No man is
above the law and no man is below it; nor do we ask any man's permission when we
require him to obey it, is what the police told the university students this
week when they were to go on a protest march demanding the immediate opening of
the Ruhunu University. Pic by Gemunu Wellage.
Despite strong calls by Tamil parties to postpone the proposed Local Government elections in the north, the government will go ahead with the controversial polls early next year, PA sources said yesterday.
Elections Commissioner Dayananda Dissanayaka told The Sunday Times returning officers of the four districts for which nominations had been called, would be accepting nominations from December 11 to 18 and other preparations were also underway.
A government source said they would go ahead with the polls on schedule as a step to further restore normalcy in the areas liberated from the LTTE.
The United National Party has not taken a decision on the issue so far, but, is likely to boycott the polls.
UNP General Secretary Gamini Athukorale said they would be issuing a statement in a day or two.
"Why cannot the govt. hold the mini polls in the south, which are long over due? The govt. tells us not to visit Jaffna because it is not safe. Then how can they ensure free and fair elections?" Mr. Athukorale asked
A day after the government announced that elections would be held to 23 local bodies in Jaffna, Kilinochchi, Mannar and Vavuniya, six Tamil parties lashed out at the government move and demanded that the decision be revoked.
"The government has cited security reasons and postponed elections in the south, but when the war is still not over in the north the government is trying to hold elections," a statement signed by leaders of five Tamil parties said.
The moderate TULF leader, M. Sivasithamparam told The Sunday Times that in the prevailing situation there was every possibility of the election being rigged or manipulated.
Explaining the reasons for the TULF's objection, Mr. Sivasithamparam said normalcy had not been restored, the state of civil war still existed, hundreds of thousands of registered voters had been displaced and were not living in their homes, while most of the Tamil people were undergoing terrible hardships.
The north was still under military control, no civil administration had been established and no democratic political party had been able to engage in any political activities upto date,
TELO chief M. K. Sivajilingam said the elections would be a farce at a time when the people in that region continue to languish as refugees.
EPRLF general secretary Suresh Premachandran lashed out at the government decision asking how elections could be held in several LTTE controlled areas.
"Mannar mainland, part of Vavuniya and Kilinochchi and even a significant portion of Jaffna peninsula are still under the control of LTTE. Even in the Kilinochchi town which was captured by the army, there are few if any people," he explained.
"On the other hand, as far as the Jaffna peninsula is concerned, when the Tamil political parties asked the government to allow them to go to Jaffna, it was flatly refused. It said that Jaffna people did not like any Tamil organisation in Jaffna. But now, the government has suddenly announced the local elections. "We are for peace and democracy but this is not the way to get about it," Mr. Premachandran said.
A group of pro-government lawyers were again defeated in a vote at the meeting of the Bar Council of the Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL) after heated arguments over a resolution which the council is trying to move against the recent appointment of Professor Shiranee Bandaranayake to the Supreme Court .
The Bar Council meeting began yesterday with arguments over a voting at the last meeting on November 16 where the pro-government lawyers lost a vote 97 to 2 on the question of whether the resolution about the new Supreme Court Judge should be taken up for discussion.
The pro-govt. lawyers objected to the last meetingÕs voting claiming that according to the BASL constitution the administrative secretary of the council should have taken the counting and since he was not present the counting was not valid.
However, others pointed out that in the absence of the administrative secretary the secretary had taken the count and it was valid.
Arguments broke out thereafter and it was decided to take another vote to ascertain whether the house agreed on the last meetingÕs vote count. Initially 65 lawyers voted saying that the count was not proper. After further argument a vote was taken for the second time and 61 voted with four abstaining.
After yet another round of arguments it was decided to take a vote once again to ascertain whether the resolution should be taken up for discussion and this time the pro-government lawyers opposing the discussion of the resolution was defeated by 97 to 81, a majority of 16 votes.
Pin-drop silence followed the defeat of pro-government lawyers.
As the members were running short of time and as most outstation lawyers had to leave, it was decided that the motion be taken at the next Bar Council meeting.
At the outset, Bar Association President N.R.N. Daluwatte warned that any member attempting to disrupt the meeting would be named and sent out.
The last meeting was disrupted by a group of pro-government lawyers singing ÔPal-kaviÕ (folk songs) after losing the vote on the resolution.
The four resolutions which the Bar Council is trying to discuss are: (1) Unreservedly condemning the appointment of Prof. Shiranee Bandaranayake; (2) the Bar not welcoming Ms. Bandaranayake; (3) calling upon Ms. Bandaranayake to resign and (4) calling upon the Chief Justice not to constitute a bench comprising Ms. Bandaranayake.
Professor Shiranee Bandaranayake who was recently appointed to the Supreme Court is due to sit on the bench for the first time tomorrow.
Chief Justice G.P.S. de Silva and Justice A.S. Wijetunga will be the other judges on bench.
Ms. Bandaranayake, a former law professor at the Colombo University was appointed to the Supreme Court over a month ago.
Thousands of Army deserters were trooping back to base as the deadline for their amnesty neared its end yesterday, military sources said.
More than 1360 reported back for duty on Friday and hundreds more were expected yesterday, they said.
