Thursday 6th April, 2006

Page

V

Page

II

Koizumi to be thirdlongest serving premier

Indian director hopes

to cast Paris Hilton as

Mother Teresa

By Tom Peterkin, Ireland

CorrespondentThe senior Sinn Fein official

who last year admitted being

a paid British spy for 20

years was found murdered yester-

day.

One of Denis Donaldson's

hands was reportedly cut off

before he was shot dead in a cot-

tage in Co Donegal.

Suspicion immediately fell on

republicans, who were outraged to

learn in

December that

Donaldson, the former head of

Sinn Fein's international depart-

ment, had been a traitor to the

Sinn Fein/IRA cause.

During the Troubles, it was

standard practice for the IRA to

shoot British agents. But it had

been assumed that since the ter-

rorist group's promise to embrace

peace last

year, treating

Donaldson, 56, in the same way

was politically unacceptable.

When Donaldson was exposed

as a spy , Sinn Fein assured him

that he would be safe. However,

individual republicans indicated

that he would no longer be wel-

come in Belfast.In a statement, the IRA denied

it was responsible.

Donaldson fled his family

home in the west Belfast estate of

Atnamona and last month he was

tracked down to a remote cottage

on the west coast of Donegal by the

Sunday World tabloid newspaper.

It was in his cottage, near the

village of Glenties, where he had

been living in squalor without elec-

tricity or running water, that his

body was found at 5pm. He was

killed less than 48 hours before

Tony Blair was due to arrive in

Ulster to announce the next phase

of the

peace

process and his

plans to resurrect

the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Gerry Adams, the Sinn Fein

president, quickly condemned the

killing and dissociated his party

from it. He passed his sympathies

to the Donaldson family.

The Sinn

Fein president

refused to speculate on who was

responsible.There were reports that the

Government believed that the

murder had been carried out to

destabilise the peace process.

Any suggestion that the killing

was carried out by republicans

will be highly damaging to the

peace process given the scepti-

cism with which

the Democratic

Unionist Party

and the Ulster Unionist Party

have treated the IRA's promise

to give up violence.

A sign of the republican

resentment against Donaldson

came last month when his son

Pearse Donaldson was vicious-

ly attacked in the home that he

used to share with his parents

in west Belfast.Nigel

Dodds,

the

Democratic Unionist Party MP

for North

Belfast, urged

unionists not to believe Mr

Adams's denials or to fix

blame on dissident republi-

cans.

"Unionists do not accept

divisions between good and

bad IRA terrorists," he said.

Bertie Ahern, the Irish

Prime Minister, confirmed the

shooting was a "brutal mur-

der" and Peter Hain, the

Northern Ireland Secretary,

described it as a "barbaric act".

(C) The Telegraph Group

London 2006

Britain's Sinn Fein spy found shot dead

Denis Donaldson

By Roger Highfield, Science EditorT he Government has been told that

it is now possible to assess how

much animals suffer from experi-

mentation, with initial research sug-

gesting that a significant number of

experiments cause little or no dis-

tress.A way to make animal experiments

more open and scientists more

accountable is described in a report

on a pilot study by the Laboratory

Animal Science Association and the

Animal Procedures Committee, which

advises the Home Office.

It showed that production of genet-

ically modified animals, which makes

up a significant proportion of the

experiments, involve minimum or no

suffering. But the committee stressed

that the survey was limited and it was

too early to draw broad conclusions.

The report recommends a "two-

grid" system in which scientists

record the maximum severity and its

duration, and the duration and severi-

ty of the remainder of the experiment.

(C) The Telegraph Group London 2006

(C) The Telegraph Group London 2006

NEW WAY TOASSESS ANIMALSUFFERING

Geneticallymodified animals

Sinn Fein

The Commercial Bank yesterday sold

nearly 4% of

its DFCC holding to an

unidentified foreign buyer believed to be

a fund manager, brokers and senior

banking sources confirmed.

A total of 2.2 million DFCC was done

at a high of Rs.230 and a low of Rs.225

with the share closing on the VWA at

Rs.229.25, a gain of Rs.6.50. CommBank

got the Rs. 230 price, brokers said.

“We acquired the shares a long time

ago and there is a sizeable capital gain

on the

transaction,’’a

senior

Commercial Bank official said but was

unable to immediately quantify what

this might be.With Commercial Bank owning over

13% of DFCC, yesterday’s sale reduces

its stake in a rival entity which has also

entered the commercial banking scene

through the DFCC Vardhana Bank.

