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Aluthkade
godfathers: who killed whom and for what? According to
Keselwatte Police, investigations are still continuing and no arrests
have been made so far. Police said
that they believed a T-56 rifle was used for the murders that took
place at dawn on Monday, but they had no information with regard
to the vehicle used to carry out the crimes because no eye witness
was coming forward to give evidence. One of the victims, M H M Fuard (62), popularly known as Fuard Hadjiar, was a proprietor of garment factories, tea estates and an importer of electronic items. He was shot near a mosque while he was going for the dawn prayers around 5.30 a.m. His son-in-law,
M. Irshard, said the victim regularly attended the morning prayers
as he was "a religious man who spends most of his time at the
mosque". He said that Fuard Hadjiar was very popular in the
area and had no business rivals. On Monday,
a few minutes after Mr. Fuard was killed, his friend M. S. N. Naushad,
who is also a businessman, was shot dead, while he was going to
the mosque at the Bandaranaike Mawatha. Police believe the two killings
were carried out by the same gang. Though the
police are finding it difficult to collect evidence due to the lack
of public cooperation, there were two theories to the killings.
According to
one of the theories, a version put forward by the Fuard camp, the
killings were carried out by gangsters loyal to Kudu Noor, a notorious
heroin smuggler and godfather. This version of the story says that
Mr. Fuard and Mr. Naushad tried to reform Kudu Noor and persuade
him to give up his anti-social activities. When Kudu Noor refused
to heed their advice, the two fell out. In the meantime, Kudu Noor
was killed and soon after that Mr. Fuard left for Mecca to perform
Umra. This led the Kudu Noor camp to believe that their boss was
killed by Mr. Fuard's contract killers. So they killed Mr. Fuard
and Mr. Naushad. The other story
is that both Mr. Fuard and Mr. Naushad were rivals of Kudu Noor
in the heroin business. They were also not happy about Kudu Noor's
popularity among the poor, though all three men were known to be
doling out money and jewellery to the poor during weddings, funerals
and other occasions. According to this version, Mr. Fuard and Kudu Noor fell out after a dispute over a land both were interested in buying. Mr. Fuard and his friend Naushad then decided to get rid of Kudu Noor. Members of the Kudu Noor gang who believe in this theory then killed Mr. Fuard and Nausahd. Bribery
Com. handicapped Of the cases
the commission handles - this includes this year's 597 undismissed
cases plus the backlog carried forward - eighteen cases have been
completed and ten cases referred to courts while two cases are in
the appeal process. In the face
of such criticisms of inefficiency, Commissioner K. Wickremesuriya
said the lack of trained investigators and facilities along with
legal and bureaucratic impediments contributed towards the situation. He said the
lack of police officers trained in detective work was the major
problem the commission faced. But even a few experienced police
detectives attached to the commission were often transferred without
prior notice or approval by the commission, thus making its task
difficult. "Officers who have been transferred have not been
replaced. Requests for replacements have not been responded to either,"
he said. A report recently
released by the Commission states, "one contributory factor
(for delays) seems to be the growing plethora of procedure adopted
in government departments." As a result
the commission was compelled to thrust about 40 cases on one experienced
detective while other police officers had been tasked to handle
paper work, Mr. Wickrem-esuriya said. Besides the
lack of official cooperation, the commission is also hit by the
lack of public cooperation. "Public
support for investigations has been poor. Often it is difficult
to get a convenient day organized for statements to be recorded
even from a complainant. We have to send several notices before
the complainant would settle for a date," Mr. Wickremesuriya
said. However, he
said there were public keen on sending anonymous petitions or petitions
with a pseudonym. The commissioner
said that most of these petitions were baseless and had the overtones
of political rivalry and jealousy. But when there
was substance to carry forward the complaint, the commissioner said
that full attention was given to it. In addition
to these problems, the commission also faces a transport crisis.
As a result, the commission is often not in a position to send investigators
to outstations to carry out their probes. According to
Mr. Wickremesuriya, when delays occur in dealing with a case, evidence
could be manipulated or witnesses could be intimidated. In addition,
loopholes in the existing laws were often resorted to by suspects,
leading to the final outcome being 'no punishment'. The commission
was plagued by a conflict between the then commissioners and the
previous PA administration over a number of issues. During this
conflict, the commission was largely non-functional. However, the
commission resumed full-scale operations in the latter part of 2000.
During the
three months of operation in 2000, the commission carried out 16
raids. But it was successful only in five raids. Cases were initiated
against a police OIC, two traffic police constables, a technical
officer and a peon during this period. In 2001, 15
cases were referred to the high court and 14 cases to magistrate's
courts. In 2002, the bribery commission had received a total of
828 complaints, of which it had dismissed 231 complaints on grounds
of lack of substance or not falling within the purview of the commission.
