Sri Lanka's powerful trade unions are planning a series of anti- privatisation picketing and rallies islandwide to coincide with the local elections due in March, sources said.
A spokesman for the joint trade union committee campaigning against privatisation told The Sunday Times that they would plan their trade union action when the local polls fever runs high.
"We are not politically affiliated. But we do not want government institutions to be sold cheap to multinational companies," the spokesman said.
Employees of government institutions already privatised or are to be privatised will take part in the demonstration., he warned.
He added the joint trade union efforts were not to sling mud at the People's Alliance government during the elections, but to show the mess the country is in, because of the privatisation of government assets.
Trade unions including the Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC), Ceylon Mercantile Union (CMU) Union of Posts and Telecom officers (UPTO) and many other prominent and powerful unions are to discuss this week ways and means to end the government's efforts to privatise its institutions.
This meeting will be followed by a gathering of over 5000 delegates of trade unions at the Sugathadasa Stadium, where key decisions will be taken regarding privatisation.
UPTO Secretary N. P. Hettiarchchy told The Sunday Times that at the meeting of delegates, the date for an islandwide picketing by trade unionists will be fixed.
A couple who employed a girl servant for seven years without paying her a salary or sending her to school have agreed to pay Rs. 15,000 as compensation after the case was taken up in a Panadura court.
The 16-year-old maid Kalachelvi had run away from the house she worked in after she saw a TV film which showed how all girls like her were cared for in a destitute's home. This was reported in The Sunday Times of January 19 under the headline, 'Childcare show opens Kala's eyes'.
When the case was taken up, Kala's employers a school teacher and her husband accepted responsibility for not paying the girl's salary and not sending her to school. Depriving a child of education is seen as a violation of fundamental rights. After the employers agreed to pay compensation , Kala's parents who had come from Hatton took her home.
Residents of 5000 households in Colombo will have their eyes tested free for Glaucoma, shortly under a project to determine the prevalence of the disease.
Dr. Habiba Rawoof of the Municipal Eye Clinic, Kotahena, with the aid of Natural Resources, Energy and Science Authority of Sri Lanka and the CMC has organised this project for people above the age of forty years.
The Lions Club of District 306B will conduct the house to house survey shortly.
A child rights activist has alleged that police are taking no serious action to bust up paedophile rackets even after making available to them paedophile blue films produced in Sri Lanka.
The activist, who did not want to be named, said the cassettes revealed a well organised racket of producing pornographic material in various locations in Sri Lanka for the European sex market.
He said the cassettes he received from child rights organisations in Europe were handled over to the police but no serious follow-up action had been taken so far.
Meanwhile Swiss judicial officials will arrive in Sri Lanka shortly to investigate the involvement of Swiss nationals in paedophile activities
A Swiss embassy spokeswoman told 'The Sunday Times' that the Swiss government had sought permission from the Foreign Ministry in Colombo for the investigation.
''The Sunday Times' learns that the focus of the investigation would be on the case of a Swiss national who is wanted in connection with paedophile activities. The Police had found evidence regarding his activities and detected that he had been residing around the Kalutara area.
In January, 'The Sunday Times' exclusively reported the case of the arrest of the Swiss national.
Meanwhile, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC-2) last week featured an investigative report on a child sex racket in Sri Lanka, mainly on the coastal belt of Sri Lanka further exposing the activities of foreign paedophiles.
The programme titled "The Boy Men" exposed the racket and said foreigners were coming into the country in the guise of investors and get involved in the child sex activities. In a 30 minute programme it also showed how the BBC reporter was driven away from the house of a foreign business tycoon whom they wanted to interview in connection with the programme.
The programme was another eyeopener to local authorities.
The pictures show some of the scenes of the BBC programme.
In the face of widespread protest, the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation has revoked the decision to cut the Tamil commercial service by four hours, chairman Janadasa Peiris said.
From January 23 the SLBC had ended its Tamil commercial programmes at 6 p.m. and replaced it with four hours of multi-lingual sports coverage on a commercial basis. Tamil parties protested saying the cut down was an act of discrimination but Mr. Peiris assured on Friday there was no intention to discriminate against anyone and the SLBC's sole aim was to earn more revenue from the commercial sports programmes at peak time.
He pointed out the SLBC had even reduced Sinhala transmissions because of technical and financial problems.
