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High security zone around President's House
At a time when High Security Zones in the one-time battlegrounds of the north and east are fast shrinking, this top-level conference at the Presidential Secretariat was held to discuss the creation of one in Colombo.

That is to ensure security for Janadipathi Mandiraya or the President's House - the official residence of President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga.

Two lawyers and three DIGs, one retired, were among those taking part. They were Kusumsiri Balapatabendi, Secretary to the President, who is a President's Counsel and U.P. Egalhewa, State Counsel in the Attorney General's Department.

There was DIG (Colombo), Bodhi Liyanage and N.C. Ilangakoon, DIG Presidential Security Division (PSD), and former DIG (CID) and one time Additional Director General (ADG), Directorate of Internal Intelligence and now Security Advisor to President Kumaratunga, T.V. Sumanasekera. There was also Austin Fernando, Secretary, Ministry of Defence.

According to one insider, Mr. Sumanasekera made a case on the need for a High Security Zone (HSZ) around the official residence of President Kumaratunga. Though roads leading to the one time Governor General's residence are now blocked, any citizen who is stopped by the Police could easily challenge the action in courts, he argued. They could even file violation of Fundamental Rights applications in the Supreme Court.

There was a suggestion to invoke provisions of the Prevention of Terrorism Act. "We have given a solemn promise to TNA (Tamil National Alliance) we will not in future invoke provisions of the PTA," replied Defence Secretary Fernando.

Mr. Fernando then went on to give his thoughts on the subject. "When I was Commissioner of Co-operative Development," he declared "I was stopped by a policeman when I was driving along the Galle Face Green."

He had challenged the Police officer for stopping him. He had asked under what regulations he was being ordered to stop and demanded that he produce the relevant gazette notification. That had been the end of the episode. The cop had backed out.

There was pin drop silence as Mr. Fernando switched from that subject to another.

This time, he berated the PA newspaper "Lakmina" for some critical references made against him over the Jana Bala Meheyuma, the public rally in the City in favour of Government's peace initiatives. He made clear he would not be deterred by such media attacks.

What relevance his reminiscences as Commissioner of Co-operative Development or criticism by the Lakmina newspaper had on the creation of a High Security Zone is not known. None of the participants raised issue either.

But the issue of setting up an HSZ around Janadipathi Mandiraya was resolved. The Colombo Municipal Council will frame by laws prohibiting public access to some demarcated areas around the Janadipathi Mandiraya.

The postscript to the conference had come only after Mr. Fernando had left. One of others made the point that a Police officer had the unfettered right to stop a motorist and question him. There was ample provision in the Motor Traffic Act to empower them to do so.

A President's Counsel, a State Counsel, two DIGs and a retired DIG all agreed.

But who was the witty one among them who remarked that the policeman involved in the encounter was exceedingly public relations minded? "He was all for co-operative development. That was why he backed out," the man had remarked wryly.

LTTE used Government weapons
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's wry comment in New York, reported in these columns last week, about the Government of Sri Lanka paying for artillery that was being used against its armed forces reminded a distinguished local expatriate of a similar situation some years back.

During a discussion at the Pentagon with National Security Minister late Lalith Athulathmudali, a senior US military official said that if Sri Lanka could identify the buyers of weapons purchased abroad and used by the LTTE, that would be a good starting point to track down where the LTTE was getting its funds.

He offered to have the original buyers traced, if he was given the serial numbers of weapons captured from the LTTE. Before leaving the US, Athulathmudali arranged for a trusted intelligence officer in Colombo to send a list of serial numbers of captured weapons to the Sri Lanka Embassy in Washington, and the information was duly passed on to the US official.

Within days it was established that every single weapon captured from the LTTE had originally been purchased by the Government of Sri Lanka.

No chance for Sir Michael
One of Britain's highly decorated soldiers, Sir General Michael Rose, was on a week's visit to Sri Lanka as a guest of Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe.

His itinerary centred around on meetings with military top brass and visits to security establishments.

A high-ranking retired military officer who was in attendance was furious after the performance of a local bureaucrat at a conference.

"He kept on talking and gave no chance for Gen. Rose to speak," he was heard grumbling to a senior UNF politico.

But the visitor, known for his skill and military virtues, kept smiling and nodding his head.

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