CommBank and DFCC were at one

time considering

an arrangement

through which a single holding company

would control both banks via a share

swap arrangement but this was thwart-

ed by the Regulator.

DFCC too

holds a

slice of

CommBank, analysts noted.

Asked whether the stake sold yester-

day was up for grabs for a long time in

the market, the senior CommBank offi-

cial said “no.’’ But he said that the

ComBank was progressively strengthen-

ing its capital adequacy and this sale was

part of this strategy.

``Now that we no longer want an

alignment with the DFCC we decided to

sell off part of the shares partly because

liquidity was tight. We wanted to sell

when the market came up to the level we

were looking

at,’’another

senior

CommBank source said.

The bourse yesterday saw turnover

at Rs.966.6 million approach the billion

rupee mark, up from the previous day’s

Rs.712.8 million with both the All Share

and Milanka price indices moving up

fairly sharply. The All Share was up 22.42

points while the Milanka was up 25.93

points.Brokers said that some illiquid

shares like Carsons, Bukit Darah, CDIC

and Printcare helped to move the indices

up.

“There was also punting on one-

rupee stock, principally Royal Ceramics

and Asiri Medical Services,’’ a broker

said.

Royal Ceramics saw over 3.9 million

shares traded between Rs.3.30 and

Rs.3.60 and was up 30 cents on the VWA

to close at Rs.3.60 while Asiri Medical,

with nearly 4.3 million shares done

between Rs.3.10 and Rs.3.30 closed at

Rs.3.20 on the VWA gaining 10 cents.

There was movement in the one-

rupee shares of Ceylon Glass too with

over 1.6 million shares traded although

the counter closed flat at Rs.2.50 on the

VWA.

Dialog with 0.6 million shares done

closed flat at Rs.19.75 while SLT with

nearly 1.3 million shares traded gained

50 cents to close at Rs.18.75 on the VWA.

Deal signals raising capital adequacy cash

CommBank sells nearly 4% of

DFCC taking tidy capital gain

Thursday 06th April, 2006

www.island.lk

JICA to donate...J apan International Cooperation

Agency (JICA) has promised to

donate Rs.500 million, under a project

to establish Japan SriLanka Colleges

of Technology to strengthen technical

education and training (JSCOT).

Page 3

T he world’s local bank, HSBC,

issued its two hundred thou-

sandth credit card this week.

Reaching this target comes a midst

celebration for the bank, which con-

trols almost one-third of the credit

cards market. In addition, the bank

also controls over fifty per cent of the

total credit cards spend in the country.

Page 4

GSK assignes...

Today

Previous Days

HSBC issues...

Forex Asia, lead

TOKYO: The euro hit a new 10-week

high against the dollar in Asian

trade as the US unit also fell

sharply against the yen, with the

market betting on rising eurozone

interest rates, dealers said.

Comm

odities energy

oil Asia price

SINGAPORE: Oil prices were easier

in Asian trade as the market took

a breather after jumping to near 68

dollars a barrel and ahead of the

weekly US crude inventory report,

dealers said.Thailand vote economy

BANGKOK:Thai shares jumped

after Prime Minister Thaksin

Shinawatra stepped down, a move

praised by business leaders who

said an end to months of turmoil

will shore up investor confidence.

Thailand vote forex

SandPSINGAPORE: International credit

rating firm Standard and Poor’s

affirmed its foreign and local cur-

rency ratings for Thailand after

embattled Prime

Minister

Thaksin Shinawatra’s

sudden

announcement to resign.

SKorea banking crime

US company

SEOUL: South Korean auditors said

they have questioned former and

current government officials over

their role in the controversial sale

of a local bank to US fund Lone

Star, which is now seeking to cash

in on its investment.

SKorea IT US Qualcomm

company probe

SEOUL: The South Korean unit of

Qualcomm,a world leader in

mobile phone technology, has been

raided by fair trade regulators, the

California-based company said.

- AFP

By Don Asoka WijewardenaSri Lanka so far had no

specifically identified docu-

ment listing the energy sec-

tor policy,but the country has

been practising policies and

strategies that have brought

benefits to the economy,said

Power and Energy Minister

W.D.J.Seneviratne at a

Workshop on National

Energy Policy and Strategies

of Sri Lanka held at Ceylon

Continental Hotel on April 5.

