Onward to the battlefront

By Marisa de Silva

Journalists were given an opportunity this week to witness the training provided at the STF training school at Katukurunda.

As one enters the gates of the Special Task Force Training (STF) School in Katukurundha, the first thing that meets the eye, is a statue of a soldier with the words "Follow me- Train with the best" inscribed on its base. 

The STF course comprises many tough and vigorous training programmes of 14 weeks. Each trainee is ensured a comprehensive para-military training which was introduced to Sri Lanka by the British Special Air Strike. 

Dilan Lasantha Igalagamage (20), from Elpitiya, commenting on the training said it was tough at first, but the organised manner in which it is conducted made it easy to cope with eventually.

Nilanthi Kumari (23), a past pupil of D.S. Senanayake College, Dambulla, said she feels she is on par with her male counterparts as they all receive the same training. 

The founder of this institute S.S.P. Upali Sahabandhu, built a memorial monument for all those who sacrificed their lives for the nation, with the words, "For your tomorrow we gave our today" inscribed on it.

It is ironical that his name too was carved on it as he was killed by in suicide bomb attack in Batticaloa on December17, 1996. 

Details regarding the STF can be obtained from The Director Recruiting, 223, Baudhaloka Mawatha, Colombo-7. or call 501014 (Recruitment Division.) 

Protest against wildlife deal

The WNPS has urged the government to reconsider the ADB proposals with a proper and transparent consultation process involving all interested parties without giving in to donor agencies.

In a statement the WNPS said the MOU could disrupt the smooth functioning of the bio-diversity of Sri Lanka. It said the society was against the proposed amendments to the Fauna and Flora Protection Ordinance (FFPO) of 1937, the transfer of responsibility of wildlife management from the Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWLC), withdrawal of government powers to manage national parks, the appointment of foreign consultants and the privatisation of DWLC bungalows.

It said the threat to conservation came not from the inadequacies of the FFPO but from political interference. The ordinance had not been implemented in full and its replacement with a biodiversity conservation action plan would be detrimental. The WNPS said the MOU would convert all the existing protected areas into biodiversity reserves making them susceptible under the Biodiversity Convention under which anything identified to be of value could be extracted from the reserves. 

According to the MOU, "the government will refrain from any action which may interfere with the independence of the Protected Area Conservation Trust (PACT) in its decision making". The WNPS said the ADB website had identified one of the key areas that motivated its policy-making. It said the project would explore the transfer of the management of national parks to the private sector or NGOs. 

While identifying the need to restructure the administration of the DWLC, the WNPS had questioned the need for donor agencies to have any control of the national parks. It said the government must be encouraged to be more active in conservation and demanded the wildlife portfolio to be vested in the President. 

The WNPS said Sri Lanka had the expertise, especially within the research units of the universities. It said there was no need to retain 50% of the ADB loan overseas to purchase vehicles and to pay foreign consultants and NGOs which could lead to a weakening of legislation safeguarding protected areas and thereby erode the rights of the government in making and controlling the policies of the PACT. 

The privatisation of DWLC bungalows was another disturbing fact, which was objected to by the WNPS. The statement said the bungalows were built to enable people experience jungle life under basic comforts and not as a profit-making scheme. It said privatisation would erode the control of the DWLC and pose the danger of private companies giving into interests of high fee-paying guests, especially tourists, ignoring fundamental principles of conservation.

Rather than increasing the number of visitors to the parks as proposed by the ADB, numbers should be strictly controlled, it said.

The transfer of management from the DWLC to the Forest Department would be detrimental to wildlife conservation and protection, the WNPS warned.

The WNPS while recognizing the need for the administrative restructuring of the DWLC and for making conservation of economic relevance to buffer zone communities questioned the need for donor agencies to have control of the national parks. The WNPS in its statement supported the government move to allocate 50% of the income generated by the national parks for their development. 

National carrier to offload 500

By Tania Fernando

Airline source said about 800 employees were showing interests in the voluntary retirement scheme. The airline had ealier hoped about 500 would accept the deal.

The golden handshake includes two months basic salary for each year of service, plus one month's basic salary for each year upto retirement age and five sets of tickets.

