• Unprecedented UN resolution against terrorism
• Shankar's killing shakes LTTE
• JVP to oppose new jobs for deposed VIPs
• JVP wants Rs. 5,000 pay hike
• Suicide jacket stirs red alert for President
• C'wealth boss wards off error on terror

Unprecedented UN resolution against terrorism

The tough new measures make it compulsory for a UN member states to report to the Security Council on a series of measures which include: steps to prevent and supress financing of terrorism; criminalise funding; freezing of funds owned or controlled directly or indirectly by terrorist groups; deny support, active or passive, by eliminating supply of weapons to terrorists; provision of early warning information to prevent terrorist acts; deny safe havens; prevent use of territory for terrorism against other states; prosecute offenders; assist each other in investigation and prosecution by sharing information and evidence; effective border control; exchange operational information against terrorist movements; trafficking in humans, arms, explosives; smuggling; abuse of IT; corporate against possible use of weapons of mass destruction, eg. biological and chemical weapons; examine asylum applications to ensure that there is no complicity in terrorist acts.

A time table is to be set up after 90 days on steps that are being taken to implement this unprecedented resolution on terrorism.

A statement from the Colombo Foreign Office said, "it is likely that the Minister of Foreign Affairs will establish an internal inter-ministerial committee to liase with the UN Security Council."

In anothe statement, the Foreign Ministry said the LTTE designation as a terrorist organisation in the United States was due for review on October 8.

The Ministry explained that the 27 terrorist-related organizations whose bank accounts were recently frozen were a new set of organizations, and that the LTTE was not excluded, but continues to be included by virture of it being a banned terrorist organization already.

Accordingly, the recent executive order made by the US President blocking property and prohibiting transactions with persons who commit, who threaten to commit or support terrorism, will apply with equal force to those listed in the Annex to the Executive Order dated 24th September 2001, as well as those already designated as Foreign Terrorist Organizations under the Anti-Terrorism Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, such as the LTTE.

Meanwhile, a Reuter report from New York said: Propelled by the devastating attacks on the United States, the U.N. Security Council adopted a sweeping resolution that would freeze finances of terrorist suspects and crack down on their political and military backers.

In a 15-0 vote, the council approved the U.S.-initiated resolution in an unusually quick decision late on Friday, with French Ambassador Jean-David Levitte, this month's council president, capturing the moment after a day of negotiations.

"There are in our diplomatic lives some days we have the impression we make history. Tonight the Security Council probably made history," Levitte said. "Tonight we have adopted a very ambitious comprehensive strategy to fight terrorism in all its forms," he added.

Many of the provisions in the document, which dramatically expands the U.N. role in building a global coalition against terrorism, are contained in treaties some countries have ratified or are expected to ratify.

But the new resolution invokes Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter, which makes it mandatory for the 189 U.N. member countries immediately.

The main thrust of the resolution is on the financing of clandestine networks. It seeks to freeze assets of people who have committed, or attempted to commit, terrorist acts or participated in groups owned or controlled "directly or indirectly" by such people.

Shankar's killing shakes LTTE

Shankar had been a senior member of the group and a close confidant of LTTE leader Velupillai Prab-hakaran. He also took part in the first meeting between Norway's peace envoy Erik Solheim and the LTTE chief.

He was a former employee of Air-Canada and had been with the LTTE since 1983.

JVP to oppose new jobs for deposed VIPs

JVP spokesman and Parliamentary Group Leader Wimal Weerawansa told The Sunday Times that the MoU clearly stated apart from the Cabinet of Ministers and Deputies no other person could get special designation or perks.

"If the supervisory MP gets the perks of a minister or a deputy, we will protest. We asked that the Cabinet be reduced to 20 and we will keep a close watch on other activities and appointments," he said.

The Government's move will entitle some of the ex-ministers, deputy ministers perks like a vehicle and additional fuel allowance, security and possibly the same official bungalow they lived in before the reshuffle.

The task of these supervision ministers will be to assess functions of various ministries. They will however not be entitled to additional staff.

The move in effect negates the spirit of the PA-JVP memorandum of understanding. The express purpose of pruning the cabinet to 20 ministers was to curb heavy public expenditure incurred to maintain a large cabinet.

The Sunday Times learns the new posts have been created following representations by some former deputy ministers that they were unable to carry on their party political activities now due to lack of facilities such as fuel.

The matter is likely to be raised when JVP and PA leaders meet to work out modalities in setting up of a supervisory panel to monitor the implementation of the MoU. 

The PA-JVP deal states that both parties will agree to appoint a supervisory panel comprising Buddhist and other religious dignitaries, representatives from trade union and business sectors, professionals, artistes and media personnel.

Mr. Weerawansa said the JVP had finalised its list of nominees to the supervisory panel.

He said the next moves for the JVP in terms of the MoU would be the abolition of the executive presidency and cracking down on corruption.

Meanwhile the government has so far not gazetted the functions of each ministry, despite the cabinet being sworn in a fortnight ago.

Government Printer Neville Nanayakkara said yesterday he also had been receiving many inquiries regarding the matter but he had received no official notification so far.

Ministry Secretaries and other state officials have been making inquiries about the notification as after the amalgamation of the ministries they have not been informed about the specific functions coming under their purview.

The Sunday Times learns that the non availability of the specific functions of the ministry has also caused problems in releasing Treasury funds for some of the ministries which have been amalgamated.

