• No Madhu festival if Army stays on
• 'Stop the bombing'
• Aged cable loops cripple Telecom
• Residents to dump council in garbage
• Too many no balls on TV
• Clarification
• Deadly blow for cancer patients
• Salaka partner dies in accident
• Arms withdrawn after clashes
• 200 monks on peace mission to north
• Tigers burn trial bus
• Rickety vehicles off the roads

No Madhu festival if Army stays on

By Tharuka Dissanaike

The two biggest festivals for Sri Lankan Catholics, generally celebrated on July 2 and August 15 at the Madhu Shrine, will not be held this year if the Army stays on at the church reservation, Secretary of the Bishops' Conference Bishop Malcolm Ranjith said in an interview with The Sunday Times. 

The Bishop also said that any attempt to forcibly evacuate the Madhu refugees to accommodate pilgrims from the south, for a big 'show' during the festival, would not be acceptable to the church. 

Exerpts from the interview:

Q:The Catholic Church, especially the Bishop of Mannar appealed to the Army and the government to move the camps several months ago. Has there been any response?

A:The President and the Deputy Defence Minister recently assured us that something would be done. But there has been no improvement in the situation so far.

Q:What are your reasons for cancelling the festivals?

A: For the feasts held in July and August we expect huge crowds from all over the country. In the early eighties this shrine drew crowds of over 500,000 for each of the major feasts. The Army's presence so close to the shrine area and the precincts where pilgrims camp out will pose a certain security risk. There could be possible skirmishes and tensions resulting from an armed presence within such a huge civilian gathering. 

There will also be many Tamil pilgrims and we would not like to see them harassed. The fact that many of the young soldiers are unable to speak Tamil will lead to unnecessary tensions arising from mutual distrust. The armed presence will also pose a potential threat of an attack or reprisals from the other side. 

We just want to ensure the safety of pilgrims, refugees and the sanctity of the Madhu church.

Q: Do you believe there is a move to force the refugees out in time for the festivals?

A: Yes, we do believe there is a move and we strongly oppose it because about 10,000 refugees will have to be moved out to some makeshift camp, just to accommodate pilgrims from the south. This, we think, is motivated by some people's desire to have a big show for the festival.

Q: What is the situation at the Madhu camp now?

A: There are small camps in the church reservation area, in jungle patches just outside the houses where refugees take shelter. There is a camp right behind the convent. It is only some 250 yards from the church itself. Soldiers often use the church wells, the source of drinking water for the refugee camp, to bathe. Some of them also carry weapons.There have been a few skirmishes with the refugees as well. A few have been taken in for questioning and harassed by the army.

Q: Are food and medicine more easily accessible to refugees after the Army moved in?

A: After the taking over of Madhu, the prices of goods have come down and the medicine shortage has been eased. But the people are confined to their refugee camps and have no way of earning some money by selling firewood or fishing. People have to survive on their rations, which is Rs. 640 a month for a family of six. Earlier there was some money circulating in the camp, but now people cannot afford soap or kerosene, although the prices have come down.

Q: Some may question why the Catholic Church tolerated the LTTE at Madhu for so long but is now objecting to the Army's presence?

A: We always maintained that Madhu be considered a neutral area by both the LTTE and the Army. After the Edibala Operation, which opened up the road from Vavuniya to Mannar, this request, has been largely heeded.

The LTTE never put up armed camps within the church reservation. The church asked them not to come into the church compound with arms. They once put up an ice cream stall in the church compound and the Bishop of Mannar protested to their leader and the very next day the stall was dismantled with apologies to the Bishop and the church. We did not even allow the LTTE to carry microphones and carry out recruitment within the camp.

We want to maintain the shrine's sanctity and ensure safety for the displaced who take refuge here. We have to ask the Army to respect it too.

We totally deny allegations that the church allowed LTTE camps in the reservation area. If the LTTE was present in such large numbers, the army would not have been able to take over Madhu so easily.

