Govt.
invites all parties for national rally
By Harinda Vidanage
Breaking new ground the government has invited all political
parties and trade unions for a national May Day rally at the
Town Hall. Chief organiser Bodhi Ranasinghe said the theme of
the national rally would be peace and unity and the government
hoped other parties would respond positively. He said decorations
at the rally site would be in all colours-green, blue, red and
even yellow. No procession would be held but the rally to be
followed by a musical show featuring local and Indian artistes
would be telecast live on a private TV channel.
He said
speakers from other parties and trade unions had been invited
to address the rally from 3.00 p.m. to 6.00 p.m. Meanwhile
the main Opposition PA will be holding its May Day rally in
Haputale, one of the few areas the party was able to hold
on to at the disastrous local elections last month. However
the rally at the Haputale town's council grounds with President
Chandrika Kumaratunga presiding, maybe largely blue. Two main
constituent parties of the PA, the LSSP and the CP are to
have their main May Day rally in Colombo along with trade
unions.
The themes
at the Haputale rally will focus on the rising cost of living,
attacks on worker rights and political opponents, privatisation,
democratic rights and the need to protect the unitary state
of the country. LSSP and CP leaders said that while concentrating
on the Colombo rally they would also send speakers to Haputale.
The JVP which emerged with 16 seats at the last general elections
will as usual hold a massive rally at the BRC grounds preceded
by a procession from the S. de S. Jayasinghe grounds.
A JVP
spokesman said the rally with floats and representatives of
farmers, students and women in the vanguard would focus on
the theme of "real peace without international interference".
The biggest trade union rally will probably be the joint meeting
including the CMU, Bank and Postal unions at Hyde park with
the Democratic Left Front also joining them. The July Strikers
association- still nursing some grievances 22 years after
the incident-will hold a May Day rally at the Public Library
Auditorium.
Sinhala
rights group to intensify campaign
By Shelani Perera
The Sinhala MP's Front which was formed to protect the rights
of the Sinhala people in the North and East is to hold protest
meetings in various areas. The Front's convenor Dinesh Gunerwardne
said a pooja to defeat terrorism will be held on May 14 to
mark the anniversary of the attack on the Sri Maha Bodhi 17
years ago. He said the MPs would focus their protest against
moves to lift the ban on the LTTE and to give the Tigers full
power in the interim council.
Mr. Gunerwardne
said former MPs and national organisations had also been invited
to join the group. He said they would work out clear objectives
and would meet President Chandrika Kumaratunga, Premier Ranil
Wickremesinghe and others to outline their aims. The group
and other Sinhala rights groups are insisting that some 150,000
Sinhala people who had been forced to leave the North-East
during the past 25 years should be given the opportunity and
security to go back and resettle there.
Peace
push from South Asian group
South Asians for Human Rights, a regional body with a membership
committed to addressing human rights issues at both national
and regional levels, will hold its Bureau meeting in Colombo
this week. Former Indian Prime Minister Indra Kumar Gujaral
and Pakistan Human Rights Commission member Asma Jahangir
who is also the UN Special Rapporteur on Extra-judicial, Summary
or Arbitrary Executions, will be among those present at the
meeting scheduled to take place from May 3 to 6 at the Galadari.
The original
venue for the meeting was transferred from New Delhi to Colombo
as a means for the leading human rights personalities of the
region to express solidarity to the peace initiative, SAHR
Colombo office media spokesman Charuka Samarasekera said.
Udal:vintage
veteran
Veteran journalist D. B. Udalagama, winner of last year's
distinguished long service award from the Editor's Guild of
Sri Lanka, died on Friday night after a long illness.
Udal, as he was known among friends and colleagues, was probably
the oldest living journalist in Sri Lanka, having started
his career as a provincial correspondent long before most
of today's journalists were even born.
Mr. Udalagama
began in 1935 as a provincial correspondent for the Ceylon
Daily News and for 15 years he preferred to work that way,
quipping that he was allergic to getting too close to bosses.
His talents had been recognised by media giants D.R. Wijewardene
and Esmond Wickremesinghe but Udal continued to work as a
provincial correspondent in Kurunegala, Kandy and Galle.
Finally,
in 1950 when the eminent Cecil Graham was the editor of the
Daily News, Udal agreed to work full-time at Lake House where
he excelled as a reporter, leader writer and columnist. Three
years later, Udal moved to the old Times of Ceylon where he
gradually emerged as one of the country's top working journalists
and rose to be the acting editor of the old Daily Mirror.
The veteran journalist had been plagued by bouts of ill health
for the past few years. His body will lie at the A.F. Raymonds
funeral parlour from tomorrow morning and the cremation will
take place at 6 p.m. the same day at Kanatte.
Cross
talk over mobile phones
By Tania Fernando
Mobile phone operators and the Telecommunications Regulatory
Commission are still at cross connections on an increase in
rates. Dialog GSM chief Hans Wijesuriya said the mobile operators
were hopeful that TRC would allow them to increase rates because
their costs had gone up enormously after the rates were fixed
in 1998.
But TRC chief R.D. Somasiri spoke on different lines. He said
no increase in rates would be allowed until the TRC fixed
a date for a meeting and fully studied all matters.
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