Mr. Peiris said the full Tamil commercial transmission would be restored within the next few days in deference to the requests of Tamil listeners.
President of SOS Kinderdorf International, Helmut Kutin was in Sri Lanka last week to look into the possibility of establishing a SOS village for children who are made refugees by the war in the north.
During his visit to Sri Lanka, Mr. Kutin participated in several formal and informal projects of the SOS Children's Villages of Sri Lanka, and also dedicated the fourth SOS Children's Village at Anuradhapura to the children of Sri Lanka.
SOS Kinderdorf International is probably the largest private Child Welfare Organization in the world, working in more than 125 countries with over 1250 Welfare Projects. In Sri Lanka the organization was established in 1981, and provides direct care to over 650 children and indirect care to over 5000 children and women.
The SOS also has an Emergency Relief Programme which provides housing and infra-structural facilities to 100 Sinhala and Tamil refugee families in the north of Sri Lanka in addition to providing several truck loads of emergency food rations, utensils and clothing.
The SOS Children's Villages of Sri Lanka consist of four villages in Piliyandala, Nuwara Eliya, Galle and Anuradhapura which include Day Care Centres, Schools, Boy's Youth Houses, Vocational Training Centres, Medical Centres, etc.
President Chandrika Kumaratunga had a word of praise for The Sunday Times for its role in exposing the child sex scandals.
Ms Kumaratunga told a news conference it has aroused the interest of the children with a desire to know what action was being taken in the matter by the government.
Recently The Sunday Times exposed the story of two children's homes in the North Western / Central Province where destitute children from two orphanages were allegedly taken to a nearby hotel to satisfy the desires of foreign sex perverts.
The President said she is taking every possible action to prevent sexual abuse of children by the so-called paedophiles.
U. S. Government on Friday extradited a suspected top Sikh militant leader wanted by New Delhi in connection with attempted assassination and kidnapping raising fears among Lankan separatists here of an American clamp on others.
Daya Singh Lahoria was extradited to face charges and a New Delhi official said they were pleased with the American move.
Lahoria is believed to be one of the leaders of the Khalistan Liberation Force, a militant outfit fighting for a separate Sikh nation in the Northern State of Punjab which it calls Khalistan.
Lahoria was also wanted by the Indian government for arms trafficking in India, authorities said. Indian officials said it was the first time the United States had extradited a suspect wanted under Indian Law.
Sri Lankans living here believe this is a good sign that these kinds of activities are under scrutiny since Sri Lanka faced a worst scenario where separatist activities overseas are concerned.
A case before Sinhala Commission
Peradeniya University Vice Chancellor Prof. D. M. Maddumabandara has said that excessive party politics has emerged as the bane of this country with even monks being divided among themselves on party lines.
Prof. Maddumabandara also spoke of the grave injustices done to the Sinhala Buddhist people especially in land matters. He said that instead of appointing commissions for so many things, a single body like the Sinhala Commission be asked to look into all matters.
The professor said the people of almost all races and religions in the world had a country of their own and for the Sinhala people it was only Sri Lanka. He said the colonial powers had divided the Sri Lankan people into Kandyan or low country groups and it was sad that such divisions were continuing even 50 years after independence.
He also said most lands were being bought over by non-Buddhist groups today and in Teldeniya recently the people of one village could not even buy a cremation ground.
Prof. Maddumabandara said it was significant that the Commission was sitting in Kandy, a centerpiece of Sri Lanka's history. The Kandyan kings had no party politics and hoped such a system could be reintroduced. "We need to give priority to national interest and not to party gain," he said.
Gamini Iriyagolla testifying before the Commission said he believed Sri Lanka was suffering today because what we had was not democracy but family bandyism. Powerful political families were allowed to do what they wished for personal or party interest rather than national interest. That was why lakhs of Indian people were given citizenship here.
Mr. Iriyagolla said the colonial powers had plundered lands from the Sinhala people and little had been done after independence to restore those lands. On the contrary leaders like S. Thondaman were allowed to dictate terms to governments and grab more for the estate people largely of Indian origin.
He said under the Sirima-Shastri pact, some 525,000 people of Indian origin were to go back to India while some 300,000 were to get citizenship here. But the Senanayake government had changed the proportion and Sri Lanka had to take a larger number.
Mr. Iriyagolla also criticised Marxist leaders like N. M. Perera and Colvin R. De Silva for the stand they took on such issues.