The official said Sri Lankan airlines was also implementing other cost cutting methods including a cut down on uniforms for some office employees, plus a new recruitment scheme where a daily allowance will be paid, which means there won't be commitments in terms of EPF, ETF or free tickets. 

Exam boycott to remove two dons

By Nilika de Silva

Ninety-four first and second year students supporting the protest campaign said they were affected by a move by the lecturers to amalgamate the courses of two faculties and create a new department of screen studies. 

They said a television course offered by the faculty of mass media had been amalgamated with a cinema course offered by the faculty of performing arts to form the department of screen studies. They alleged this had been done without the permission of the University Grants Commission.

Sources said a special interview was held recently to select students to follow the screen studies course. They said a group of seven students and the former chairman of the student union had been chosen to follow the course.

A committee member of the student union Lakmini Gamage said it was unfair to conduct an interview when many students had returned to their hometowns With the creation of the new department of screen studies, the first year students who were earlier allowed to follow courses in television had been prevented from doing so. Student sources said all the facilities had been reserved for eight students.

Sources said the eight students were in a privileged position to get field trips and training at media institutions. 

Court order halts UDA demolition 

By Nilika de Silva and Umangi de Mel 

Owners of the shops said they had been operating since 1994, paying rates to the Municipal Council.

The UDA served quit notices on these shop owners on June 15. 

"I don't know if it is because I engage in party politics, that they are trying to break down my shop," said K.V. Premasiri, owner of Premasiri Spare Parts, located off St. Joseph's Street, Grandpass. 

"This is totally uncalled for," P.A. Premali, another shop owner said. "Our shops are not located on the main road, and thus do not obstruct vehicular movement. So we cannot understand why we are being targetted."

"No mention of compensation was made. We earn a living through our shops and if we lose this income we have no means of survival," Mr. Premali added.

TELO says no deal on ban

TELO leader Selvam Adaikalanathan told The Sunday Times his party had decided to support the UNP on the understanding that it would take steps to resolve the ethnic crisis, but there were no specific demands.

"We hope the UNP will take positive steps to resolve the ethnic conflict. In the process it would have to consider the de-proscription and lifting the economic embargo on the north," he said.

Mr. Adaikalanthan said TELO's position on the de proscription of the LTTE and the lifting of the economic embargo was not new.

"We decided to support the no confidence motion as we have lost confidence in the government's ability or willingness to solve the ethnic problem . We feel we have been cheated . If the UNP also tries to cheat us we will withdraw support," he said.

Probe on probe

By Ruwan Weerakoon

The victim corporal W. P. Jayaratna's young wife, his three-year-old child and his neighbours are still in a state of shock in the sleepy village of Kobbewela in Galigamuwa.

His colleagues said the arrest of Mr. Jayaratna and his subsequent death occurred when an inquiry began to trace the culprits who were responsible for the loss of three pistols from the Army's Naula camp for Special Forces. A complaint had been made on May 12 at the Army headquarters that three pistols were missing.

Military sources said on the same day a Major from the Military Police and ten soldiers arrived in the camp and left on the following day. Before leaving they had taken four lieutenants and ten soldiers into custody. They had been questioned at the Military Police headquarters at Narahenpita.

After recording their statements the suspects had been taken back to the Naula camp on June 7. Sources said the suspects were questioned again at the Naula camp.

They said in the course of the investigation two pistols were found. One pistol had been recovered from the LTTE and the other from a Member of Parliament. They had also recovered three T-56 rifles, ammunition and explosives that were undeclared.

The investigators had then questioned the suspects about the undeclared weapons and ammunition.

His colleagues said corporal Jayaratna had been allegedly tied to a rafter and assaulted while he was hanging from it upside down. They said the investigators meted out the same treatment to other suspects.

Mr. Jayaratna's colleagues said the camp's top brass threw water into the cell to prevent him from sleeping. On such occasions he had used his T-shirt to remove the water from the cell. 

They said Mr. Jayaratna was taken to the Matale hospital on June 21, but they were unable to say whether he was already dead or in a state of unconsciousness. However he was pronounced dead on admission.

