. Wickremesinghe who was a cabinet minister at the time. The discussions centred on how to suppress the insurgency, which broke out in the aftermath of the signing of the Indo-Lanka peace accord.

Mr. Peiris claimed in his affidavit that following this discussion, ten houses in the Batalanda Fertilizer Corporation scheme were given to police officers, including himself, while the circuit bungalow was reserved for Mr. Wickremesinghe.

"It is now clear to me that the UNP had kept me out of the country and tried to destroy my life due to the fear that I would reveal their actions during the JVP insurgency," Mr. Peiris said in his affidavit.

He also said he had come to Sri Lanka on his own wish as he learnt that plans were afoot to have him killed when he was living overseas.

Mr. Peiris has been charged with the abduction and disappearance of two youths during the 1988-89 period. He is also being questioned over violation of immigration laws as he had allegedly used a forged passport.

Although a presidential commission was appointed in 1995 to probe the torture allegations surrounding the Batalanda camp, no one has been charged with any offence.

The commission report named Mr. Peiris, among others, as being directly responsible for having established and maintained the Batalanda detention and torture chambers and for having illegally detained and tortured persons in the houses of the scheme.

The commission observed serious violations of human rights by both senior police officers and a politician of the then government.

It recommended that the Supreme Court be vested with additional jurisdiction to impose suitable sanctions in the form of 'deprivation of civic rights' on persons who are found to repeatedly violate basic fundamental rights of people.

Meanwhile, responding to the charges former Senior Police Superintendent Douglas Peiris made in his controversial affidavit, Gamini Abeyratne, a businessman with Swiss connnections denied he took any money from the police officer in helping him to leave the country.

Mr. Abeyratne, who acted as a liaison agent for business delegations from Switzerland, told The Sunday Times he first met Mr. Peiris in June 1996 after the police officer called over at his room at Hotel Intercontinental in response to an advertisement he placed in the local newspapers.

"He sought my help to establish business connections in Switzerland, as he was then under interdiction from the Police", he said.

Mr. Abeyratne said Mr. Peiris visited him several times and they developed a close association. He said Mr. Peiris one day had wanted him to help his business partner, one Talpawila, to obtain a visa for Switzerland. "This was done and after all that visits and telephone calls from Mr. Peiris stopped", Mr. Abeyratne said.

A few months later when he visited Switzerland on a business matter in August 1996, Mr. Abeyratne said his help was sought by a Swiss woman police officer, Ms. Wyss, to find out the contents of the Sinhala documents of a Sri Lankan refugee. He said it did not take him much time to realise that the documents belonged to Mr. Peiris who had lied to him to obtain the Swiss visa.

Mr. Abeyratne said that despite this, he continued his friendship with Mr. Peiris in Switzerland.

"From the refugee camp at Basel, he often visited me. When he wanted to eat Sri Lankan food, I cooked a meal for him. I washed his clothes and ironed them myself. I showed him Switzerland and introduced him to my friends. But things turned sour when I refused to help him to get his family to Switzerland. I told him I would not go against the law. I think it is because of this that he is having a grudge against me and making all these allegations', Mr. Abeyratne said.

Mr. Abeyratne said that Swiss police warned him against going back to Sri Lanka because of his association with Mr. Peiris. But he said that despite this warning, he came to Sri Lanka in September.

A few days later, on October 4, he was taken from the Intercontinental Hotel to the CID headquarters by a police team led by Inspector Ampala and was locked up in a cell, he said.

Mr. Abeyratne alleged the CID detectives interrogated him using harsh methods. 'They wanted to know why I took Mr. Peiris to Switzerland and whether UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe, Rajitha Senaratne and lawyer Lakshman Ranasinghe instructed me to do so. I was then taken to DIG V. T. Sumanasekera who said I would have to stay for years locked up in a cell unless I told the truth. They took me back to the hotel and searched the room. But I was brought back to the Fourth Floor and kept in the cell that night.

'The next day, I was taken to another room where SSP Bandula Wickremasinghe beat me with a pole. They kept assaulting me and asked me to sign a statement, implicating Mr. Wickremesinghe, Dr. Senaratne, Gamini Atukorale, Milinda Moragoda and Lakshman Ranasinghe

'On October 10, they showed me a copy of a detention order which said that I had been detained in connection with death of Matale Municipal Councillor Mohamed Rasmar Hussain. It was signed by the President. After I was forced to sign the copy, I was taken back to the cell', Mr. Abeyratne alleged while relating the horror he encountered at the CID headquarters.

Mr. Abeyratne said that meanwhile, his lawyers filed a fundamental rights case against my unlawful detention. 'Although I was detained for my alleged involvement in the death of Mr. Hussain, I was not questioned on this matter'.

Mr. Abeyratne said he became seriously ill due to the continued assaulting. He was admitted to the National Hospital on November 12 that year. He said he was forcibly removed from the hospital and taken back to the fourth floor questioning.

'As they continued to assault me, I asked the police to call the Swiss police and speak to Ms. Wyss who could confirm my story. I was then taken to the Interpol Branch on the 5th Floor, where SSP Ottanpitiya asked me to call the Swiss Police. After speaking to Ms. Wyss, the Police stopped questioning me about Douglas Peiris and turned the probe on the death of Mr. Hussain.. I denied any knowledge', Mr. Abeyratne said.

He said he was later taken to Bogambara prison and produced in the Matale courts on the orders of the judges of the fundamental rights case.

A year later, he said the Supreme Court held that he was unlawfully detained and his fundamental rights had been violated. He was awarded Rs. 55,000 as costs. A case has been filed in the Colombo District Courts seeking compensation for damages he suffered owing to the alleged torture he underwent at the CID headquarters. The case is coming up for hearing on August 30.

(Please see Batalanda and the question of impunity)

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