Dead End?

By Namal Suvendra
26 August 2005 23:48 hours

Two doves freed at the launch of Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse's presidential election campaign Friday were killed instantly when they flew into a ceiling fan, police said.

The two birds were freed as a sign of peace shortly before the Premier arrived at a public stadium in the southern town of Matara, 160 kilometres (100 miles) south of here, police said.

"One bird fell in front of the stage while the other dropped dead behind the dignitaries," a police official in Matara said when contacted by telephone.

He said an investigation was underway to find out who had recklessly released the birds in an enclosed space where ceiling fans were working. No arrests had been made.

The meeting was the first public rally of the premier after the Supreme Court Friday ruled that President Chandrika Kumaratunga's second and final term ends on December 22, clearing the way for elections by November 21.

The prime minister is the presidential candidate of the ruling People's Alliance.

There was a similar accident involving a dove in June last year when Public Security Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake found that a bird in the bush is better than a dead one in the hand.

Wickremanayake tried to free a dove at the launch of multinational UN peacekeeping exercise, but the bird was already dead after being too tightly squeezed. -