Features

Insurgency 1971: Memoirs of then PM’s Secretary

Published

2 years ago

2024/08/11

(Excerpted from the autobiography of MDD Peiris)

From about the end of 1970 there was persistent and disturbing information surfacing of a youth uprising. Intelligence was coining in about secret meetings in the night; clandestine classes on far left ideologies; weapons training; the manufacture of hand bombs, etc. By the beginning of 1971 it was becoming clear that something dangerous was afoot.

All this information related to the gradual development of a situation that was unprecedented. In retrospect it could perhaps be said, that because it was unprecedented, the government did not, in those early months, accord to it the serious attention, that in hindsight, it could be said that it warranted. The intelligence services themselves, were able to unearth considerable material, but nobody developed a coherent and comprehensive picture of the ramifications and the magnitude of the problem.

The government reacted to the progressively increasing information that was coming in by setting up a special unit at Temple Trees headed by Mr. S.A. Dissanayake, a former Deputy Inspector General of Police. This unit was gradually staffed with a core of officers drawn from the three services and the police. and it was progressively strengthened with the necessary equipment. During this period the Prime Minister was residing in her own home at Rosmead Place. Temple Trees was only used

for state occasions. Apart from its use for receptions and dinners, visiting dignitaries like Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew were lodged there.

On the afternoon of April 4, 1971, I had gone to see the Prime Minister with a whole lot of papers. We were working at the dining table at Rosmead Place, when one of the servants came and announced that the Army Commander General Attygalle had come, and that he wished to see the Prime Minister urgently. He was ushered in, and what he had to relate was alarming. Security officers had raided a small meeting of insurgents at Vihara Maha Devi Park in Colombo a few hours before, and the subsequent interrogation of suspects had revealed a plot to storm Rosmead Place, and kill the Prime Minister that very night.

This had been confirmed by another, who had relented at the last moment and given information to the authorities. General Attygalle wanted the Prime Minister to immediately move to Temple Trees, which could be adequately secured. The Prime Minister with her customary calm said “I am not leaving my home, you protect me here.” But the general was adamant. He pointed out the vulnerability of the location of Rosmead Place right at a junction with roads all around it, and with its boundary walls abutting these roads.

In the developing context, he rightly urged that the Prime Minister should leave. I too added my voice to the General’s and Dr. Mackie Ratwatte, her brother and Private Secretary, who came in whilst this conversation was going on added his own weight. We proposed that she stop her work, and get ready to leave immediately. But she was very reluctant to leave the comfort of her home, and it required more effort to get her to at last agree.

All this was to be kept absolutely secret. I gathered my papers and said I was going to office, and that I would be there if needed. The staff at Temple Trees were not informed about the Prime Minister coming there to reside. She was to make the necessary arrangements after she got in. I finished my work and went home late as Usual. I had no role to play in the technicalities of security arrangements. I was on call if necessary. I had a parallel line in my bedroom upstairs from the telephone downstairs, which I used to keep on a low stand near my bed, so that I could reach out and take a call without getting out.

I was fast asleep when the telephone rang. It was around four o’clock in the morning of April 5. At the other end was Mr. Amarasinghe, Additional Private Secretary to the Prime Minister. He was telephoning from Temple Trees. He related in dramatic fashion the information that was coming in about the attack on a number of police stations by the Janatha Vimukti Perumuna. He said that lists had been discovered, with names of prominent people, to be assassinated. He was also kind enough to say that my name “had not yet been found,” on such a list.

This was a great deal to absorb when woken up from deep sleep. I requested Mr. Amarasinghe to inform the Prime Minister that I would be coming to Temple Trees early in the morning, and that until then I would be at home. I knew difficult, and even dangerous days lay ahead; that all normal hours of work and rest were at an end; and that no program of any sort could be planned. One had to adjust to the developing situation.

My little son was just over two years old. Given the uncertainties, I did not want my wife and son to be at home. I knew that if they were away, I would have greater ease of mind. In any case they were unlikely to see much of me. My parents were at home, and we had a servant. We could manage. My wife suggested that we send our son to her parents in Negombo, and that she stay. I firmly rejected this and packed both of them off to her parent’s place later in the day.

When taking these decisions there was the thought at the back of my mind that if I happened to be on some hit list, it was best that I sallied forth to the after-world alone. In any case the contract of marriage with my wife pertained only to this world, and I saw no point in her being put at risk of such a journey to another world. There was also now an innocent two year old without any contract, but possessing only a birth certificate. Now began almost two months of intense work and activity, where any kind of time management was impossible.

The country had to be under curfew for a considerable period of time. At the beginning the curfew hours were quite severe. Normal office and work hours had to be substantially curtailed. I had now to work from Temple Trees. The focal point of administration and security was there. Very senior security personnel including the Navy Commander Admiral Hunter and Chief of Staff Basil Goonesekera, worked from the operations room at Temple Trees. Some Ministers also spent a great deal of their time at Temple Trees.

One of them whom I remember vividly was Dr. N.M. Perera the Minister of Finance. He had a look of shock and disbelief on his face. Much of the time he had a far away look. It was evident that he had been deeply shocked by the turn of events. He was struggling to comprehend something, which at the time he did not understand. I tried occasionally to talk to him, and also ask him whether I could order a cup of tea. Most of the time he just grunted. Conversation seemed to be the last thing on his mind.

Underlying the shock and the gloom from his point of view was the despair that a set of reckless adventurers were jeopardizing a socialist government which had been returned with such a strong mandate, even before the government was one year in office. Most of the Ministers were in a state of fear. They thronged Temple Trees and stayed there. After a while, this constituted a disturbance to the Prime Minister, who thereupon urged them to go and stay in their Ministries.

