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TNA meets PM over additional security
The Tamil National Alliance is scheduled to meet Premier Ranil Wickremesinghe next week to discuss the SLMC proposal to recruit police cadres to the East.

The PM met TNA and SLMC representatives to discuss the recruitment drive following protests from the TNA. Although no final decision was made the PM assured that a balanced number of Tamil and Muslim cadres would be recruited.

They take oaths as President's Counsel
Additional Solicitor General P.A. Ratnayake will take oaths as a President's Counsel on September 19. Mr. Ratnayake took his oaths as an attorney-at-law in August 1977 and joined the Attorney General's Department as a State Counsel in September the following year.

He obtained a Master of Laws Degree (LLM) in International and Comparative Law with Cum Laude from Vrije University in Brussels in 1985 and a LLM in International Maritime Law with distinction from the International Maritime Law Institute of the International Maritime Organisation in 1992. He is also a solicitor of the United Kingdom.

Mr.Ratnayake was appointed a Senior State Counsel in July 1992 from where he rose to be a Deputy Solicitor General in December 1996. In May this year he was appointed as an Additional Solicitor General. Mr.Ratnayake is also the Chairman of the Legal Committee appointed by the Inter-Ministerial Committee dealing with Sri Lanka's application to the United Nations regarding the country's claim for the de-limitation of the continental shelf.

Sri Lanka has to make a claim to the UN in respect of its continental shelf prior to the year 2008. Sri Lanka's claim to the vast oil and gas resources in the Indian Ocean would depend on the success of this claim. Mr. Ratnayake was also the President of the Legal Officers' Association of the AG's Department from June 2002 to June 2003.
He is also the President of the Alumni Association in Sri Lanka of the International Development Law Organisation of Rome, Italy and is an examiner on civil procedure at the Law College.

Mr. Ratnayake is the son of the late A.J.H.Ratnayake and Mrs. S.N.Ratnayake of Waragoda, Kelaniya. He is also a grand nephew of Sir Baron Jayatilleke.The first woman Legal Draftsperson Mrs. Therese Perera was appointed President's Counsel last week.

Entering the Legal Draftsman's Department in 1975, Mrs. Perera has had a distinguished service of serving the Department for 28 years and was appointed Legal Draftsperson in 2001, making her the first female to hold the post. Mrs. Perera told The Sunday Times that her appointment as a President's Counsel came as a total surprise and was happy at the appointment.

"I feel it is more a recognition for the Department. It's a boost for the work carried out at the Department as it is always done in a team spirit. Personally I feel that within the two years since my appointment I have been able to deliver the goods and have been rewarded" she said. The oaths ceremony is scheduled to take place on September 19.

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