In the past few days since the amnesty was offered some 5000 deserters have returned. The deadline expired at midnight and from today tough action would be taken against deserters. They and anyone employing or sheltering them will be liable to a jail term of six months, the Army has warned.
CWC leader and minister S. Thondaman has urged the government to give estate workers ownership of their line rooms and adjoining plots of land which they are cultivating.
Mr. Thondaman said the workers had been living in these line rooms for generations and it was time now to give them deeds of ownership.
"Let them feel happy that at least now they will have something to call their own," said Mr. Thondaman who heads the CWC with a membership of several hundred thousands.
He said he hoped to meet President Kumaratunga to discuss this and the issue of some 160,000 stateless people.
The CWC feels a vast majority of these people should be given citizenship in Sri Lanka as they have no home and no one to do so in India.
The Criminal Defamation trial filed on behalf of. Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga against the Editor "Sunday Times" continued this week in the Colombo High Court.
Senior Superintendent of Police (R) D.S.L. Witharana and Director Editorial, Upali Newspapers Ltd., Edmund Ranasinghe concluded their evidence. On Thursday, Defence Counsel Kumar Ponnambalam moved for summons on the Secretary, Judicial Services Commission (JSC) S. Withanachchi to produce a circular with regard to the transfer of English Stenographers to the Criminal Defamation trial of Ms. Kumaratunga, against the Editor, "Sunday Times".
This stemmed from certain submissions made by the Deputy Solicitor General with regard to the "Sunday Times" story last week on the transfer of these stenographers which Mr. Ponnambalam said were prejudicial to the Editor.
After hearing further submissions on Friday on this matter, Judge Upali de Z. Gunawardena reserved his order on whether to summon the Secretary, Judicial Service Commission for December 3, the day trial resumes.
President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga has for the first time publicly accused the former government of ordering the assassination of her husband Vijaya Kumaratunga in 1987.
In an interview with the "International Herald Tribune" in Paris, she also charged that the UNP government had killed tens and thousands of opposition party youth who were picked up at night in unmarked cars and their bodies left in piles in the streets.
The President in hard-hitting comments said she knew now for a fact that corruption in the previous regime had gone on at presidential and cabinet level. That was why she was personally in charge of the Finance Ministry now to bring back the culture of honesty.
The interview:
Q: You have strong resemblances with Benazir Bhutto, the outsted prime minister of Pakistan, even though she governed a Muslim nation. Do you see lessons there for yourself?
A: I feel a lot of sympathy for her because we are both women who have been subjected to political violence, and we both came to office with high popularity and high expectations. The hopes mainly involved stopping political violence and wiping out the political corruption that plagued both our countries. Ms. Bhutto tried hard, but the situation was so complicated that it may have been impossible for her government not to disappoint people.
In my country, we faced a military problem with the Tamil Tigers in part of the country and in the rest of the country illegal violence perpetrated by the previous government.
They ordered the assassination of political leaders, including my husband, but they also killed tens of thousands of unsung people, young people from democratic opposition groups, picked up at night in unmarked cars and their bodies left in piles in the streets.
Sri Lankans wanted an end to this, passionately because - much more so than in Pakistan - we have had a long tradition of very liberal system, a tradition of freedom, without dictatorial rulers. So we stopped this violence in 24 hours after taking office, as we had pledged. We knew we could because it was the government that was doing it.
We have also made progress in weakening the ethnic insurgency. The Tigers have broken the cease-fire, but people have seen our goodwill, including a plan for extensive devolution of powers so that the Tamil people can live in equality and dignity.
You cannot win in a day or so, but what people want is confidence that the government will stick to its peace package - and we're showing that.
Q: Are you convinced that India has cut off aid to the Tamil Tigers?
A: Completely. India supported the rebellion materially and morally at a time when the Sri Lankan government had destroyed our relations. With more than 50 million Tamils in their country, Indians felt that they were seeing fellow Tamils being murdered by the previous Sri Lankan government and felt obliged to act. The situation has changed here, and both the central government in India and the Tamil Nadu regional government have adopted a non-intervention policy.
Q: The Tigers, despite their military setbacks, remain one of the world's best organized guerrilla organizations, and you are sometimes described as the world's most threatened leader. Do you feel that there are international policies that could effectively combat terrorism?
A: I certainly do: the decisions taken at the G-7 summit in Lyon. That package is sufficient if it is implemented. The key is not to let political refugees use their refugee status to engage in illegal collecting of arms and funds.
Q: Corruption, you said, was your other priority target.
A: And we have been very successful in stopping bribery by starting at the top. I know for a fact that corruption has gone at the presidential level and at the cabinet level - that's why I'm Finance Minister. I have to tend to these things myself because it's so important to bring back the culture of honesty.
Q: Do foreign companies appreciate your efforts?
A: Big Fortune 500 companies are coming in, even though military operations continue in the northern part of the country.
it's the first time we have attracted direct industrial investments and companies say that they are attracted by our free market economy - started by the last government, the only good thing it did in 17 years - and the atmosphere of political freedom, where people can breathe freely gives confidence.
Q: Are these Western values sometimes challenged by Asian values?
A: Realistically, the free market has become universal, and it implies democracy and human rights. Of course, every country has its own national ethos, but in the modern world, it's largely cultural, not a political system. When people talk about a conflict of values, I think it is an excuse that can be used to cover a multitude of sins.
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