• Army chief heads JOC to fight terrorism
• Crew members safe, ICRC seeks release
• Why state TV showed her
• 'No censorship — only a worried mother's plea'
• Geoff to edit Daily News
• CID coming poaching for sources again

Army chief heads JOC to fight terrorism

A Joint Operations Command (JOC) has been set up under President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, who is also Commander-in-Chief, for the armed services and the Police to collectively plan and execute counter terrorist operations.

Lt. Gen. Rohan de S. Daluwatte, has been appointed as the General Officer Commanding (GOC) of this unified military and police apparatus. He will hold this office in addition to his current duties as Commander of the Sri Lanka Army.

The Sunday Times learns that the JOC formally came into being on August 3. However, the Ministry of Defence under whose purview the JOC will come will ensure that the new command will gradually take over the functions assigned and thus prevent any disruption of on-going counter terrorism related activity. Hence, the existing Vavuniya based Joint Operations Headquarters (JOH) will continue to function. The latter comes under Major General Srilal Weerasuriya, Overall Operations Commander (OOC).

Defence Ministry sources said yesterday that the JOC would be Colombo based. Buildings required to house the command have already been identified and staffing will soon begin, these sources said.

The decision to create a Joint Operations Command (JOC) came after the Government examined various proposals for a unified approach to counter terrorism. The idea was to utilise the resources of the security forces to the maximum.

Among the proposals that were under consideration was the creation of a Joint Security Forces command to be headed by a Chief of Staff, who was to be the senior-most serving service commander.

Another proposal was to set up a National Operations Command.

The Sunday Times reliably learns that the JOC will regularly keep President Kumaratunga briefed on counter terrorist operations and all related activity.

See Situation Report

Crew members safe, ICRC seeks release

By Chris Kamalendran

All crew members of the cargo ship bombed by the Air Force on Friday are safe and International Red Cross officials yesterday began talks with the LTTE to secure their release.

A spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross told The Sunday Times the LTTE had confirmed the 21 crew members were with it and all, including three Sinhalese and a Muslim, were safe.

He said the LTTE had agreed to release the 17 Indian crew members..

Until late evening none of the crew members had been released.

"We are trying to get them released as soon as possible. We have informed the families that the crew members are safe," he said.

The local crew members were identified as J.M.I.P. Jayasundera, P.M.P. Sajjad, M.S.S.D. Bandara and P.M.B.S. Seneviratne.

The LTTE in a broadcast over its clandestine radio said the crew members were taken into custody after they seized the cargo ship MV Princess Kash off Mullaitivu on Friday.

The Presidential Secretariat in a statement on Friday night confirmed that the Air Force Kfir bombers had destroyed the ship after several warnings had been given to the crew members to abandon the ship.

The secretariat said the ship's cargo comprised large quantities of restricted items, in addition to consumer goods.

"The location of the ship and conduct of its captain gave sufficient cause to rouse grave suspicion of the defence authorities, that he was acting in connivance with the LTTE to transport and deliver dangerous merchandise to the LTTE," the statement said.

An official of the shipping company which charted the vessel told The Sunday Times that all goods were loaded on the ship with the approval the Ministry of Defence.

He said the items included 3,500 tons of cement, food stuffs, alcohol, 104 motor cycles, 20 trishaws, 10 landmaster tractors, roofing sheets and two reconditioned cars. A CID investigation is underway to ascertain the circumstances which led to the hijacking of the vessel by the LTTE.

All material relating to military operations, past or present, published in The Sunday Times is subject to the approval of army censorship

'No censorship — only a worried mother's plea'

By Frederica Jansz

Media Minister Mangala Samaraweera says he feels it is perfectly okay for newspapers to publish photographs of cabinet ministers who are on the hit list of the LTTE because it is part of a mother's job.

He was responding to a question by The Sunday Times as to whether it was okay to publish photographs of the President and Cabinet Ministers, following accusations by President Kumaratunga that repeated telecasts of her daughter's picture over TV was tantamount to an invitation to the LTTE to attack her.

Asked if the same charge could be levelled by repeatedly printing the photographs of the President and ministers, Mr. Samaraweera said the President's request was not a censorship on publishing such photographs but more an appeal by a "worried mother."

Mr. Samaraweera said the President was not being naive in making such a request as constant publicity could perhaps fuel interest and cause a security breach for certain interested parties "other than the LTTE."

"It is a passionate plea from a mother," Mr. Samaraweera said, pointing out that President Kumaratunga is trying her best to allow her children to lead as normal a life as was possible. That was why the president was hurt when a TV station on June 29 repeatedly broadcast a false report that the LTTE had tried to kill the President's daughter Yasodara.

Minister Samaraweera, however, acknowledged the LTTE would not need to rely on the local media for pictures.

He denied that the President's letter was in any way connected to the recent controversy where TNL's News Director Ishini Perera left the station.

When it was pointed out that Ms. Perera was still news director of the TNL when the allegedly offensive news item was telecast, Mr. Samaraweera said that aspect of the issue was irrelevant and it was upto the station to take responsibility.

The President's letter written on July 20 came days after Ms. Perera left TNL after a dispute.

The letter however was released to the media more than a month later.

Geoff to edit Daily News

Senior journalist Geoff Wijesinghe, who heads the state news agency Lankapuwath, has been appointed as the editor of the Daily News with immediate effect.

Nihal Ratnayake who was serving as the editor of the Daily News from 1996 has been appointed as the chief administrative officer of Lake House.

CID coming poaching for sources again

The CID has embarked once again on its periodic futile search for sources by grilling journalists.

The CID wants to know who gave newspapers copies of a letter written by the two remaining members of the Permanent Commission on Bribery and Corruption, urging Speaker K.B. Ratnayake to remove Ministers Jeyaraj Fernandopulle and G.L. Peiris from the Parliamentary Select Committee probing their conduct.

A team of CID officers visited The Sunday Times office to obtain a statement from the Editor but did not disclose the purpose of their visit. On being told he was not available in office, they, noted the telephone numbers of The Sunday Times and vowed to return. Barring a phone call last morning, there was no contact from them yesterday.

However, the same detectives called over at the office of The Sunday Leader on Friday and wanted to know the source of this letter which appeared in their newspaper on July 26. The Sunday Times too had published the letter on the same date. Sunday Leader editor Lasantha Wickrematunga had declined to divulge the source and had turned them away after making a separate statement regarding the CID not recording a statement on a shooting incident at his residence much earlier.

The two Commissioners — T.A. de S. Wijesundera and Rudra Rajasingham — are facing a Parliamentary Select Committee inquiry which is said to be a prelude to a resolution in Parliament to remove them from office.

Both Ministers have refused to step down from the select committee. The commissioners claim they may be prejudiced because the commission is probing a private secretary of one minister and the other had made public statements against the commission.

The two Bribery Commissioners have said that allegations made against them are both frivolous and minconceived and have been invented purely to serve as a possible ground of their removal.

The Commissoners in a letter to the Parliament Select Committee probing allegations against them said that none of the allegations levelled against them was in law capable of constituting misconduct or incapacity.

The Select Committee was appointed after a motion signed by 80 MPs was submitted to Parliament in which they called for the removal of the two commissioners.

The Commissioners said, 'There has been no complaint, no investigations nor even a cursory perusal of the relevant documentation prior to their formulation'.

The letter came as the Select Committee began investigating the allegations against the two commissioners.

'The Sunday Times' learns that the select committee is trying to obtain certain files about the allegations against the two commissioners.

The Select Committee meets again on August 20.