Chief Minister race still on the way-swearing in ceremony postponed

The swearing-in ceremony of the new Chief Minister for the eastern province scheduled to take place tomorrow before President Mahinda Rajapaksa has been postponed, the Presidential Secretariat said.
According to the government sources there is yet no consensus reached in the discussions between the Muslim Ministers and the President on who should be the Chief Minister. The Muslim Ministers have been pushing for a Muslim Chief Minister on the basis that no constituent party of the UPFA would be able to do politics in the East if a Muslim is not appointed the Chief Minister, when the majority members elected are Muslim.
While the President had been in consultation with Muslim Ministers on a ‘one to one’ basis and with no possibility of arriving at a decision, it is reported, the President has decided not to name the Chief Minister for now. Meanwhile President Mahindha Rajapakse summoned a meeting of Muslims ministers in his government for a crisis meeting to discuss the post of chief minister of the East.
However minister Anura Priyadarshana Yapa said the government would announce name of the Chief Minister on Friday.

Sri Lankan students safe

A group of Sri Lankan students of the Sichuan Medical University are safe and have been evacuated from the earthquake hit province in China, the Foreign Ministry said.

Army Commander Reviews Security Situation in Jaffna

Commander of the Army, Lieutenant General Sarath Fonseka in an attempt to take an overall stock of the latest ground situation flew to Jaffna this morning, May 15, with several senior military officers of the Army Headquarters.
Commander, Security Forces Headquarters - Jaffna (SFHQ- J) Major General G A Chandrasiri after receiving the visiting Army chief gave a detailed outline of the security developments unfolding in areas under his command. All respective Commanders in Divisions and Brigades joined him afterwards to brief the visiting commander on the current situation.
After reviewing the present security situation in the areas under SFHQ(J), Army chief gave additional instructions to all senior ground commanders on future security arrangements in respective areas.

Terrorists suffer heavy losses in clashes - Vavuniya

Sri Lanka Army soldiers yesterday (May 14) found five bodies of female LTTE cadres along with 5 T-56 rifles, after hours long clashes occurred in the Periyamadhu area on the Vavuniya warfront. According to the defence sources in the front, heavy clashes had prevailed between 8.30- 10 am as troops continued to march ahead into the LTTE dominated Wanni territory.
The terrorists had showered mortar fire on the charging soldiers but failed to halt them, the sources said. One soldier was killed, one reported missing in action and four others suffered injuries in the incident, the sources added.
Elsewhere, troops confronted with a group of terrorists around 2 pm and claimed at least 4 LTTE cadres were killed. One soldier suffered injuries in this incident.
In a similar incident at Palamodai troops attacked two fortified LTTE bunkers around 3.50, last evening. Ground sources have confirmed that 6 LTTE cadres were killed in the incident. Army suffered no damages.
Separately, a sniper deployed in the Palampiddi area claimed to have shot down one terrorist around 11.15 a.m. One solder suffered injuries due to an Anti Personal (AP) mine explosion in the same area on the same day evening.
Meanwhile, Army Electronic Warfare (EW) cells based on radio monitoring reported that terrorists had transferred 8 of its cadres to Molangavil government hospital in the non liberated area, out of which 3 had died at the hospital.

Government categorises GS divisions by its poverty level

Grama Niladari Divisions of the country have been categorised according to their levels of poverty.
The Department of Census and Statistics has compiled a report depicting these levels of poverty.
The report was presented to Prime Minister Rathnasiri Wickremanayake at his office recently by Director General of the Department G.B.T.S. Vidyarathne. Deputy Director of the Department Dr. Amara Satharasinghe said the report will be useful for regional planning, poverty eradication programmes and the allocation of Development aid.

NFF misled & booked BCIS as venue for inauguration

'Lanka Dissent'

The newly-formed National Freedom Front has reportedly misled officials and fraudulently booked the Bandaranaike Centre for International Studies as the venue for its inauguration.

The date had been booked by the Manel Mal Movement, purportedly for a meeting of intellectuals to discuss support for war heroes.

The NFF held the first delegates' conference, chaired by its leader Wimal Weerawana, at the BCIS on May 14th.

According to the institution's constitution, the BCIS cannot be given for any political activity.

Executive Director of the BCIS Bandula Ekanayake told 'Lanka Dissent' that the NFF had committed a serious fraud, and that disciplinary action would be taken against the officials responsible.


Our attempts to contact BCIS Director Dr. Tusitha Tennkoon and NFF spokesman Jayantha Samarawera were futile.

EP Chief Minister will be named tommorrow.

Sunil C. Perera in Colombo
Eastern Province Chief Minister to be named tommorrow.This was stated by Minister Anura Priyadarshana Yapa at the weekly cabinet press briefing held at the Department of Information this evening.
However rumours are spreading about appointing of the Chief Minister .According to the news reports TMVP Leader Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan, alias Pillayan, is tipped to be appointed as the Eastern Province Chief Minister despite requests by Muslim ministers to appoint M.L.A.M. Hizbullah to the post.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa had, on Tuesday, contacted two senior Muslim ministers and told them that the controversy over demands that Mr. Hizbullah be made the Chief Minister should be resolved before his return to the country from Britain, scheduled for yesterday.

President Rajapaksa had also expressed his disappointment to the ministers over comments by Mr. Hizbullah to the effect that he was confident of being appointed to the post.

“The President told us to resolve the matter before his return to the country,” one of the ministers said, adding that the President had said he did not want to come home and face a ‘disaster,’ with Hizbullah or the Muslim ministers. He had said that Pillayan was tipped to be appointed to the post.