Saudis to reduce intake of Lankans

By Mohammed Qassim in Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia has decided to cut down the intake of Sri Lankan housemaids mainly because most of them do not honour their work contracts, according to a senior recruitment official in the kingdom.

The decision was taken at a recent meeting of the National Recruitment Committee.

Saudi Arabia has already approved a plan to recruit 10,000 housemaids from Indonesia to meet the anticipated demand for housemaids owing to the cut in the recruitment of Sri Lankans.

At the meeting it was pointed out that the Saudi sponsors paid as much as Rs. 80,000 to the local agent to recruit a maid from Sri Lanka and the maids who were on a two year contract often wanted to return home during the probation period of three months.

Waleed Al Sweidan, head of the National Recruitment Committee told journalists they were going for Filipino and Indonesian housemaids who were known to honour their contracts.

However, many Sri Lankan housemaids who return without completing their term of contract say they are forced to come because of ill-treatment by their Saudi employers.

It is learnt that Mr. Al Sweidan has conveyed the decision to Sri Lanka's ambassador Nowfel Saly Jabir who has in turn informed the authorities in Colombo asking them to take urgent remedial action.

The embassy's labour counsellor, Daya Senaratne told The Sunday Times that despite the proposed restriction, he knew that a large number of Saudi employers preferred Sri Lankan housemaids because they work hard.

Some 70 percent of the 250,000 Sri Lankan workers in the kingdom are housemaids. They remit more than three billion rupees annually to the national coffers of Sri Lanka.

President to meet media after summit

By M. Ismeth

Presdient Chandrika Kumaratunga will hold a post-summit media conference on Friday at the Presidential Secretariat in her capacity as the new Chairman of the SAARC.

The media conference will be held soon after the closing session of the summit at the BMICH.

The highlight of the summit is the meeting between Indian PM Atal Behari Vajpayee and Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Shariff during the retreat at the resort town of Bentota. They would discuss ways of strengthening relationships which were strained after the recent nuclear tests by the two countries.

The outgoing SAARC Chairman, the Maldivian President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, who is the only leader to attend all ten SAARC summits, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheik Hasina Wajed, Nepal Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala and the Bhutan' King's representative, Limpo Jigme Thinley are other leaders who wiill be in Colombo next week.

No go for Wijeweera birthday TV show

By Shelani de Silva

The JVP has accused state television Rupavahini of giving lame excuses for its refusal to telecast a documentary to mark the 55th birthday of party leader Rohana Wijeweera.

In a letter to Media Minister Mangala Samaraweera, the JVP said it had made a 15 minute programme on Mr. Wijeweera and was prepared to pay for it to be telecast on Rupavahini, but the authorities there had refused.

"I spoke to deputy director general Sugath Watagedara who told me that the programme might feature provincial council candidates of the JVP and this might go against election laws.

"I told him there was only one candidate who was featured only for a few seconds and we were ready to erase even that But he did not give me a definite answer," JVp spokesman Wimal Weera-wansa said.

Rupavahini Chairman D E W Gunasekera said he was unaware of any such request.

" Even if the request was made to a Director it is I who must give approval," he said.

'Police uncles shot me, I don't like them'

How sweets turned to gunshots at Katubedda checkpoint

By Shelani de Silva. Pix Sajeewa Chinthaka.

While more and more questions are being raised and investigations are underway on the school van shooting incident at Katubedda, the children who went through this nightmare at noon are trying to come to terms with it. So much so that when we visited five year old Akalanka at the National hospital the innocent child with devastating honesty said, "A police uncle shot me and my friends and I don't like them anymore."

Akalanka who received injuries to his chest and hand also had small burn injuries on his body. On admission he was taken to the ICU and kept for twenty four hours and later removed to the ward.

Still in a state of shock Akalanka said he was seated with two of his friends near a window talking when he heard a noise. "I looked down and screamed when I saw blood on my shirt. I got very scared when a lot of people came running and screaming. I started crying. I saw aunty holding on to the seat," he said.