Q: What is the official viewpoint of the Church regarding the war? 

A: We have always asked for a negotiated settlement. The Church believes it will be only through negotiations and discussion that this problem can see an end. 

'Stop the bombing'

The Sri Lanka Chapter of the Ecumenical Association of Third World Theologians in a statement said that while the ethnic cleansing in Kosovo had caused havoc among innocent people, the NATO bombing had not improved but aggravated the crisis.

The statement was signed by Rev. Fr. Oswald Firth, Rev. Fr. Dalston Forbes, Rev. Fr. Reid Shelton Fernando, Rev. Dr. I.H. Victor, Rev. Jeffrey Abayasekera, Rev. Adrian M. Aaron, Rev. Fr. Rohan Silva, Rev. Fr. Anslem Silva, Sister Marta Anthony, Sister Marlene Perera, Bernadeen Silva and Kanthi Shirani de Silva.

Aged cable loops cripple Telecom

By Frederica Jansz

When The Sunday Times asked Takao Sakagami, Chief Operations and Technical Officer, Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT) the reason, he was unable to say why these numbers were not connecting when dialled on a first and second try. "We will have to study the situation and check what the problem is," he said.

These numbers strangely play a recorded message that says "this number is not in use," or "this number is out of order." This particular problem encountered by subscribers comes a week after nearly 4000 telephones in the Colombo Metropolitan area went out of order.

Telecom Head of Maintenance, L.U. Joseph, was equally puzzled, and could not say what the fault was. He admitted to The Sunday Times that it "was unusual" and should not be occurring.

Mr. Sakagami meanwhile said that aged cable loops within Colombo city are causing a malfunction in the telephone system. He said this situation is a result of the newly installed 'Pair Gain System' not being able to function due to the considerable number of aged telephone cable loops. 

The Pair Gain System functions as a form of spare unit off an original telephone line. A highly advanced digital system, four telephone connections are given off one cable line.

Mr. Sakagami asserted that this high tec digital equipment was sensitive to cable loops. Looking at the actual situation of cable loops in the Colombo area, he maintained these old cables sometimes cannot meet the requirement which is needed for the Pair Gain System. 

He said Sri Lanka Telecom is at the moment working on repairing these aged cable lines to enable the Pair Gain System to work.

Residents to dump council in garbage

For more than a month, the Kotte Municipal Council has been dumping garbage on this land, near the Welikada Junction, a resident of the area said. 

Residents complained that they had been subjected to much discomfort by the thoughtless actions of the authorities. 

"We keep our windows closed because of the unbearable stench. And many children in the area are developing skin rashes," one angry resident said.

Too many no balls on TV

By M.Ismeth

When the first ball in the 41st over was being bowled by Shane Warne in the Australia vs. New Zealand match , we saw someone announcing the winner of a quiz 2competition. The same for ball no. 2.

Now this is not what cricket fans wanted and this was not what Swarnavahini assured the fans before the World Cup began, said Duleep Jayewardena, an executive in the garment industry.

"Does Swarnavahini believe in telecasting the awards being given to the winning and losing captains only of other teams and not when Sri Lanka loses a match? Why didn't it telecast the awards ceremony after Sri Lanka crashed to defeat from the jaws of victory against South Africa? The telecasting of the awards must be shown for we, as fans, want to listen to what the rival captains have to say after they win or lose a match," he said.

A cricket fan from Kandy told The Sunday Times that despite the assurances given, advertisements are creeping more and more into the playing time.

In every over of the West Indies vs. Pakistan match the first ball was lost to ads,, he said.

K. Ramakrishnan of Talawakelle just blurted out, 'For goodness sake let us watch the rest of the matches without any hindrance."

Fans said they were hoping that at least in the 'Super Six' matches, there would be uninterrupted telecast.

They pointed to the example of Pakistan where the prime minister had ordered that no ads be shown between overs.

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