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Judicial
Service Commission calls for Jaffna Judge's explanation The judge's
comments first appeared in the Tamil daily 'Uthayan' newspaper published
in Jaffna and was later translated and carried in The Sunday Times
last week. He had made the comments at a seminar on the subject
of federalism held in Jaffna. Soon after
the explanation had been called Mr. Vigna Raja sent a letter to
The Sunday Times claiming that two important points made by him
had been distorted. Mr. Vigna Raja
states what he said was that Mr. Prabhakaran is the only person
who could get the two main parties in the south together to get
self-determination for Tamil speaking people under a federal set
up. The Sunday
Times quoted Mr. Vigna Raja as saying 'the only person who had the
courage and ability to get self-determination for the Tamils under
a federal setup is LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran'. Mr. Vigna Raja
also says that he stated that March 11 this year could be considered
a historic day because on that day when Anton Balasingham spoke
at the ceremonial opening of an LTTE court complex at Kilinochchi,
he recognised Dr. Neelan Thiruchelvam's constitutional draft as
suitable and acceptable since it had been drafted in a manner that
all communities would be protected but that President Kumaratunga
had later removed certain clauses. JSC sources said that investigations on the judge's remarks are proceeding as judges are not supposed to make remarks on political issues at public forums. Recruiting
500 grads as English medium teachers A Treasury
circular is in place restricting public institutions from making
new appointments or recruiting cadres to fill vacancies, due to
lack of funds. However, the Education Ministry has got permission
to recruit teachers to make good a shortage. The graduates
will be trained to fill vacancies to teach selected subjects in
the English medium such as science and technology, mathematics,
health and physical education and social science. The Ministry
is to consider graduates below the age of 30 who will be subject
to a written test and interview and then selected to undergo a six
month's training. The teachers would be assigned to schools in 2004,
Education Ministry spokesman D. Wanninayake said. In addition the Ministry has also decided to make 1250 appointments to Sinhala and Tamil medium public schools in remote areas. These teachers will fill vacancies in subjects such as geo-science, accounts/commerce, art, music, dancing, English and physics. Opposition
to tell Thai PM about Govt. harassment At the meeting
which is to take place on Friday in Parliament the Opposition is
expected to hand over a detailed report on the incidents. Opposition
MP Nimal Sripala de Silva said that the Government is pretending
to have a clean record whereas the MPs are getting out of control. ' The Government
MPs have taken the law into their hands, there is so much of human
rights violations and no action has been taken. This is the very
reason the same MPs continue with the thuggery. We will inform Prime
Minister Thaksin Shinawatra not only of the growing incidents of
violations but also the Government's failure to take any action
against the MPs" Mr. de Silva said. The Opposition
will also present a booklet comprising names of MPs who have violated
human rights and also the present status of the investigation. " We have
also decided to inform all diplomatic missions and the Attorney
General of the growing number of incidents. We will carry on this
campaign to show the inefficiency of the government in controlling
its own legislators. Last week we met the Secretary of the Inter-Parliamentary
Union & Human Rights Commission who was briefed on the incidents"
Mr. de Silva said. The visiting
Thai Prime Minister is scheduled to address Parliament on Friday
(15) becoming the first Head of Government to address Parliament
since Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in 1985. The Speaker last week announced in Parliament that all members should be present on the occasion and the MPs are to be officially informed in writing this week. JVP
protests over Govt's inaction on LTTE violations The party is
to hold the rally with the participation of opposition parties and
trade unions, the first in a series to be held islandwide. JVP General
Secretary Tilvin Silva told The Sunday Times that the LTTE is getting
stronger with the help of the government. "The LTTE's refusal to shift the camp in Trinco is a good example. It is trying to get control of the Eastern province as it is a good strategic base, militarily and economically. All this time it was unable to do anything because of the presence of the Muslim and Sinhala community, but now it is planning to chase them away. Our party has always been against the MOU, but the LTTE is violating even the MOU. We call upon the government to take action" he said. The JVP has
also called on the Norwegian government to remove the Sri Lanka
Monitoring Mission as it has failed in its duties. "Nowhere
in the world is there such an inefficient group which has come specially
to monitor a MOU between two parties. It is here just for the sake
of being here. The LTTE has on many occasions refused to accept
its ruling, on which the government should take immediate action"
he said. Meanwhile the JVP began a ten day program in all districts in a bid to educate the public on the current political situation. |
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