Kandy's additional judicial medical officer W. Bandara who conducted the post-mortem said the death had been caused by internal haemorrhage as a result of being beaten with a blunt weapon.

When Mr. Jayaratna's body was taken to Galigamuwa, his relatives, friends and well wishers protested against those who committed the alleged crime before giving him a decent burial. 

They demanded that the government should probe the incident and punish the wrongdoers.

Meanwhile, The Sunday Times learns that Army Commander Lt. Gen. Lionel Balagalle has appointed a special team to probe the incident. The investigators would begin the probe tomorrow, sources said.

The team comprises Colonel Ranjith Convinna, Major Sujeewa Kumara (Military Police) and Major Priyantha Ponweera.

Four corporals are in police custody and the Military police have arrested two officers, one sergeant and five corporals over the alleged killing. 

Tiger threat buckles NE head count

By Chris Kamalendran

Reports from the North and East said Sri Lanka's first census in twenty years was not taking place as scheduled in LTTE-controlled areas in Vavuniya, Jaffna, Mannar and some parts of Batticaloa district.

A senior Census official in Vavuniya told that in the absence of a security guarantee from the LTTE, his officers were unwilling to go to the uncleared areas. 

He said that in addition to the security threat, they also found the task of counting difficult as the internally displace people were constantly roaming from one place to another. 

The LTTE has issued a warning, saying that it did not want the census carried out in Tamil-speaking areas as most of the people are either displaced or have gone overseas.

The government earlier appealed to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) seeking its assistance to carry out the count in the uncleared areas.

The UN agency helped the Census Department to conduct the preliminary work that involved pasting the red label. But with the LTTE refusing to cooperate, the UNHCR could not give a positive response to the Census Department's appeal, an official said.

Rail union issues ultimatum

By Nilika de Silva 

Mr. Gunawardena said his union was giving the Government time till next Monday to resolve the problem. 

Meanwhile, the 27 railway strikers will face disciplinary charges, General Manager Railways, W. K. B. Weragama told The Sunday Times last week. While 104 of those 131 suspended from work following a railway strike were allowed to return to work following the preliminary inquiry, the other 27 are due to be charged in courts.

The 131 railway workers were suspended last month following a protest strike they engaged in demanding that salaries for May be paid in advance, as the previous month's salary had been paid early before the New Year festival and the workers were finding it difficult to make ends meet.

Call for state control on drug imports

The ACJP comprising several civic action groups from all parts of the country met on Thursday to work out plans for a fresh campaign to provide low cost medicine to patients.

The committee is of the view that the Health Ministry needs to urgently introduce new regulations making it binding on all doctors to prescribe medicinal drugs, under generic or low cost brand names instead of the highly expensive brand names being widely prescribed now. 

The State Pharmaceutical Corporation's first Chairman Prof. Senaka Bibile who pioneered the cause of providing low cost medicine to people, had worked out a list of about 230 essential and life-saving drugs, which he believed were sufficient to meet Sri Lanka's medical needs. 

But with the privatisation of drug imports and sales more than 5000 varieties of drugs are being imported and most of them under highly expensive brand names. As a result the country is wasting billions of rupees in foreign exchange while patients are being fooled or forced to pay five to ten times more than they need to spend for their medical drugs. 

The ACJP is to call for the reintroduction of State control and strict monitoring of all drug imports as a first step towards stopping the plunder of patients and the country, the spokesman said. The Government Medical Officers Association, which comprises more than 6000 doctors has promised full support for the new campaign to slash the cost of medicine. 

The GMOA says doctors are ready to prescribe generic or low cost brand names, if patients could buy those drugs at SPC Osu-hala outlets. The GMOA has asked that more than 300 Osu-hala outlets be set up in every MOH area of the country. 

But SPC Chairman Prof. Colvin Gunaratne says the solution is largely in the hands of the doctors. He says seven of ten prescriptions issued by doctors today are for highly expensive brand names. He believes the first step is for doctors to switch to the principle and ethical practice of prescribing generic or low cost brand names.

Meanwhile the Health ministry has promised new action from September 1 to crack down on some 27000 pharmacies which are known to be operating illegally without a qualified pharmacist. 

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