Minister Seneviratne said

that Sri Lanka could be

happy that nearly 75 per cent

of the households now had

grid electricity and thou-

sands more were served by

off-grid networks and added

that as the country had reli-

able supply of petroleum

products,kerosene was pro-

vided at a highly sibsidised

price.

He said that Biomass had

retained its position as the

largest source of primary

energy and the country

should see an increasing

trend in the use of Biomass

for commercial use in indus-

try and electricity genera-

tion. Referring to the energy

sector,Minister Seneviratne

said that Sri Lanka had

failed in several aspects in

that sector and the country

had been battered by a crisis

in the electricity supply for

the past ten years.

By S. Venkat Narayan

our special correspondent

A meeting of the South Asian Association for

Regional Cooperation (Saarc) Finance Ministers

scheduled for April 14-15 in Islamabad has been

postponed due to pre-occupation of Indian finance

minister at home. A highly placed source in the Ministry of Foreign

Affairs told The Daily Star Indian Finance Minister

Palaniappan Chidambaram expressed his inability

to attend the meeting due to Tamil Nadu Assembly

polls on May 8. Elections are taking place in India’s five south-

ern and eastern states — Tamil Nadu, Kerala,

Pondicherry, West Bengal and Assam.

The official on condition of anonymity said the

Indian Finance Minister, who hails from Sivaganga

in Tamil Nadu, will be busy in election campaigns

and the nomination filing coincide with the

Islamabad meet. The Saarc Finance Ministers’ meet in

Islamabad on April 14-15 was due to finalise the

modalities and mechanism for spending and con-

tributing to different funds, including the South Asia

Development Fund (SADF), Saarc Development

Fund (SDF) and Saarc Poverty Alleviation Fund.

Fresh date of the Saarc finance ministers’ meet

will be announced later on.

SAARC Finance Ministers

meeting postponed

National Energy Policy to be introduced

President and CEO

of Canon Singapore

Pte Ltd., KazutoOgawa will be in Sri

Lanka today. Canon,

represented exclu-

sively by theMetropolitan Group, is

the market leader and

the preferred choice

amongst the local

business community,

offering a wide array

of state-of-the-art

products.Ogawa during his

brief stay will address

a media conference,

as well as meet up

with local business

leaders, together with

Metropolitan, who

have arranged a series

of activities to mark his

visit to Sri Lanka.

He will also partici-

pate in the Dealer

Convention, where the

top dealers would be

recognized.Ogawa’s visitwould further

enhance Canon’s

commitment to the Sri

Lanka market as well

as to their business

partner, Metropolitan

who together would

continue to introduce

world renowned prod-

ucts and services to

the local business

community.

Canon President in Sri Lanka

Kazuto Ogawa

Minister W.D.J.Seneviratne. Pic by

Nishan S. Priyantha.

Continued on page 2

The LTTE insists that it would not

leave via the BIA as its leaders were under

threat. LTTE Political Wing leader S. P.

Thamilchelvan yesterday said that they

would boycott April 19-21 talks unless

their request was met. This was conveyed

to the visiting Norwegian Special envoy

Jon Hanssen-Bauer on Wednesday.

After meeting LTTE representatives,

the Norwegian envoy acknowledged that

he failed to secure a pledge that the group

would participate in the second round of

talks.

Armed activities of the paramilitary

groups have intensified following the first

session of Geneva Talks contrary to the

commitment made by the Government.

President Mahinda Rajapakse can no

longer pay lip service to CFA after the

defeat of the extreme Sinhala hardline

forces in the local elections in the South,

Thamilchelvan told reporters in

Kilinochchi after meeting Jon Hanssen-

Bauer.

Special Envoy Jon Hanssen-Bauer and

the Norwegian Ambassador to Sri Lanka

Hans Brattskar met Liberation Tigers

Political Head in Kilinochchi Wednesday.

“The meeting with the new Norwegian

Special Envoy was cordial. We discussed

the changes in the ground situation, spe-

cially the intensified activities by the

paramilitary groups violating the pledges

made by Colombo in Geneva,” LTTE

Poltitical Head told the reporters at LTTE

Peace Secretariat. “Colombo can no

longer cite the extremist forces in the

South as an excuse for the difficulty in

implementing commitments to the

International Community and the facilita-

tors.”

The LTTE leadership would be forced

to reconsider its decision to engage in

direct talks if Colombo continued to adopt

a duplicitous approach, said the LTTE

Political Head.

