Two international groups for protecting journalists have appealed to President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga about “intimidation and harassment” to The Sunday Times journalist Iqbal Athas.
The New York based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called upon her to conduct a “thorough investigation beyond the capacities of the local Police” and take action against the parties responsible.
The CPJ is the largest and most powerful among US organisations defending media freedom and comprises representatives of The New York Times, CNN, CBS, ABC, The Washington Post, Time, Newsweek and the Los Angeles Times among others.
The Paris based Reporters Sans Frontiers in a separate letter to President Kumaratunga has asked her to “do everything in your power to ensure that those responsible for attacks against journalists are identified and punished.”
Both the CPJ and Reporters Sans Frontiers have copied letters of their representations to a number of other international organisations. They include the American Society of Newspaper Editors, the United States Congressional Committee to Support Writers and Journalists, The Newspaper Association of America, The Newspaper Guild of the United States and International Federation of Journalists.
The Committee to Protect Journalist (CPJ) has protested to the Pakistani govt. against the detention and military trial of journalist Humayun Far.
The journalist, bureau chief of the Peshawar-based daily Mashriq, was abducted on June 28 by eight men in Islamabad.
He was held in custody on unspecified charges. The CPJ said the journalist’s lawyers had been told by a Lahore court that he is being court martialled in a secret court proceeding.
In a letter to Prime Minister Nawaz Shariff the CPJ said it was alarmed to learn that Mr. Far’s case was being heard by a military court, though he is a civilian.
The CPJ has called on the government to demonstrate its commitment to democracy by making public any charges against the journalist and conducting the trial in open court.
A Belgian who was charged with sexually abusing two Sri Lankan children in Matara, did not appear in courts as scheduled last Monday amidst speculation he might have jumped bail and fled the country on a forged passport.
An official of a child protection group monitoring this case told The Sunday Times they had information that even some files relating to the case against Luc Koopman, were missing.
The prosecuting state counsel and the police also were not present when the case was called up in the Matara Magistrate’s court.
Mr. Koopman had been arrested a year ago for having allegedly sexually abused two boys at a hotel in Matara.
When the case was called earlier he was allowed bail.
This is not the first time that an alleged paedophile has fled the country while on bail. In 1995 Swiss national Thomas Wiaz Kaspar who had been arrested on charges of child abuse and produced in a Kesbewa court fled the country while on bail.
When contacted by The Sunday Times police would only say they were holding the passport of Mr. Koopman but NGO officials said he might have bolted with a bogus passport.
Government is reconsidering four bills relating to drama, fine arts, culture and related fields following widespread opposition by artistes and a call by the UNP for a public debate and major amendments to the proposals.
An official of the Cultural Affairs Ministry said the bills would be reconsidered in view of appeals by various groups and parties.
A spokesman for the UNP told The Sunday Times the bills to establish academies for drama, fine arts and skilled arts, literature and a national cultural council contain clauses which would give the govt. excessive control over the arts. He pointed out that in terms of the bills the Minister of Cultural Affairs would have the power to hire or fire any member of these academies and this could lead to political abuse or unacceptable restrictions on artistes.
Affter the bills were proposed last month a group of about hundred eminent people including dramatists and novelists petitioned President Kumaratunga saying they were opposed to what they saw as political control over the arts.
They asked for a meeting with the President to express their views.
The revised electricity tariffs which will come into effect from September 1 will have a detrimental effect on industries leading to an increase in prices of goods and services, said industrialists.
According to Chairman of the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) Arjun Deraniyagala, the revision of electricity tariffs will result in an overall increase of 11.6%.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday granted leave to proceed in a Fundamental Rights petition filed by the former Deputy General Manager (Finance) of the Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation Limited against his ex-statutory employer and 12 other respondents.
The Supreme Court reserved judgement on two petitions filed by two Jaffna District MPs against the expulsion order issued on them by the EPDP leader.
The bench comprised Chief Justice G.P.S. de Silva, Justice Somawansa Wijetunge and Justice Dr. Shirani A. Bandaranayake.
These two petitions filed by Rajendran Ramamoorthi and Rajendran Rameshwaram, Jaffna EPDP District MPs cited EPDP leader, Secretary General of Parliament, Commissioner of Elections and 14 others as respondents.
The Supreme Court further ordered both parties to submit their final written objections before August 6.
Mystery surrounds the death of a 13-year old school girl with extensive burn injuries in the Nawalapitya area recently.
The girl, a student of Kathireshan Maha Vidyala, Nawalapitiya was admitted to hospital with severe burn injuries by her boarding mistress, who claimed that she had set herself on fire after pouring kerosene oil over her.
The postmortem had revealed that the girl had died of the burn injuries, and it was also revealed that she had been raped.