The shooting at the van carrying 25 pre school children at a checkpoint has caused much concern and protest from parents and school authorities .

Two of the children who received injuries were discharged after two days but the woman who accompanied the children in the van is still in Intensive Care with stomach injuries.

The shooting incident has shocked parents, teachers and the public while confusion still prevails over what really happened and who did what.

While the police argue that a woman PC had signalled for the vehicle to stop, the driver of the van claims he saw no such signal. He says -and many agree with him -that if the police had any suspicions about the vehicle they could have informed a patrol car or station ahead instead of resorting to the drastic step of opening fire especially when the police knew that innocent children were in the van.

The injured little Akalanka who was conscious all the while had been calling out to his mother.

While Akalanka was being dispatched to hospital, his mother Nilanthi Nanayakkara had been waiting for her child to return home after school. Before the van arrived a neighbour told her that the van had been shot at and two children injured.

"When the van came to drop off a child who lives next door I realised that it was my son who was injured. I rushed to hospital where I was told that he was in Intensive Care.Fearing the worst I was screaming and pleading with the staff to let me see my son. Since Akalanka was also asking for me they allowed me to go in," she said.

Nilanthi said she had confidence in the driver and she felt the police should have acted in a more responsible and cautious manner.

"It is not a new service. This van has been taking the same route for the past five years. The van is familiar to the police because the children are in the habit of waving at them. Earlier when soldiers were at the checkpoint, they would give sweets to the children. Whatever it is one thing is obvious-there were children in the vehicle. If the police suspected something they should have given chase, instead of shooting," she said.

It was not only Nilanthi who felt this way. Several other parents phoned The Sunday Times expressing shock and demanding that action be taken against those responsible.

They said the shooting might leave a permanent scar in the minds of the children and action should be taken to ensure that such incidents never occur again.

Much psychological damage has already been done. Most of the children are refusing or reluctant to go to school again.

Four year old Gayani Leelarathne who was seated next to Akalanka refuses to go to school after the trauma. In the immediate aftermath of the incident she had been in such a shock, that she could not talk but only cry.

Gayani's Father Lal Leelarathne said he would call together all the parents of the children affected by the incident and write to the government to take appropriate action.

"What happened to our children must not happen to any others. The police action is inexcusable. Anyone could have seen there were children in the van. How could they have even thought of raising a gun at the little ones. The attitude of the police personnel after the shocking incident was as bad as the offence.

"When I met the police soon after the incident they said no one received any serious injuries while one child had got a scrape on the leg. We respect the law, but how can we continue to do so when things like this occur," he asked.

Mr. Leelaratne said he and the other parents had full confidence in the driver who they knew was extra careful with the children.

"His sister who also goes in the van is very fond of the children. If the driver was reckless he wouldn't have been able to carry out this responsible job for the past six years," he said.

The driver Upul Dassanayake who was released on bail on Thursday said there were two vehicles on either side of his van when he was passing the checkpoint. Although he passed that way every morning and afternoon he always paid attention when passing the checkpoint.

"The children make it a point to wave or shout at the police, when passing the spot. On this day when we were nearing the checkpoint there was another van and lorry and I was driving in the middle.

We passed the checkpoint and drove about twenty feet away when I heard a loud noise. Moments later my sister yelled out in pain. I then saw people running towards my vehicle shouting that the police had shot at the van. The children were frantic and crying ," he said.

In a connected incident the police also arrested a young boy -a relative of one of the children-after he argued with the women PCs.

Inspector Jayantha Attapatu of the Moratuwa police said the officers manning the checkpoint could not be blamed.

"It is unfortunate that the children had to face this but given the circumstances, the officer cannot be blamed. We had told the checkpoints that security should be tight specially in view of the South Asian summit and possible LTTE attacks," he said.

He assured a full report would be sent to the Attorney General after investigations and justice would be done.

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