There is hardly any use in proceeding

to the next stage before what was agreed

and re-affirmed at the first session of talks

is implemented, he further said.

by S. Selvakumar‘I was at no time given even an

iota of an opportunity to peruse

the list and my only role was to

physically hand over the list to the

Returning Officer’, Colombo

District UNP Parliamentarian M.

H. Mohamed has written to ‘The

Island’ in reference to yester-

day’s lead story under the head-

line ‘Veteran Jumbos clash over

CMC muddle’.

Countering Colombo District

Parliamentarian Mohamed

Mahroof ’s statement that a young

and energetic person should be

appointed as the Colombo district

UNP leader M. H. Mohamed said

that alone should not be the crite-

ria but should include such crite-

ria as political performance over

a reasonable period of time, not

engaging in unethical and deroga-

tory acts which causes immeasur-

able political damage to the party

in not attempting to bribe persons

to suppress the natural process of

justice

Confidants of Mahroof and

Moragoda brought the tampered

list of the UNP nominees for the

Colombo Municipal elections to

the residence of M. H. Mohamed

at 11.30 a.m. when the list had to

be handed over to the Returning

Officer at 12 noon on the last day

for acceptance of nominations.’

Mr. Mohamed said the alleged

tampering of the approved list

was unethical and derogatory and

wished to remind Mahroof and

the readers that a two-man com-

mittee of inquiry has gone into all

aspects of the matter and submit-

ted its report to the UNP leader.

Calling for another inquiry with a

particular reference to the con-

duct of Mohamed implies a hid-

den agenda with regards to sup-

pressing the findings of the initial

inquiry’ Thus releasing the origi-

nal inquiry report without tam-

pering or delaying will resolve

this matter once and for all’ Mr.

Mohamed further states in his let-

ter.

Vol. 26 No.81 Thursday 6th April, 2006 Rs.15 - 28 Pages Registered in Sri Lanka as a Newspaper - Late City Edition

Issued with ‘The Island’ today

Willowy willow wielder

Kashmir INDIA : A Kashmiri girl plays cricket in the capital Srinagar, 05 April 2006. Untilrecently, Kashmiri Muslims discouraged girls and women from indulging in such activ-ity in an Islamic environment. AFP

Govt. wants co-chairs toensure Tiger participation

by Shamindra FerdinandoA prominent JVPer, wounded in a

pre-poll attack in Anuradhapura, died

at the Intensive Care Unit of the

National Hospital on Tuesday evening.

Bandula Marambe, a father of two,

succumbed to his injuries, a party

spokesman said. He urged police to

arrest all attackers without further

delay.

The JVP accused SLFP supporters

of carrying out the attack, the worst in

a series in the run up to the March 30

local government polls. The JVP

claimed attackers were supporters of

North Central Province Chief

Minister Berty Premalal Dissanayake,

his son Duminda and provincial min-

ister S. B. Semasinghe, a claim vehe-

mently denied by them.

The Anuradhapura JVP office said

that three persons were taken into cus-

tody in connection with the attack.

“Attackers inflicted serious head

injuries,” an Anuradhapura-based col-

league of the victim said.

The JVP raised this with President

Mahinda Rajapakse at a hastily

arranged meeting at the Presidential

Secretariat on March 28.

The Navy on Wednesday observed a

cluster of Sea Tiger vessels off

Mullaitivu.

A senior military official said that

Sea Tiger craft were engaged in train-

ing.

by Chitra WeerarathneThe IGP Chandra Fernando

and former DIG in charge of

the CID Lionel Gunatillake, on

Wednesday handed over Rs.

100,000/- (one lakh) each to the

Registrar of the Supreme

Court, to be paid as compensa-

tion to President Mahinda

Rajapakse for having violated

his fundamental rights, by con-

ducting an arbitrary unlawful

investigation into the opera-

tion of the Tsunami Relief

funds, deposited in the

‘Helping Hambantota’ Bank

Account.The Supreme Court,

last March 2006, declared that

the President’s fundamental

rights had been violated by the

IGP, the DIG of the CID, and

UNP member of Parliament

Kabeer Hasheem.

The IGP, the DIG and Kabeer

Hasheem were each ordered to

pay Rs. 100,000/- personally, as

compensation to the petitioner

Rajapakse. The state was

ordered to pay Rs. 200,000/- as

costs.

The petitioner President

Rajapakse had complained to

the Court, that the investiga-

tion was arbitrary, illegal and

politically biased and was

aimed at tarnishing his politi-

cal image, during the time he

campaigned for the presidency

in October, November 2005.

