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Confusion worse confounded
Since President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga took over the portfolios of defence, interior and mass communications, the double speak from her media bosses has been glaring. Some of the statements were contradictory others vague and yet others confusing. Here is a sampling.

Last Tuesday, a Defence Ministry statement which said that during a meeting attended by authorities of the police, security forces, Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission and LTTE leaders it was 'resolved that the 'security forces and the LTTE jointly take action to identify elements that cause violence to both Muslim and Tamil communities in these areas and prosecute them accordingly'.

On the same day, a statement was issued by the presidential secretariat quoting the President that orders have been given to the Inspector General of Police to arrest those responsible, including LTTE members responsible for the breach of security in the Trincomalee area.

The President was also quoted as saying that there was information to the effect that LTTE cadres were coming from the Kandalkadu camp and carrying out the attacks and escaping. The President had given the instructions to arrest LTTE members responsible for the incidents and also blamed LTTE cadres for these attacks during a meeting she had with representatives of Muslims and senior security officers at the President's Office on Tuesday.

President Kumaratunga was instructing the IGP to arrest those responsible for the attacks and on the other hand the defence ministry coming under her purview had decided that security forces and the LTTE jointly were taking action to, 'identify elements' that cause violence.

On the following day the President's Office issued a statement contradicting media reports that there were 'joint operations' between the security forces and the LTTE, but went on to explain that what the Defence Ministry on the previous day had said that the security forces and the LTTE had agreed to, 'jointly take action' to identify those responsible for causing violence.

In a separate statement on Monday, it said that it was rejecting media reports about the existence of a 'third force' behind the incidents in Trincomalee. A statement from the President's Office said that ' neither the President's Office nor any other responsible sources have ever attributed the prevailing tension to any act of such a third force.'

But on the following day the President's Office in a statement said that President Kumaratunga had ordered the police and relevant security authorities to investigate the. 'secrets' behind these incidents and added that there was an unnatural tendency on how these incidents took place.

It is said that the President had received reports that the recent incidents which had taken place in a different manner compared to the previous incidents. The statement said that in the recent incidents six persons had been killed in grenade attacks compared to the previous incidents where persons were hacked to death.

It was only two weeks ago that the President's Office sent a denial to the London Financial Times, denying comments attributed to the president in an interview given by her to the newspapers. But Financial Times said that it was standing by its comments attributed to the President.

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