Norway to fix D-Day for permanent ceasefire
Sri Lankan leaders were still busy studying a draft agreement put forward
by Norway to enforce a mutual ceasefire between government security forces
and the LTTE.
The draft agreement brought to Colombo this week by Oslo's deputy foreign
minister Vidar Helgesen after talks he held in London with LTTE's chief
negotiator Anton Balasingham has a wide range of provisions, including
the introduction of a team from Nordic countries to monitor the truce.
At present there is only a unilateral ceasefire by the government and
the LTTE. The agreement provides for an open-ended mutually agreed ceasefire,
which will come into operation on a date called "D-Day" fixed by the Norwegian
Government. The Norwegian government will pick the head of the monitoring
mission, who will be the final arbiter in interpreting the agreement. A
local committee comprising representatives of the government and the LTTE
will assist.
Either party can abrogate the agreement by giving the Norwegian Government
14 days' notice. This is the fifth attempt at negotiations between the
Colombo government and the LTTE since the northern insurgency broke out
around 1982 with the LTTE demanding a separate state for minority Tamils
living in what it refers to as their traditional homeland.
The draft agreement has no mention about "traditional homelands" nor
about their demand for a separate state called 'Eelam'. The agreement is
limited to creating a durable cessation of hostilities aimed at starting
peace talks.
Some of the contentious issues the Colombo government wants included
in the agreement are the banning of the recruitment of child-soldiers by
the LTTE, and the authority for the Government to engage LTTE boats bringing
in arms shipments to the eastern shores.
The draft agreement only refers to both the armed forces and the LTTE
being permitted to continue recruiting soldiers to maintain the strength
they had on Christmas eve last year when the unilateral ceasefires came
into force.
Tamil academics opposed to the LTTE have chronicled individual cases
of boys as young as 12 years being forcibly recruited by the LTTE to its
army.
The draft agreement also says the Sri Lankan navy can only protect the
country's sovereignty in the sea against "external aggression", but has
no mention about intercepting rebel boats un-loading weapons — a factor
that has been widely reported in recent times even during the ceasefire.
One of the provisions of the draft agreement is for the Sri Lankan government
to integrate LTTE "individuals" into military units to be deployed in areas
outside the 'war affected areas'.
The LTTE which has been banned as a terrorist organisation in India,
Britain, the United States, Canada, Australia, Malaysia and at home, will
be permitted to engage in "political work" in areas currently under military
control.
Unarmed soldiers from both sides would be permitted to have safe passage
in areas under each other's control, especially the highways they hold.
Aerial bombardments by the Sri Lanka Air Force will cease, while assassinations,
ambushes, firing, abductions, extortion, armed raids against civilians
will not be permissible as confidence building measures.
Government troops and "fighting formations" of the LTTE will have to
be separated by an absolute minimum distance of 400 metres in the Forward
Defence Lines in combat zones.
Soldiers and LTTE guerrillas will have to evacuate from schools and
religious places and market forces should determine the availability of
goods in rebel held areas.
The LTTE seems to have also asked for the stoppage of the work of the
crack army deep-penetration unit called the 'Long Rangers' which have embarked
on some successful strikes against LTTE leaders over the past year.
Five more in Cabinet
Five Ministers have been elevated to Cabinet rank and will take their oaths
before President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga this week.
They are Ravi Karunanayake, Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs;
Milinda Moragoda, Minister of Economic Reforms and Information Technology;
Rajitha Senaratne, Minister of Lands; Karunasena Kodituwakku, Minister
of Human Resource Development, Education and Cultural Affairs and Imtiaz
Bakeer Markar, Minister of Mass Communications.
A Ministerial source said letters informing them that they were now
elevated to Cabinet rank were sent out to them on Friday.
They are expected to attend the Cabinet meeting scheduled for Wednesday.
Who changed nomination lists?
The UNP is launching an inquiry into the last minute axing of CWC nominees
for local elections in the Nuwara Eliya district — a dispute which led
to CWC leader Arumugam Thondaman submitting his resignation and later withdrawing
it.
UNP General Secretary Senerath Kapukotuwa told The Sunday Times disciplinary
action would be taken against those found guilty of tampering with the
lists. Mr. Kapukotuwa admitted that some of the names had been removed
at the last minute.
Commenting on the compromise reached by the UNP and the CWC, he said
justice would be done, but declined to give the exact number of seats that
would be allocated to the CWC after elections.
He said the number of CWC members will be appointed depending on the
outcome of the investigations.
Earlier Deputy Minister Muthu Sivalingam of the CWC said the UNP agreed
to offer 14 seats to the CWC after the elections, with elected UNP members
resigning to pave the way for this.
On Friday, the nomination dispute exploded with Mr. Thondaman and Mr.
Sivalingam resigning from their posts in the government. But the resignations
were withdrawn after late night talks with Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.
On Thursday, the UNP's Nuwara Eliya district organiser Navin Dissanayake,
son of former presidential candidate Gamini Dissanayake, also resigned
as organiser in a dispute over nominations. He said he did not wish to
be a 'cardboard' organiser while others were taking the decisions.
But Mr. Dissanayake also withdrew his resignation after reaching a compromise
with the prime minister.
Meanwhile, SLMC leader Rauff Hakeem also alleged yesterday there were
at least 15 cases where nomination lists had been altered to the detriment
of his party. He said they were collecting the information and would present
it to the prime minister.
Ratwatte quizzed by CID for nine hours
AG, SG take over case as former minister denies allegations
Former Minister Anuruddha Ratwatte was grilled by detectives for nine hours
yesterday on the Palletalawinna massacre of ten UNF supporters and on a
variety of other matters.