Sea Tigers seentraining

UNP MP MohamedMaharoof Monday denied hiserstwhile colleague T. M.Sangadasa’s charge that hetried to bribe the ColomboMunicipal Councillor.

Referring to our news item‘UNP Councillor claims partyheavyweight tried to bribe him’(page 2 of our March 31issue), Maharoof said that theallegation was baseless.Sangadasa claimed thatMaharoof sent him a chequefor Rs. 500,000 drawn onNational Mercantile Bank(MERC Bank) dated March24, 2006 after urging him notto target him through thenational press.

Sudath Perera Associatesin a statement issued onbehalf of Maharoof said, ‘Ourclient denies having tele-phoned Sangadasa anddenies having had any con-versation with him. Our clientdenies having issued thecheque and specificallydenies having put the chequeinto Sangadasa’s letter box.’

Maharoof said that thedate in the cheque was notwritten by him. ‘The cheque inquestion has been drawn onMERC Bank. It changed itsname to DFCC VardhanaBank in September 2003 andsubsequently Maharoofclosed his account,’ SudathPerera Associates said,adding, ‘The cheque in ques-tion was issued in April 2003but without a date on accountof additional legal fees forattorney-at-law IqbalMohamed in respect of a FRapplication filed in SupremeCourt.

Continued on page 9

Top cops pay President

Continued on page 9

The Island

Thursday 6th April, 2006

She had suchbeautiful eyes...

INSIDE

PIV

By Dasun EdirisingheH owever big an ele-

phant may be,

orphaned it is in

the same predicament as a

biped. Perhaps, its plight

is greater, given man’s

cruelty to jumbos. But all

is not lost for the unfortu-

nate elephants that lose

parents at a tender age

either in accidents or at

the hands of poachers orfarmers.

Ath Athuru Sevanahas

come forward to look after

the orphaned jumbos but

with a difference. They are

released to their natural

habitat after they are able

to be on their own. The

project has been going on

since 1995 as part of the

Udawalawe National Park,

which was created to help

the elephants displaced by

the Walawe Ganga

Development Project in1972.

The latest batch of ele-

phants was released last

Sunday in Udawalawe. The

Islandwas present on the

occasion to witness the

majestic beasts walk into

freedom thanks to a group

of caring humans who are

humane to other beings.

It was an emotional

moment for the foster par-

ents who had borne the

expenses of looking after

the jumbos and visited

them many times before. It

was a rather painful part-

ing but there was no other

way: the animals belong to

the wilderness and will be

happier there.

Here are some pictures

of what we saw at Ath

Athuru Sevenacourtesy

the Wild Life Department,

which deserves credit for

its dedicated service to a

mammoth species threat-

ened with extinction.

(Please see Leisureland

on Saturday (08) for the

full story with more pic-tures).

No longer orphans

Picture by Nishan S. PriyanthaJVPer woundedin pre-poll attackdies in ICU

by Shamindra FerdinandoThe government is likely

to turn down the Tigers’ latest

demand to resume direct

flights between the LTTE-held

Kilinochchi and overseas des-

tinations.

The government expects

Norway to exert pressure on

the LTTE to go ahead with the

meeting. Ministerial sources

said that peace co-chairs name-

ly the US, EU, Japan and the

facilitator Norway should

ensure their participation.

Norwegian heavyweight

Erik Solheim at the end of the

two-day meeting in Geneva in

February declared that the

parties to the February 2002

Cease-Fire Agreement would

meet in April. Solheim is in

Colombo with the Norwegian

Special Envoy Jon Hanssen

Bauer to finalise the arrange-

ments for the forthcoming

talks. The Norwegians are like-

ly to discuss the issue with

President Mahinda Rajapakse.

Military officials said that

senior LTTE representatives

travelling to and from the BIA

were always accompanied by

members of the five-nation

Nordic truce monitoring mis-

sion.

Continued on page 9

LTTE demands sea planeride for 2nd round of talks

Not given an iota of opportunity to peruse list - Mohamed

Our Vavuniya corr. Dinasena Ratugamage reporting from K’nochchiThe LTTE is demanding that its delegation to the next round of negotia-

tions in Geneva should be allowed to leave Kilinochchi in a sea plane.

Continued on page 9

Maharoofcheque matesSangadasaTop lawyer contradictsMaharoof