Probe on post-polls violence gets underway

By Nilika de Silva

Accordingly, it was decided that special teams coming under the area DIG would investigate cases. Such investigations must be conducted only within police premises, such as police stations and SP's offices. 

The DIGs who head the investigations have to hand over their reports to the Inspector General of Police.

Already two such special teams have been despatched to Hambantota, while the Kandy area cases would be handled by the CID as the "DIG has said he does not want to get involved," Mr. Rajapakse said. 

Mr. Rajapakse said the Special Committee would meet regularly to monitor the progress of investigations. 

Opposition Leader Ratnasiri Wickremanayake, and MPs Mahinda Rajapakse, Karu Jayasuriya, John Amaratunga and IGP Lucky Kodituwakku had participated in this meeting which took place at the Parliamentary complex. 

The Committee would meet again on Tuesday to monitor progress and will continue to function till the local government elections are over. 

Any new complaints would be investigated, Mr. Rajapakse confirmed. 

Senior DIG (Elections) Gamini Navaratne told The Sunday Times that the IGP had personally instructed the DIGs to carry out the investigations and report the progress to him as soon as possible. 

Meanwhile, earlier this week Presidential spokesman Harim Peiris conveyed the President's total condemnation of the post-election violence while commending the attempts by the leadership of the new government to rein it in. 

Mr. Peiris said any violence now can be defined as pre-local government election violence, and added the President's desire was for "life to come back to normal for political activists".

Over 50 election related killings took place including those of ten youth at Udathalawinna on polling day. 

Prices plunge as hoarders panic in Wanni region

By Chris Kamalendran

Click image for a larger view

Mullaitivu District Secretary C. Sundaram said traders were apparently trying to dispose of their old stocks before the new stocks came in after Thai Pongal festival tomorrow.

Civilians arriving from the uncleared areas said the price of kerosene had plunged from Rs. 110 to Rs. 40 a litre, a box of matches from Rs. 25 to ten. Panadol from Rs. 10 to Rs. 6 a tablet and a mega bottle of soft drinks from Rs. 130 to Rs. 60. 

Mr. Sundaram said that with the lifting of restrictions on stationery items, he hoped school facilities and administrative procedures could be vastly improved.

The lifting of the embargo on certain goods will take place in Vavuniya with district Secretary K. Ganesh due to send the first lorries on Tuesday. 

Mr. Ganesh told The Sunday Times that private traders had been invited to send supplies to the uncleared areas thereafter.

Meanwhile Rehabilitation Minister Jayalath Jayawardena will lead a goodwill mission to Jaffna coinciding with the Thai Pongal festival. About 40 journalists will accompany the minister.

Mr. Jayawardena told The Sunday Times the government hopes to further improve facilities to the uncleared areas in the coming weeks.

Distance between war and peace is 25 metres

A media release issued by the Information Department said LTTE cadres have positioned themselves just 25 metres away from the troops.

On Thursday, three LTTE cadres wanted troops manning the observation point at Nagarkovil moved out. But when the troops declined to leave their positions, the LTTE cadres, carrying radio sets, occupied a position in front of the observation point, the release said. 

Local polls in NE too

By Shelani Perera.

Minister Aluvihare said the Government is keen to hold the elections island wide. 

"We are still holding discussions regarding the security arrangements, but we will work it out. We are keen to have the elections in the North and East specially with peace talks due to take place," Minister Aluvihare said. The minister added that the Government will consult the Elections Commissioner who will decide on the date of the polls.

" We hope to have it in mid March and have the first meeting of the councils before April 15. The amendments, which were to be presented in Parliament last week, were not for the forthcoming polls.

We proposed the amendments in order to limit election violence," he said.

Ban on rice imports lifted

Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Ravi Karunanayake said the temporary measure was being adopted to offer some relief to the consumer who was paying upto Rs. 45 for a kilogram of rice.

The minister said that as a permanent solution the ministry would take steps to maintain a buffer stock so that prices could be kept at a reasonable level whenever a shortage in the market occurred.

The ban on rice imports was imposed to protect the local farmer who complain that they are unable to sell their harvest due to access imports. But importers say Sri Lanka is not self sufficient in rice and therefore it should import rice to keep the prices low.

"Normally there is a shortage of rice from December to March and we have to begin rice imports from November," one trader said.

Another trader had a different story to tell. He said the shortage of rice was due to the drought that prevailed last year. He said that the previous regime just before the election allowed 22 private traders and the CWE to import 30,000 tons with tariff concessions. 

However, he claimed that the Treasury was not giving the 22 traders licence to import rice again on the basis there were irregularities in the manner the 22 companies were selected. He said the Treasury now wants to get more traders involved in the rice imports.

Don't sacrifice brave men – Sihala Urumaya

The release headed, "Treachery of the worst order" states: "We are shocked to learn about how a few dedicated and committed individuals who have risked their lives to safeguard and preserve the unitary status and the territorial integrity of the country are being sacrificed on the altar of inter and intra rivalry in the army and the police.

"Those who follow the LTTE rebellion in the North and East are aware of the existence and the heroic deeds of what the LTTE calls the Deep penetration Unit (in effect the Long Range Patrol Group-LRRP) of the Army. The members of this elite group have conducted daring operations in terrorist held areas at great risk to their lives killing many LTTE high rankers.

"However due to internal rivalry within the Army with some police officers trying to curry favour with the new government, the identity of these heroes have been blown. The Minister of Interior under whose purview this matter falls has also acted irresponsibly by informing the media about the cache of arms hidden in a safe house in the Millennium City at Athurugiriya. If there was any suspicion about the activity of LRRP such as to kill the Prime Minister, most certainly necessary action should have been taken and no one would have complained about it. But as there was ample evidence to show that the LRRP was involved in secret and code operations of the most sensitive and highly successful nature every precaution should have been taken to conduct the investigation in the most secretive manner without leaking it to the media.

"It is very clear that the Minister of Interior, his Secretary "the former senior police officer" and some senior officials of the Army and the Police have not acted in the best interests of the country with regard to this matter. Therefore we urge the Government to hold an impartial inquiry and take all necessary action to bring the culprits to book.

"This episode reminds us of a similar incident that occurred in the aftermath of the PA victory in 1994 where a similar cell of the STF was exposed and those heroes was also sacrificed for the sake of so called peace. "The present Government does not seem to have learnt from the past mistakes of both the UNP and the PA governments. They must realise that the intelligence apparatus involved in covert operations must be kept under wraps. The Government must bear in mind what happened during the PA regime after the so called peace efforts failed after the LTTE launched the Eelam war 3 on April 1995 with devastating consequences. The same can happen again. Ealam War IV is a distinct possibility. Therefore it is imperative that our forces must be kept well supplied, well trained and well equipped to face any eventuality. Incidents such as the Millennium City episode should be avoided at all costs so as not to destroy the morale of our heroic armed forces.

Good intelligence is the most important factor in fighting a war successfully and therefore to sacrifice our heroes involved in counter insurgency work and to dismantle our intelligence apparatus will only result in the disintegration of our war efforts. The Government will do well to realize this and to make sure that necessary collective action is taken immediately," the statement said.

Shell tries another way

A company spokesman said if this proposal was accepted the price of gas could vary from month to month and while there was a possibility of the price coming down there was also a possibility of the price increasing.

"If there is a reduction of US$ 30 per metric ton in the price of LPG, we could probably reduce our price by about Rs. 30", he said.