Before her death she is reported to have told the patient in the next bed that she had been raped by a neighbour several times.
A major Tamil party has called on the United States to suspend the military training given by the “Green Berets” to Sri Lankan troops and the sale of lethal weapons, political sources said.
TULF Parliamentary group leader Joseph Pararaja-singham made the appeal when he met US State Department official Steve Mann who is in charge of Sri Lankan affairs during an ongoing visit to Washington.
Mr. Pararajasingham said suspension of US military training and arms sales would facilitate efforts to find a just and effective political solution to Sri Lanka’s ethnic conflict.
During meetings with US Congressmen and refugee relief agencies, Mr. Pararajasingham said some 2,00,000 displaced people were suffering without food or medicine.
Giving details, he also charged that incidents of disappearances and rape in the North-East were on the increase again.
Mr. Pararajasingham who is on a three-week visit to the US, emphasized the urgent need to bring the war to an end, stating that the Sri Lankan government’s two pronged strategy of waging war on one front and claiming to seek a political solution on the other, had clearly failed as it had made matters worse on both fronts.
He also stressed the importance of the LTTE’s participation in any resolution to the conflict saying that any discussions that excluded the LTTE would not provide a lasting and meaningful solution to the conflict.
Mr. Pararajasingham met officials from the US Committee for Refugees (USCR) including USCR policy analyst Hiram A. Ruiz and research assistant Katie Hope who are monitoring the Tamil refugee situation, having visited the Wanni in November 1996.
Mr. Pararajasingham in his talks with Mr. Mann, provided details and supporting statistics on the casualties inflicted on the Tamil civilians of the North-East and the destruction of their properties in the on-going conflict.
He also met Stephen Coffey, the Assistant Secretary for Human Rights Affairs at the State Department to give details of escalating human rights abuses in the North-East.
Mr. Pararajasingham has also briefed Senator Paul Wellstone, Congresswoman Sue Kelly, Senator Kerry and Steve Rickart of Amnesty International.
A big cattle racket in Kalutara has been busted with the arrest of six suspects who are alleged to have stolen more than 300 cattle from various villages in the area and sold them in Beruwela for slaughter, police said.
The gang operating at night had over the past few months stolen cattle from Kalutara North, Dodangoda, Paiyagala and Tebuwana areas. In their last operation, the gang had allegedly stolen a pregnant cow, put it in a van and were taking it away when the van met with an accident. The police then moved in.
Cattle thefts have been a major problem in Kalutara for several months and over hundred people gathered at the police station where the suspects were being held.
The Kalutara, Beruwela area is a popular tourist resort and beef fetches high prices, especially in hotels.
A Muslim has accused the SLMC of trying to sell out the rights of Muslims in exchange for a “Sultanate” in the Ampara district.
All Ceylon Muslim League (ACML) President, A.L.M. Hashim said the agreement between the SLMC and the TULF for a Muslim Council in the South East would deny rights to the Muslims in Jaffna, Mannar and other areas in the Northern and Eastern provinces.
Mr. Hashim, a President’s Counsel accused the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress led by Minister M.H.M. Ashraff of seeking party or personal gain at the expense of other Muslims.
He said the SLMC had got no mandate to compromise the general interests of the Muslims for a meagre council covering just a third of the Ampara district.
Mr. Hashim said the All Ceylon Muslim Congress did not want amalgamation of the Northern and Eastern provinces as it felt such a move would only enable a few people to wield power instead of serving the overall interests of the community.
An interview by Jonathan Steele of the ‘London Guardian’ with Fr. Dalston Forbes OMI, the Sri Lankan theologian and Secretary of the Conference of Major Religious Superiors, has hit the British newsstands. This was released to the Asian media by Andrew Higgins, the ‘Guardian’s’ Far East Correspondent. It came in the wake of a French edition of Fr. Tissa Balasuriya’s book ‘Mary and Human Liberation’ being released recently in a massive print-out in France to meet a wide demand in the continent. Cassels London will publish the book in a separate edition in next month.
Jonathan Steele’s interview in the ‘Guardian’ aroused comment because it was with Fr. Dalton Forbes OMI who was on the Sri Lankan ad hoc theological commission! The Sri Lankan theologian’s slowness to lay down the cards regarding those really responsible for the ad hoc commission’s findings in the Fr. Balasuriya affair was a surprising stance. But Jonathan Steele’s ‘Guardian’ interview with Fr. Forbes in Colombo now opens a new can of worms.
A large photograph of Fr. Balasuriya by Dominic Sansoni accompanies the ‘Guardian’ middle spread. Says Jonathan Steele:
“One of the few Sri Lankan priests who has followed the Balasuriya case closely and takes a neutral stance is Dalston Forbes, a fellow member of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, who has known Tissa since they studied in Rome 50 years ago.
