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Prabhakaran is using the state of Sri Lanka as a convenience-Kadiragamar
Bandula Jayasekara in Colombo,
SLT 7.35 a.m Thursday 6 March.
Former Minister of Foreign Affairs Lakshman Kadiragamar says that LTTE
leader Vellupillai Prabhakaran is Clearly using the state of Sri Lanka as a
convenience. Commenting on the recent news reports that Prabhakaran's son
has applied for a passport and a national identity card Kadiragamar said "
His son needs a passport for which he needs a national identity card and,
therefore, he needs a State. He can get a forged passport but it would be
better to get a legal one from a solicitous and obliging government. While
he is fighting the State, and talking of separation and so on, when it
comes to practical considerations like how to get his son out of the country
those considerations do not matter. What matters is getting a Sri Lankan
passport. I don't think that we should overdo the euphoria that he is
accepting the sovereignty of Sri Lanka. He will do so when it suits him.
Mr. Prabhakaran can afford to send his son abroad. There are millions of
parents who can't afford that huge luxury because education in the West is
very expensive. As for the child soldiers, there is one law for those poor
children, another for Mr. Prabhakaran's son." Responding to a question as
to why the Tamils hate him accusing him as a person who had betrayed their
cause Kadiragamar said that he was a Sri Lankan first and a Tamil second.
The former Foreign Minister said "Those who say so believe in a separate
state in this country. They will see me as a person who is against the
separation of this country. I do not believe that the ethnic communities in
our country should have "causes". I believe fundamentally that there should
be a united Sri Lanka, which must be a multi-ethnic, multi religious
society. I am totally against any divisions, exclusive homelands for some.
I am for a solution which allows all Sri Lankans to move freely in this
country. Even the Prime Minister has said that there is no such thing as a
homeland. He has said that the 25, 000 square miles of Sri Lanka are
everybody's homeland. It doesn't bother me in the slightest that some Tamils
accuse me of betraying their cause. I regard myself as a Sri Lankan. I do
not consider myself a Tamil first and then a Sri Lankan. It has been the
competing claims of exaggerated ethnicity that have caused so much trouble
for all of us.
Published: Wed Mar 5 20:36:11 EST 2003
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IT'S NOT CRICKET, STUPID, IT'S COMPUTERS, LOVELY COMPUTERS
Fulbright Scholar Brings Computers to Urban Disadvantaged Children in
Colombo, Sri Lanka.
By Chulie de Silva, Colombo.
You would think on a warm Saturday morning, children in Sri Lanka
would be watching a cricket match and cheering on their heroes. No,
not in Kew Road, Slave Island, a multi-ethnic enclave just five
minutes away from the exclusive Trans Asia Hotel in Colombo's central
down town area. The cricket match played on at the Malay Cricket Club,
on Saturday 25, January but thirty children were flocked round five
computers in a little rectangular room of the Vocational Training
Center (VTC) run by the Sri Lanka Malay Association's (SLMA) Rupee
Fund. [More...]
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Marapone resigns from special bribery committee
Frederica Jansz in Colombo,
7.10 p.m. SLT Wednesday March 5.
Defence Minister Tilak Marapone today resigned from a special parliamentary
committee appointed to probe the conduct of Kingsley Wickremasuriya,
Commissioner to the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery and
Corruption.
The committee was appointed after 76 parliamentarians signed a petition
calling for the removal of Wickremasuriya form the bribery commission
following allegations by Minister S. B. Dissanayake that Wickremasuriya had
violated the secrecy code by which he is bound.
Dissanayake has sued Wickremasuriya for a sum of Rs. 100 million after he
charged that the latter leaked details of an investigation on a complaint
made against him at the commission to President Chandrika Kumaratunge.
Marapone who was appointed as Chairperson of the special parliamentary
committee to investigate these allegations today cited personal reasons
when he handed in his resignation on the first day the committee was to sit.
Published: Wed Mar 5 08:16:24 EST 2003
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LTTE releases prisoners
Frederica Jansz in Colombo,
5.45 p.m. SLT Wednesday March 5.
The LTTE today released an army soldier and a policeman in its custody,
after weeks of a tense standoff with the government on this issue.
Following talks between the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission's outgoing head,
Trond Furuhovde and LTTE Chief, Vellupillai Prabhakaran in Killinochchi
today, the two government security forces personnel were freed. They were
released at around 3 p.m. this afternoon and are expected to arrive in
Colombo this evening.
The SLMM on Sunday slammed the LTTE for demanding a prisoner swap asking
for the release of 6 tigers in government custody in exchange for the two
Sinhalese prisoners. The 6 LTTE cadre are being held by the government for
carrying claymore mines and other explosives in government controlled
territory in the east.
The SLMM meanwhile has stated that ceasefire violations by both government
and LTTE personnel must be taken up for discussion and addressed by
negotiators at the peace talks.
The sixth round of talks between the two parties is scheduled to begin in
Japan on March 8, 2003.
Published: Wed Mar 5 07:10:25 EST 2003
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