16, February 1997

The police on Friday sought President Chandrika Kumaratunga's permission to deport the Swiss Paedophile, Armin Heinrich Pfaffhauser (57), informed sources revealed.

Pfaffhauser became the first foreign child abuser to be convicted under Sri Lankan law when Kesbewa Chief Magistrate and Additional District Judge, Tudor Gunaratne sentenced him to two years rigorous imprisonment on February 6.

'The Sunday Times' learns that the police have given lame excuses in a bid to justify their move. Among the reasons given are that it is too expensive to keep Pfaffhauser in jail, he is likely to transmit syphilis to locals; and upon deportation he would serve the sentence back in Switzerland.

A member of the Presidential Committee on Child Abuse and legal consultant to 'PEACE', Arul Tampoe said Sri Lankan law does not provide for a distinction between foreign and local convicts. He said that an expert in venereal diseases, Dr. Gamini Jayakuru giving evidence under oath, testified that Pfaffhauser was not suffering from syphilis at the time of his arrest and there were no medical reports to show that he has contracted the disease since.

"The argument that Mr. Pfaffhauser would serve his sentence in Switzerland is completely without any legal basis for Swiss law has no such provision. Moreover, according to the Rule of Double Jeopardy, a fundamental principal of the law of criminal justice is that a person cannot be convicted twice for the same offense. Therefore, if he is deported now he will not be even prosecuted for the offense for which he is convicted in Lanka", Mr. Tampoe added.

By M. Ismeth

An influential minister has called for a ban on processions and noisy election campaigns to prevent more violence such as the last Tuesday's Ellawala assassination.

Rural Industrial Development Minister and CWC leader, S. Thondaman suggested that instead of noisy street campaigns, political parties should use the media, especially TV to put across issues and ideas in a more practical and useful manner.

Mr. Thondaman said United States election campaigns, conducted mainly through T.V. debates, would be a good example for Sri Lanka to follow.

"Emotions run high at election time, as we have seen in Ratnapura over the past few days. We must stop that sort of campaigning. We cannot carry on with violence side by side with democracy," Mr. Thondaman told The Sunday Times.

Asked why he was supporting the PA at the upcoming local polls, Mr. Thondaman said the CWC had always maintained its own identity and the right to seek it's own interests.

CWC would support any party in office to win it's demands for the estate workers.

The Ceylon National Workers Congress led by M. S. Sellasamy has decided to remain neutral in the Colombo Municipal elections after the UNP turned down a request to nominate Mr. Sellasamy's wife and son, political sources said.

They said CNWC members however were contesting on the UNP ticket in areas such as Ambalagamuwa, Nuwara Eliya, Badulla, Haputale, Bandarawela, Kahawatte, Pussalawa and Kotmale.

Meanwhile another son of Mr. Sellasamy is contesting the Colombo election in the Ganeshalingam's Independent Group backed by the Peoples Alliance.

The Ceylon Workers Congress from which Mr. Sellasamy had been expelled some years ago, is also supporting the PA in local polls.

By Kshalini Nonis

A people's action movement has urged the two main political parties to agree on a common code of conduct for the coming elections and ensure that party discipline is effectively enforced in the face of distracting trends of violence.

The movement known as the People's Action Front for Free and Fair Election (PAFFREL) has also urged that explicit and strict instructions be given to the police and public officials to perform their duties pertaining to the elections with complete impartiality and integrity.

"We are taking steps to monitor the elections next month and are studying the security situation. We hope to meet the Commissioner of Elections soon" PAFFREL's Joint Chairman Godfrey Gunatilleke said.

PAFFREL also strongly deplored the violence that occurred in Kuruwita on February 11 and said all citizens were saddened by the tragedy regardless of their party allegiance. "The wanton and unrestrained nature of the violence which is apparent in these events should draw the urgent attention of both political leaders as well as all responsible citizens to the state into which our political life has generated", Mr. Gunatilleke said.

According to the PAFFREL during the past two weeks they have received information from several electorates which goes to show concern that the actions of members belonging to both the UNP and the PA are creating conditions which may result in violence and intimidation. Furthermore, this fear could prevent citizens and members of rival parties from exercising their legitimate democratic rights.

PAFFREL also says that in some instances where such conditions exist, the law-enforcing authorities and public officials do not seem to be able to act effectively or withstand political pressures mainly for fear that they will be caught in political crossfire.

They have appealed to the government to enable citizens' organizations such as PAFFREL to perform the task of monitoring the elections more effectively. According to them, the active participation and vigilance of citizens' groups in a nonpartisan 'election watch' could be one of the best guarantees of a fair and free election.

Several NGO's such as the Movement for Free and Fair Elections and Sarvodaya, will also be joining PAFFREL to monitor the elections.

Irwin Weerakkody will be the UNP's media spokesman for the coming local elections, the party's executive committee decided on Friday.

By. S.S. Selvanayagam

The ruling PA and the CWC which have entered into an electoral alliance for the local polls have by a strange turn of events found themselves pitted against each other in the Wattala Pradeshiya Sabha.

CWC sources said they had requested the PA to field at least one of their candidates on the PA list for the Wattala Sabha, but it was turned down. Thus the CWC nominated its own list of candidates.

On nomination day the UNP list for the Wattala Sabha was rejected on a legal point regarding the age of a candidate. So the battle for Wattala will be between the PA and the CWC.

Meanwhile the CWC filed nominations for four other local bodies, but two of the lists were rejected on legal grounds. Then the CWC will be contesting the elections for local bodies in Passara and Nuwara Eliya while its nominations for Hatton-Dickoya and Ambagamuwa have been rejected.

PA nominees have been included in these CWC lists under the cockerel symbol while CWC nominees are included in the PA lists for councils in the Uva, Sabaragamuwa, Central and Western Provinces.

The UNP strongly appeals to the government not to resort to terror tactics, and requests its ministers not to incite PA supporters to violence and deny the people their fundamental right to choose their own local government representatives.

Statement issued by the UNP official elections spokesman Irwin Weerakkody, states that it is abundantly clear that the PA government and its supporters are intent on creating violence rather than on controlling it, and wish to harass UNP supporters to the maximum, using the incident at Ratnapura as an excuse.

On Friday PA supporters led by some of their leaders staged a demonstration opposite Siri Kotha, while the UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe was addressing a meeting of the candidates contesting the Western Province local bodies. The statement added that the mobs arrived in buses and commandos of the presidential security detail were with them. It was evident that the whole demonstration was state-sponsored and aimed at provoking the people attending the meeting.

The Police took no action to disperse the mob. However, all people at the meeting maintained discipline and dispersed in an orderly manner, refusing to rise to the bait and respond to the violence that was threatened against them, says the statement.

Meanwhile, the working committee of the UNP has decided to suspend Susantha Punchinilame and Mahinda Ratnatilleke, and will give its fullest co-operation to the law enforcement authorities to bring them to justice and subject them to the course of the law, the statement further stated.

The mass attacks on UNP supporters in Ratnapura, Kuruwita and Eheliyagoda and Friday's demonstration opposite the UNP headquarters are clear indications that the government is resorting to thuggery and violence on an islandwide basis, in order to disrupt the democratic process and the holding of fair and peaceful local government elections, the statement also stated.