JVP wants Rs. 5,000 pay hike

By Shelani de Silva

After a meeting of JVP state sector trade unions, Convenor K. D. Lalkantha told The Sunday Times the Samajavadi Janatha Kamkaru Sangamaya would try to bring all unions under one banner to fight for a pay hike. Mr. Lalkantha said they would first discuss the matter with the government and then take action if the response was not favourable. He said the union would also take up matters relating to job opportunities on merit, corruption and political victimisation.

Suicide jacket stirs red alert for President

Police and army personnel lined the streets around the BMICH while parents and school children of St. Bridget's Convent waited hours for the President to turn up.

Security was so tight at the BMICH that photographers were unable to snap President Kumaratunga, chief guest at the annual prize giving of St. Bridget's Convent and school children spent five and a half hours awaiting her arrival. 

Nervous officers of the Presidential Security Division had collared photographers to an enclosure a long distance away from where President Kumaratunga was to officiate compelling photographers to leave the venue. 

They were so distant the cameramen explained they could not obtain photographs from the point assigned to them. When one photographer moved ahead to focus his camera to the area where President Kumaratunga was scheduled to sit, a PSD man pulled him away by his collar and thrust him with other photographers. 

The ordeal for the photographers was worse because they had to spend at least four hours to await a photo opportunity with President Kumaratunga. The Department of Information had asked them to report to their office at Kirullapone at 2.30 p.m. 

They had to wait there for two hours there before boarding a bus that escorted them to the BMICH accompanied by PSD personnel. Although the event was scheduled for 4 p.m. they had to wait for another two and half hours as the chief guest had not arrived. 

If that was the predicament of the photographers, it was much worse for the school children who were at the BMICH from 1 p.m. Parents and guardians accompanying the children had to go through much hardship to reach BMICH in view of security checks and streets being lined up with Police and Army personnel.

As President Kumaratunga's arrival was delayed an annoucment was made that they were going ahead with the proceedings without the chief guest. The audience appaluded the long-delayed start. But President arrived minutes later.

During President's speech there was wide applause when she said the school had not asked anything from any government nor had any government given anything to the school. There was more applause when she said there was land behind the school from where squatters have been evicted and that she would be able to get the land to the school at a reasonable price.

Amidst the tight security measures, police sought the help of Army Bomb Disposal Squad to defuse a bomb in a suicide jacket. 

The suicide jacket was found by a park cleaner inside the Vihara Mahadevi Park, opposite the Art Gallery along Green Path, Colombo 7, last morning.

The park security had informed the Cinnamon Garden Police and the suicide jacket, said to weigh three and half kilos and spotted about seven feet away from the park railing, was later detonated by the bomb squad.

Police said that the kit would have contained one kilogram of explosives.

Park cleaner Piyadasa who found the explosive parcel told The Sunday Times he had seen a suspicious parcel wrapped in white polythene when he was doing his morning rounds, and since it had been unusually heavy he had told the security post at the gate a few metres away. 

Park Security officer K.H. Lalith who came on duty early last morning had done a walk along the side of the park at 8.30 a.m. but seen nothing unusual. At about 10.30 a.m. he had been alerted by Piyadasa that there was a suspicious parcel and he went to investigate. 

Lalith had transported the parcel containing the suicide jacket and placed it under a tree and then proceeded to slit the polythene with his nail. He had then noticed some batteries with wires attached and informed the Security Manager. Having identified that it was a suicide jacket they had then called the Kurunduwatte Police. 

Kurunduwatte Inspector E. M. Ekanayake said the black suicide jacket containing two detonators and four batteries was detonated by the bomb squad.

Police are investigating as to how a suicide jacket was left in such a public place.

The 54 acre Viharamahadevi Park is centrally located within Colombo, and coincidentally President Kumaratunga was attending a public event last afternoon at the BMICH. 

C'wealth boss wards off error on terror

From Neville de Silva in London

Former New Zealand foreign minister McKinnon and his political advisers were in for a private roasting for failing to include terrorism as a separate item on the summit agenda though at two previous summits some Commonwealth leaders had raised the issue of international terrorism as a growing menace.

Asked by this newspaper, Secretariat sources admitted that in the original agenda prepared for the summit, terrorism was not mentioned as a separate item.

"We had an agenda item called review of global and world developments and terrorism was among the items in an annotated list," the sources said. Essentially what it meant was that the Secretariat had not considered international terrorism and its impact on global developments important enough to be categorised as a separate item for discussion by Commonwealth leaders who straddled both the developed and developing worlds.

This strange omission on the part of Mr. McKinnon and his advisers was expected to become an embarrassing talking point at different levels in Brisbane, even possibly at the leaders' 'Retreat', when presidents and prime minister meet without their aides, diplomatic sources in London said.

This rather strange omission is compounded by the fact that the Secretary-General's biennial report does not even mention the word "terrorism" once, though some of the Commonwealth's most senior members including India and Sri Lanka have raised it at summit meetings on several occasions.

Terrorism was made a specific subject of discussion only after a non-Commonwealth country, the United States, faced a devastating terrorist attack on September 11. Only then did the Secretary General wake up.

"Mr. McKinnon and his advisers can now quietly creep out of their embarrassment and hope that the anger and concerns of member countries would be tempered when they meet probably early next year," an Asian diplomat said.

"For the Commonwealth's sake let's hope terrorism does not strike again before the summit and make the Commonwealth Secretariat look even more foolish," the diplomat said. Meanwhile as Britain, finally awakened to the dangers of international terrorism rather than the localised IRA threat, searches for terrorist moles in Britain, the LTTE has buried itself underground.

Scared by the invigorated official hunt for terrorist links here, the LTTE has remained strangely silent and even its usually outspoken Anton Balasingham, never a man to refuse a western media interview, has fallen silent.

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