*Yapa says politicos, businessmen and journalists face terrorism charges

The government yesterday said that President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s recent pledge to implement the 13th Amendment to the Constitution wouldn’t mean a re-merger of the Eastern Province with the North as envisaged under the July 1987 Indo-Lanka Accord.

Responding to our queries at the weekly press briefing at the Information Department, Media Minister Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena said though the government was committed to the implementation of the 13th Amendment there would have to be two separate Provincial Councils.

A re-merger, he said couldn’t be even considered as the Supreme Court had declared the 1987 amalgamation of the Eastern Province with the North null and void.

He also assured that a Provincial Council for the Northern Province, too, was on the cards consequent to the establishment of the Eastern Provincial Council.

President Rajapaksa last month assured Indian Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon and UN Secretary General Ban-ki moon that the 13th Amendment would be implemented.

Condemning the attack on Poddala Jayantha, Secretary to the Sri Lanka Working Journalists Association on Monday evening, he said that journalists were among the persons under investigation over their alleged links with the LTTE. According to him, officers of the Sri Lanka Army, businessmen and politicians were being investigated. He revealed that vehicles belonging to former MPs had been used by the LTTE to transport explosives.

Referring to a recent statement attributed to Army Chief General Sarath Fonseka, the Minister said that the Defence Ministry would reveal the identity of persons who had been on the payroll of the LTTE. He said that the suspects would also face legal action indicating their identities could be known in about two weeks.

Commenting on the assault on Poddala Jayantha, a senior member of the Dinamina Editorial staff, the Minister said that the police had questioned Bennet Rupasinghe of Lanka e-news along with another staffer.

He rejected a request from Lankadeepa journalist Ms. Vinitha Gamage, on behalf of the Sri Lanka Working Journalists Association, to expose its members allegedly involved with the LTTE as otherwise all would be suspect.