• UN to deactivate mines in north
• Xinhua man sets off storm
• Kasippu gangs let loose on young journalist
• Polonnaruwa cops in food riots

UN to deactivate mines in north

First step to end mindless carnage

The UN has been given the go-ahead by the government to initiate deactivation of landmines in the affected areas where the country has seen mindless and horrific carnage for more than 15 years.

Arvo Orfstaad, Resident Representative for the United Nations Development Programme in Sri Lanka told The Sunday Times, international experts would be brought here to manage and monitor the project, primarily intended to expedite resettlement of refugees as many people are fearful of going back to their homes in areas that have not been cleared of anti-personnel mines.

Asked whether it was a step towards Sri Lanka signing the Ottawa Treaty banning landmines, Mr. Orfstaad said the UN would certainly welcome such a move but added "it is not my duty to persuade the government to do so."

Sri Lanka has so far refused to sign the Ottawa landmine treaty mainly on the grounds that such a move would be one-sided and counterproductive if the rival party, the LTTE, also does not agree to it.

The UN chief here said the Sri Lankan army had agreed to co-operate and give any support in this venture, for which local staff would also be recruited and trained in de-mining.

He said much groundwork and research would have to be done before the actual process of removing the landmines begins.

Mr. Orfstaad said the UNDP would seek to build a relationship of understanding and goodwill with the armed forces in the North, while also drawing up an agreement that would not allow the re-laying of mines in cleared areas.

The International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) says there are about 110m uncleared landmines in the world today.

Some 5,000,000 more landmines will be produced this year.

Landmines all over the world claim more than 500 victims every week.

More civilians die from landmine injuries after a war than soldiers during a war. The group also claims that an estimated 26,000 people will be killed or maimed by landmines this year.

The ICRC says this scourge kills 30 people a day and maims still more.

According to UN estimates, it would take 1,100 years to clear the 110 million active landmines that are already in place in 64 countries.

Figures alone do not do justice to the horrific scenes to which nurses and doctors are exposed to when mine victims are brought in.

The human tragedy that landmines have caused is incalculable.

A lack of public awareness in Sri Lanka on the mindless carnage caused by anti-personnel landmines has allowed the problem to grow virtually unnoticed.

The ICRC says it has been witness to the cries of pain and the look of anguish and horror on the faces of people who learn they will never walk again without help.

In Sri Lanka the estimated number of landmines is unknown. This does not mean the issue is any less horrific.

Many civilians in the northern peninsula have lost a limb while collecting firewood, walking to the well to draw water, or while digging the ground and clearing private compounds.

S. Paramanathan, Chairman of the NGO consortium in Jaffna, said cemeteries and other areas in Jaffna under government control yet held hidden landmines.

Xinhua man sets off storm

By Imran Vittachi

The Government yesterday freed a Chinese journalist whom it had threatened to deport for standing by an erroneous story about last week's LTTE naval attack, a senior official said.

"He has been released," Information Director Ariya Rubasinghe told The Sunday Times last night.

Jin Hui, the Colombo-based correspondent of the state-run Xinhua news service, was threatened with expulsion from Sri Lanka, when the Ministry of Defence ordered his arrest on Friday night, police said. He was held overnight and grilled throughout much of yesterday at Police headquarters, police said.

According to Mr. Rubasinghe, police inflicted no physical harm on Mr. Jin while interrogating him.

"I have visited him," Mr. Rubasinghe added. "He was in good health."

Government officials yesterday justified his arrest and detention, citing Mr. Jin's refusal to apologise for and amend the contentious Xinhua news story.

On February 23, he reported that Navy Commander Cecil Tissera was killed in the Sea Tiger ambush on a Navy convoy off the North coast.

When the government subsequently demanded a correction from him be published, Mr. Jin later ran another story, carrying the government's denial, but simultaneously adding that his sources in the Sri Lankan military were standing by their claims about Vice-Admiral Tissera's death. When the Government then demanded an official apology from Xinhua itself and it refused, that was when it decided to take in Mr. Jin, police said.

