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Attack on grads: Minister's statement yet to be recorded
Police are yet to record a statement from Minister Mahinda Wijesekara even after four days where he has allegedly led a mob to attack unemployed graduates who were protesting at Kotuwegoda, Matara.

SSP M.B. Ayupala who is incharge of the investigation told The Sunday Times that police has not so far recorded any statement from Minister Wijesekara as they are still trying to record statements from the affected party and eyewitnesses. He said that IGP T.E. Anandarajah had ordered a fresh inquiry over the incident as lapses had been noted in the statements recorded at the first inquiry.

The incident took place on September 10 in Kotuwegoda, Matara when Minister Wijesekara and a section of the crowd at the Yugadekma exhibition had allegedly launched an assault on members of the Unemployed Graduates' Association who were engaged in a protest campaign.

The alleged assault with poles had resulted in six people being hospitalised and two huts which the protesters had been using for shade, being completely demolished.
Though two senior police officers who had been present at the scene had reportedly not taken any action to stop the assault.

This is the second inquiry by police in three weeks time with regard to an alleged involvement by Minister Wijesekara in an offence where he had earlier allegedly ordered his security guards to fire in the air at a funeral to pay homage to one of his supporters who was killed by some gangsters.

Meanwhile Southern Province DIG D.W. Prathapasinghe told The Sunday Times that he is yet to receive from the Matara police a report of the incident where MP Justin Galappatti is reported to have forced a postal officer to remain in a toilet for more than two hours.

It's a hard life but it's home
Villagers of Thangavelauthapuram in Kanjikudichchiaru return to a ‘no-man’s land’
By Chris Kamalendran
For 78- year old Murukappan Thavaraja the war has been a bitter experience. He has been forced to move from place to place during the war when the fighting was at its peak in the 1990's. Today he is back in his village hoping that the situation will not change again for the worse.

Thavaraja who was once a farmer, today depends on hunting for a livelihood relying on his locally made gun and lead balls as pellets. He has returned to Thangavelauthapuram, in Kanjikudichchiaru, in the Ampara district, an area once known to have been a strong base for Tamil guerrillas and where intense fighting between security forces and guerrillas was reported in the mid 1990s. Some 40 families have returned to the area and started cultivating paddy and tobacco lands after the ceasefire agreement. The area lies between government- controlled Tirukkovil and LTTE-controlled Kanjikudichchiaru.

Similar scenes can be witnessed in surrounding villages where civilians who fled their homes from LTTE- controlled areas are returning and the LTTE is gradually pushing their positions back.

Some NGOs are among those in the forefront assisting the people to return to their villages while government organisations also are gradually moving in to carry out rehabilitation of irrigation tanks.

The civilians are not sure whether they would have to depend on the government or the LTTE in future, as they live in an area which appears to be a 'no mans land' between the government-controlled area and the LTTE- controlled areas. LTTE cadres appear to be supportive of civilians returning from government- controlled areas into the originally LTTE controlled areas.

The LTTE's former base in Kanjikudichchiaru area has now been pushed back nearly two kilometres beyond Kanjikudichchiaru Kulam. The area formerly occupied by the camp is now buzzing with returning villagers.

The LTTE's motives in allowing the civilians to return to these areas are not clear. Some observers believe the LTTE would want the civilians to be in the forefront so as to prevent security forces from moving into these areas.

"We have to depend mainly on assistance from NGOs. We do not have hospitals or schools in the area. The only school in the Kanjikudichchiaru area was damaged due to shelling during the early 1990s and since then we have had no school," says Thavaraja.

The civilians who have been returning to the villages are mostly farmers and they are forced to depend on the tank closeby, But the irrigation tank has been neglected for the past several months. It was only two months back that Irrigation Department officials moved into the area.

"It is only now that we have got permission from the military as well as the LTTE to enter the area and carry out rehabilitation work," says K.Vadivel, an Irrigation Engineer who is involved in the project.

In the villages the LTTE female cadres are very active. Their tasks include helping women in working out their livelihood and solving family disputes. LTTE's Ampara and Batticaloa women's wing leader, Radhi says they also instruct women on the necessity to educate their children. She said that some of the cadres are also involved in political activities in governmnet-controlled areas too.

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