With these
data showing a pathetic record, the twin cancer of bribery and corruption
is set to spread across society. The lack of official cooperation in oiling the bribery busting mechanism only gives credence to a public perception that bribery and corruption are fast becoming an integral part of our body politic. Karu
says Kotmale on, but CWC says not yet Mr. Jayasuriya
said an official announcement would be made after the Prime Minister
discussed the matter with the Cabinet. Last week, the committee
handed over its report to the Prime Minister. Though the
report gave the green light for the project, it made reservations
on the environmental factor. CWC parliamentarian
R. Yogaraja said the party would oppose the project until the government
took into consideration the concerns it had expressed. "Along
with the report handed over by this committee another report was
also handed over to the Premier. The second report was prepared
by a committee appointed by Minister Arumugam Thondaman. So, we
believe a decision will have to be taken after studying both these
reports. We will wait for the decision," he said. The CWC is
opposing the project on the grounds that it would have adverse effects
on the plantations and the people. The CWC claims that about 500 families will be affected by the project. TUs
fear massive loss of jobs after privatisation The Sri Lanka
Insurance Corporation, Ceylon Petroleum Corporation, Co-operative
Wholesale Establishment, Railways Department, cluster bus companies
and several other institutions are presently reviewing privatisation
options. A meeting of
the Joint Council of Trade Unions took place this week with the
participation of Opposition Leader Mahinda Rajapakse, Western Province
Governor Alavi Moulana, JVP Member of Parliament K.D. Lal Kantha
and trade union representatives to protest against mass scale privatisation
of state institutions, the diluting of workers rights, rising cost
of living, non increase of salaries and political victimisation. Trade union
officials say that a crisis is in the making with thousands bound
to lose their jobs with the privatisation of the CTB and thousands
more at the CWE to be sent out on the pretext of having reached
the age of 55. The Petroleum
Corporation has already retired 600 employees a CPC trade union
representative said. However, staff
reductions are being worked out by way of a Voluntary Retirement
Scheme which would prevent the unfair termination of services taking
place, Government officials say. Meanwhile the
opposition is objecting to the proposed privatisation of the Sri
Lanka Insurance Corporation stating that last year it had made a
profit of Rs. 1.2 billion. "This is not an institute which
is running at a loss" PA media spokesman Sarath Amunugama said.
The main opposition is mobilising its forces for a hartal on August 12 to commemorate that of 1953. LTTE-TNA
strategic meeting on Saturday The TNA last
met the LTTE leadership in April. The LTTE last week summoned the
TNA for a meeting at the Tigers' Kilinochchi Headquarters on Saturday.
The TNA had
been putting pressure on the Government to fully implement the ceasefire
agreement before going for peace talks in Thailand. It calls on
the government to withdraw troops from the public buildings and
had several meetings with Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe in
this regard. TULF Parliamentarian
Joseph Pararajasingham told The Sunday Times that TNA would discuss
with the LTTE the present political situation. "We have
not met for a few months. We will take up the issue of the evacuation
of troops which is very important to bring about normalcy to the
area. We will also discuss the meeting we had with the Prime Minister,"
Mr. Pararajasingham said. At last week's
meeting with the Prime Minister, the TNA was assured that the troops
would vacate all places by August 2 in keeping with the ceasefire
agreement. TULF General
Secretary R Sampandan said that they pointed out to the Prime Minster
that troops were occupying adjoining private land after vacating
public buildings. Mr. Sampandan added that the TNA had raised the issue of security forces demarcating new high security zones in the North and the Prime Minister assured them the matter would be investigated by the Defence Secretary. Kalmunai
girl wants Colombo, rejects Jaffna The Bench comprising
Justices Mark Fernando, J.A.N. de Silva and T.B. Weerasuriya granted
leave to proceed. The matter
was fixed to be called on July 30 to ascertain whether a settlement
is possible. If no settlement is possible the case will be heard
on September 4. Petitioner Pathmadas Muriel Kavitha alleges that
her preference was the University of Colombo to follow her medical
studies but the UGC has assigned her the University of Jaffna. Claiming that Muslim students who obtained marks lower than her from the same district have been given their first preference, she alleges that she has been racially discriminated against because she is a Tamil. In her petition she states the criteria for the selection of the university is that those who come within the first 10% of the marks for a particular course are offered the university of their choice whilst the others are assigned a university according to the order of marks, order of preference indicated by the candidate and according to the district from which the student has been selected. |
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