“Fr. Forbes criticises the Sri Lankan Bishops, and particularly Bishop Malcolm Ranjith for mishandling the affair. It was a psychological wound for a senior priest to be attacked like that by a junior Bishop. ‘Everything springs from that!, he says.
“According to Fr. Forbes, “Steele goes on, “Tissa’s book is weak on several grounds. Its study of revelation is insufficiently advanced, Its statements on faith are hasty. It caricatures the concept of original sin and overlooks modern scholarship.”
But Fr. Forbes went on to point out: “The Vatican’s reaction is much too harsh and quite unnecessary. Cardinal Ratzinger should be sacked for this.”
The Sri Lankan theologian told the ‘Guardian’: “Thirty years ago the second Vatican Council offered more power to local Bishops, yet in Sri Lanka they don’t use it. Some of them become office boys of Roman diplo-mats and bureaucrats. It’s the old mentality. Big-Daddy is in Rome. Let him decide.
“Fr. Forbes explained that the worldwide synod of Bishops has a majority of members from the Third World. They meet roughly every two years for about a month, but allow the agenda to be set by Rome, as well as the editing of the final documents. “The Vatican likes this contradiction. Its message is ‘Let the Third World develop, but we are the ones who decide.”
When I interviewed Fr. Dalston Forbes when he was in Sydney he said, “It is extremely improbable that Rome would ever excommunicate Fr. Balasuriya. There would be a world upheaval.” In the wake of the Belgian Cano-nist’s findings that Rome bungled the Fr. Balasuriya excommunication, which is invalid, I feel that the ad hoc theological commission should come out with the truth regarding its real authorship and how far the other members had anything to do with it.
Fr. Balasuriya was wary to comment on Fr. Forbes’ ambivalent stand. But he added with a chuckle: “There was a time when Fr. Forbes found an error in every page of my book!”
Fr. Forbes’ interview with the ‘’’Guardian’ however has come in the wake of the Oblate Superior General, Fr. Marcello Zago’s futile mission through Fr. Lucien Smith. Fr. Smith who as an emissary was in Colombo intent on promoting a ‘dialogue’ with the ‘heretic’, got short shrift from the Sri Lankan Bishops’ Conference. Fr. Forbes himself was keen on a solution.
Meanwhile, ‘The Sunday Times” scoop of Stefan Gigacz’s findings were splashed around the world . Alan Gill , former Religion journalist of the ‘Sydney Morning Herald’ told me: “The Sunday Times” story is an important breakthrough in this excommunication of the decade”.
London Press Bureau journalist Fr. Pimental Pinto faxed a message: “Justice must be done. Must seem to be done. Now, not in a 100 years time”.
Jonathan Steele when he interviewed Fr. Balasuriya writes in the ‘Guardian’ “After being summoned to the Apostolic Nuncio in Sri Lanka in December 1996 and warned that excommunication was imminent, Fr. Tissa wrote to the Pope to ask for a hearing in which the ‘accusers are not also the judges’ Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the Vatican Secretary of State, wrote back to say Pope John Paul II personally approved the excommunication decree.
“In spite of this. Tissa continues to give the Pope the benefit of the doubt. I don’t think the Pope has seen all the documents. My respect for him is such that I don’t think he would act like this if he had,” he says. He warns darkly of manipulation in the Vatican at a time when an aging Pope is weak and ill. He shouldn’t allow justice in the Church to be hijacked by a small group!. Although forbidden to say Mass, Fr. Balasuriya declares defiantly: “I live my Mass every day, for the development of Asian theology, for the rights of women in the Church and society and for human rights within the Church”. Fr., Balasuriya attended the Oblate priests’ retreat recently, but was denied the sacraments. Fr. Forbes’ accurate observations however on Cardinal Ratzinger and Sri Lankan Bishops being office boys of Vatican diplomats may not wash lightly here. Further, the Oblate Superior General Fr. Marcello Zago, a close friend of Cardinal Ratzinger, may also not be impressed. Fr. Zago’s part in the Balasuriya excommunication has been deservedly and widely criticised. Cardinal Ratzinger in a rampage rearguard action has now criticised Pope Paul V for the reforms he brought into the Church. It was Pope Paul’s Profession of Faith that Fr. Balasuriya signed and the CDF refused to accept. Meanwhile, the Fr. Balasuriya excommunication will be bound to hit the headlines again, with the defamation actions by a lay journalist against the ‘Messenger’ Editor and proprietors. Fr. Bala-suriya and those who defended him were not given opportunities to reply to the vilification campaign that the Sri Lankan Church’s official newspaper conducted against them.
On night July 23, Fr. Balausriya appeared on BBC 4 afternoon shift. The programme was telecast live from Colombo to London.
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