The Commission, headed by former judge S. W. Walpita was set up by Sinhala Buddhist groups to look into injustices caused to the people over the past 200 years.
The head of the Malwatte Chapter the Ven. Rambukwelle Sri Vipassi Mahanayake Thera said the work of the Commission was vitally important for the committee and he implored the blessing of the triple gem upon this task.
The Sinhala people today don't have even a national dress to identify themselves and even the members of the Sinhala Commission have failed to don the national dress, the Dalada Maliagawa Diywadene Nilame Neranjan Wijeratne said.
Testifying before the Commission when it sat in the historic city of Kandy Mr. Wijeratne said he hoped that members of the Commission would don the national dress at the next sitting.
Other speakers were P. Wickramasuriya, secretary to the Commission, ex judge A. C. M. P. Tennakone, Prof. A. V. de S. Indraratna, Prof. P. A. de Silva, P. D. Uduwela and ex- judge Raja Wanasundera.
Also present at the sittings were Registrar of the Malwatte Chapter Ven. Niyangoda Vijitha Thera, Ven. Welimada Dharmagavesi Thera, Kandy Mayor D. E. Pathirana, Gamini Jayasuriya and P. Wijeyekone.
A dubious document on the letterhead of a little known group but signed by the Editor of the Catholic Messenger, led to a false story about Fr. Tissa Balasuriya being published in the local and world media last Wednesday, a spokesperson for the CSR said.
The document issued by the so-called 'Society for Catholic Truth' said the appeal made by Fr. Balasuriya to the Supreme Tribunal of the Church in Rome, the Signatura Apostolica, against his excommunication had been rejected as under Canon 333 there was no right of appeal against a decision approved by the Pope.
This document signed by the Editor of the Catholic Messenger which is the official organ of the Church was sent to all local media and foreign news agencies. Assuming it to be an official announcement of the Church, local newspapers, the SLBC and foreign agencies reported that Fr. Balasuriya's appeal had been rejected.
On Thursday the Superior of the OMI Congregation in Sri Lanka Rev. Fr. John Camillus Fernando issued an official statement denying the claim made by the Messenger Editor. The head priest said he had contacted the OMI office in Rome and was officially informed that Fr. Balasuriya's appeal was still being considered by the supreme tribunal and there was no question of acceptance or refusal yet.
Catholic lay theologians involved in the campaign to seek a fair hearing for Fr. Balasuriya charged that the document issued on January 28 by the so-called 'Society for Catholic Truth', was misleading and unethical. They said the matter would be taken up at the highest levels of the Church as the document quoted the Papal Nuncio here as saying something that was not factual.
Meanwhile Fr. Balasuriya made a powerful defence of his position when he was interviewed on the TNL 'Frontline' program on television on Wednesday. He spoke of how the Western colonial powers had brought a cross with a gun to plunder the resources and damage the traditions of Asia and the need now to evolve an Asian theology. Stressing the need for all religions to find a common identity, Fr. Balasuriya said, "The Buddha and Jesus if they meet will not fight. It is their followers who are fighting."
In another development one lay theologian told The Sunday Times a petition was being sent to the government challenging the conduct of the Papal Nuncio in the controversy. He said the manner in which the Nuncio had summoned the Sri Lankan priest to deliver the excommunication order from Rome might amount to a violation of diplomatic principles and be construed as an interference in the internal affairs of a country.
The Catholic Messenger Editor when contacted refused to comment on the matter.
In a move that was seen as a possible opening for a dialogue on this issue, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger who heads the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith indicated at a news conference in Rome that Fr. Balasuriya's case might not yet have been closed by the CDF.
He said the excommunication was not due to Fr. Balasuriya's support for the ordination of women priests or for the evolution of an Asian theology in the Catholic Church. The Cardinal said he detected some Marxist thinking in Fr. Balasuriya's treatment of some church dogmas including original sin.
The head of the CDF said that if Fr. Balasuriya had signed the profession of faith given by Pope Paul VI without a footnote, the excommunication could have been avoided. Sources close to Fr. Balasuriya say if the CDF had told him he should sign the Paul VI profession without a footnote, he would have done so.
A spokesman for the Centre for Society and Religion said on Friday the Cardinal's comments raised hopes for a dialogue on the controversy.
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