According to Reuters news agency, when Mr. Jin was finally freed, he was handed over to the Chinese embassy.

However, Chinese Embassy officials declined comment, while Defence Secretary Chandrananda De Silva — who is said to have issued a deportation and arrest warrant — could not be immediately reached for comment.

"We have no information to give," said a Chinese official.

Kasippu gangs let loose on young journalist

House raided again as Police instigate more harassment

By J.A.L. Jayasinghe and Shane Seneviratne

Amidst warnings that signs of a police state are re-emerging, an armed gang on Friday night stormed the home and posed a death threat to the Aranayake Lake House provincial correspondent who last week alleged he was assaulted by police for exposing the 'Kasippu' trade in the area.

The Journalist, Pradeep Kumara Dharmaratne was at home after being discharged from the Kegalle hospital where he had received treatment for more than a week, when the new act of terror took place.

The gang of about eight men had inserted a sword through the door and shouted abuses against the journalist, threatening him not to give evidence against the police.

The gang tried to break open the door, but failed and left the place after putting up a poster in Sinhala with the wordings 'Danduwama Maranaya' (Punishment is Death).

Yesterday morning the journalist left his home in fear, but the gang followed him and threatened him at the house of a relative.

The journalist complained to the office of the Senior Superintendent of Police in Kegalle while his sister lodged a complaint at the Aranayake Police station.

The threats came after three more police officers involved in the alleged assault on the Dinamina correspondent were interdicted on Friday and certain sections believed to be groups backed by 'Kasippu mudalalis' launched a wave of protests and intimidation campaigns against the family of the journalist.

The interdiction of the three police officers took place after the provincial correspondent identified them at a parade held at Kegalle SSP's office instead of the Aranayake station where the journalist felt there might be prejudice against him. Earlier the Officer in Charge of the Police station was interdicted for his alleged involvement in the offence which included the assault and an attempt to cover it up by framing the journalist as a kasippu dealer.

Groups reportedly backed by sections of the police and some local politicos put up posters in the area against the journalist, attacked his home with stones and threatened relatives.

Family members said that as part of the protest campaign trishaw drivers had put up black flags on their vehicles protesting against the journalist. "In private the three wheeler owners have confessed they were under pressure by certain kasippu mudalalis to put up black flags in protest against the interdiction of the OIC," a family member told. Kegalle's SSP Pujitha Jayasundara told yesterday the Aranayake Police had been directed to provide full protection to the journalist and probe the reports of further intimidation.

(Please see Editors' Guild statement )

Polonnaruwa cops in food riots

By Chris Kamalendran and Ratnapala Gamage

More than 500 policemen assigned for duty at the Presidential People's Service in Polonnaurwa staged a protest Friday night over the failure of the authorities to provide them proper food, water and sanitation.

Some threw their dinner parcels containing half boiled rice into burning tyres or stuck them up on fences while others placed logs on the road to block the entry of vehicles into the area. Many were locked in heated arguments with their superior officers .

The incidents were reported mainly from the area around Bendiwewa Maha Vidyalaya within the city limits where about 500 policemen were stationed. The policemen after being on duty during the day had returned to the school and found that the dinner parcels provided to them contained half boiled rice. The protest started thereafter. The policemen burnt tyres along the main road and threw some of the food parcels into the fire.

The incident created panic among hundreds of government officers who had been brought into the area to attend the Presidential People's Service.

A senior police officer in the area who did not want to be named told The Sunday Times they had given the contract for food to a private supplier and he had failed to provide good meals.

The officer said some 200 policemen who were identified as those involved in the protest had been removed from duty.

Sports Minister S. B. Dissnayake who declared open the Presidential People's Service yesterday apologised on behalf of the government for the failure to provide proper facilities to the policemen.