The former PA strongman who held sway over the security forces was summoned
to the Fourth Floor Headquarters of the Criminal Investigation Department
yesterday morning. He turned up there at 10 am in the company of his security
officers, ASP Rohan Silva and two inspectors.
During yesterday's interrogation, Gen. Ratwatte is learnt to have denied
any knowledge or involvement in the Palletalawinna massacre. He was of
the view that a Muslim faction, opposed to the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress,
would have carried out the attack. He also denied media reports that he
had congratulated an Army Lieutenant who reported to him after allegedly
carrying out the massacre. He told detectives he would have been the first
person to ask the Police to arrest the Lieutenant if he had been involved
in the massacre.
Gen. Ratwatte had also denied he had asked a Lieutenant by name. He
had only requested his co-ordinating officer, Brigadier Keerthi Hulangamuwa,
to obtain additional Army strength. This was because he was planning to
travel around and felt more protection was required. In view of election
duties, he had said, the Police did not have adequate strength.
On the question of using vehicles belonging to the Ceylon Petroleum
Corporation, Gen. Ratwatte's position was that he resorted to the same
practice other Ministers were resorting to. Since he could not obtain Military
or Police vehicles, vehicles coming under the Ministry of Power and Energy
were used.
Gen. Ratwatte denied any knowledge on the whereabouts of his two sons,
Lohan and Chanuka. He said they were adults and they may have obtained
the advice of their own lawyers.
SSP Sisira Mendis, Deputy Director of the CID, questioned him whilst
his statement was recorded by Inspector Shanie Abeysekera. During a 20-minute
lunch break, Gen. Ratwatte helped himself to sandwiches and short eats
which were sent from his newly found Welikada residence. The probe is under
the charge of C.L.Ratnayake DIG (CID) assisted by Lionel Gunatilleke, SSP,
Director CID.
His nine-hour disposition will now go before Attorney General K.C. Kamalasabeyson,
who has now been placed directly in control of the investigation. Mr Kamalasabeyson
and Solicitor General C.R. de Silva have jointly taken over the direction
of investigations into the allegedly illegal political activities of Gen.
Ratwatte and his sons in the Kandy district in recent times.
This decision was taken this week after the CID complained to Government
high-ups that the AG's Department had indicated to them that there was
no hard evidence against the Ratwatte sons for complicity in the mass murder
of ten supporters of the Muslim Congress on election day last December.
The Sunday Times reported exclusively last week that Additional Solicitor
General Rienzie Aresacularatne had at a conference last week, informed
the CID team investigating the killings that the evidence so far would
not stand up in a court of law.
The CID team had been dissatisfied with that view and raised objections,
after which the Attorney General and the Solicitor General took over the
investigations from ASG Aresacularatne, who has, however, been retained
in the prosecution team.
The Sunday Times learns the investigations were heading towards slapping
general conspiracy charges against the once powerful Ratwatte family members
amidst continuing public agitation to bring them to justice.
Probe on mystery army men in court
By Laila Nasry
Attorney General K.C. Kamala-sabeysan has requested Army Chief Lionel Balagalle
to conduct an immediate inquiry into the mysterious presence of more than
12 persons in Army uniform in High Court No 4 in Hulftsdorp on February
1 – the day when Judge Sarath Ambepitiya was due to deliver judgement in
the Iqbal Athas case.
This was after it came to light that no Army personnel were authorised
or had any reason to be present in any Court in Hulftsdorp in ceremonial
uniform on February 1.
Military Spokesman Brigadier Sanath Karunaratne told The Sunday Times
an inquiry into this matter was under way after the matter had been brought
to the attention of Army Headquarters.
The Army's Legal Division has also informed all units not to attend
Courts without informing them.
The mystery presence of a Captain, a Second Lieutenant and at least
12 soldiers was noticed after an unidentified well built person in civilian
clothes, directed most of them to sit in benches meant for the public.
He directed at least four of them to sit behind Mr. Athas in the benches
meant for the witnesses.
The Attorney General's action followed representations made to him by
President's Counsel Daya Perera. He told the AG in a letter that the men
in Army uniform had no known purpose to be present in Court and had left
soon after the Athas case was put off for a further day.
On February 7 (Thursday) High Court Judge Sarath Ambepitiya sentenced
the two Air Force officers accused in the case, Squadron Leader Rukman
Herath and Squadron Leader Sujeeva Kannangara, to nine years rigorous imprisonment.
They were also fined Rs 10,000 each.
The judgement was delivered to a packed courthouse under tight security.
Besides Police, the Attorney General's Department sought the help of groups
of Military Police and CID personnel to be present in the courthouse in
view of the complaint. Body checks were carried out by security guards
on persons entering the Court premises under Police supervision. A bomb
disposal squad was also on hand for any eventuality.
In his letter, Mr. Perera also said "I am most perturbed as my junior,
T.G. Gunasekera, had received a 'phone call from an anonymous source that
Mr. Athas and his family will be killed if the accused are convicted."
The Sunday Times has learnt that Army Headquarters have still not been
able to establish whether it was their own personnel who came to Court
No 4 and if so, what their identities were. It has been established that
the men came in ceremonial uniform described by the Army as number four.
It is also not clear what the purpose of their visit was. One eye witness
said one of the soldiers who escorted the men in uniform carried a T-56
assault rifle and was seen in the Court premises.
The Sunday Times learns that Police Chief Lucky Kodituwakku has ordered
the CID to conduct a full inquiry into the matter. |