The security forces and the police were stretched to the limit. The country did not spend any significant amount on defence and security in those times, and was generally unprepared both in equipment and human resources to meet the kind of insurgent threat that they were now suddenly faced with. Therefore, the security that was afforded to Ministers at the time when compared with the security they receive now, was rudimentary. It was no wonder therefore that they tended to congregate at Temple Trees, the safest place available.

A discussion with the Army Commander

The first three or four days were particularly difficult. In addition to combating the sudden attack on about 25 police stations, with intelligence being received of more attacks to come, the Government was in a most difficult situation. Police stations had to be strengthened; troops had to be deployed against identified JVP centres, as intelligence began coming in; main roads, and most importantly bridges had to be secured: public offices had to be guarded; and Ports, harbours and above all airports, including the international airport had to be secured.

With inadequate personnel and equipment. the security forces and the police were under severe strain. Most of them had not slept for days, and some were on the verge of breakdown. The country was under extended hours of curfew, and rumours abounded of an attack on Colombo; about the prospect of some of the main bridges in the city being blown up; and about possible raids on reservoirs and pumping stations like the one at Maligakande.

It was in this environment and background that General Sepala Attygalle the Army Commander telephoned me one morning at Temple Trees. This would have been around the third day of the insurgency. He sounded seriously overwrought. He said that the situation was very bad and that he wanted to see the Prime Minister. This was chilling news. But one had to discipline oneself not to get excited or panic. I told Sepala, that I would certainly arrange for him to see the Prime Minister, but that first I needed to talk to him.

I was working in the administrative building situated to the north of the main building, where the Prime Minister worked from. On top of the administrative building were some bedrooms. Pending the Army Commander’s arrival, I went into the situation room, and got myself briefed on the latest information. It was clear from the briefing that the initial assault had been to an extent countered, although some police stations were lost or had to be abandoned.

The wave of attacks had petered out and the security forces were consolidating. The volunteer forces of the three services had been called up and the increased manpower coming in were helping both operations and morale. The curfew was being strictly enforced, and orders had gone out to shoot any deliberate curfew breakers. The government had already appealed to countries such as India, Pakistan, The United Kingdom and the USA for urgently needed arms, ammunition and equipment.

There were very positive responses from all these countries as well as later China. India and Pakistan were sending helicopters, in addition to other supplies. They were also sending some of their troops to secure the Katunayake and Ratmalana airports, so that our troops could be released from static duties. Our two neighbouring countries acted very fast. I remember Pakistan responding to our request by immediately cabling “Helicopters loading, please indicate landing details.” They were sent in military cargo planes.

We were also urgently buying ammunition and equipment from Singapore. I knew that all this was in the pipeline, and some had actually arrived. The Indian High Commissioner had met the Prime Minister, and after discussions, the Indian Navy threw a naval cordon around the country and intensified naval patrols. I was most keen therefore to talk to Sepala, because I was certain that he did not know of these details. When he arrived, I took him upstairs to one of the bedrooms, and shut the door. We sat on two beds and talked. It was abundantly clear that he had not slept for almost three days. The strain was visible. He was chain smoking and his hands were trembling, a sign of tension, fatigue and sleeplessness. I calmly narrated the briefing I had received from the situation room.

I then updated him on the arrival of the helicopters, troops and equipment. We talked for almost 45 minutes. At the end Sepala decided he did not need to see the Prime Minister. I suggested that he sleep in the room for a few hours. But he had work to do, and left in a much better frame of mind.

Operation Rescue

One of the main problems initially was the inadequacy of personnel, even for static security duties. The Minister of Public Administration and Home Affairs, Mr. Felix Dias Bandaranaike decided that a number of selected senior public servants, who in any case did not have much to do, due to the long curfew hours, could assist security personnel at some of the check points in the city. A roster had been drawn up and they were to report for duty at various places during early evening.

Unfortunately, under the pressure of events someone forgot to co-ordinate this with the security authorities. Some kind of letter was issued to them. But some had not received their letters by the time they were asked to report. We had no national identity cards those days, and there was now the prospect of a number of senior public servants wandering into military check points in the dark, without a shred of identification in a situation when those manning those points were completely unaware of this arrangement, and were themselves tired, tense and edgy.

Very fortunately the Prime Minister came to hear of this at the last moment. She was furious. Already there were deaths enough, and the last thing she wanted to see was a number of senior public servants added to those numbers. On her instructions therefore, we had to quickly organize a fleet of vehicles to send to the various check points and bring these public servants to Temple Trees.

Getting vehicles at such short notice was also not easy. We had to drop everything and engage in operation rescue. To the great relief of all however operation rescue was successfully carried out and a number of bewildered public servants brought to Temple Trees, where most of them spent the night, some of them seated on the steps at the back, overlooking a beautiful lawn and shady trees.

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Features

New mediation law for smarter dispute resolution of civil and commercial disputes – I

Published

6 hours ago

2026/06/16

Sahan Weerasooriya

The Mediation (Civil and Commercial Disputes) Bill was passed by the Parliament on Thursday, June 11, 2026. Harshana Nanayakkara, Minister of Justice and National Integration, introduced the Bill, and explained its provisions and value for Sri Lanka and global developments in the use of mediation. Encouragingly, it was passed unanimously.

Sri Lanka’s commitment to provide legislative support for the use of mediation is timely and most welcome. Given that the backlog of cases pending before courts is over a staggering 1.1 million, it is clear that Sri Lanka is yet another country that remains challenged to find responses to make dispute resolution more efficient. The impact of laws delays is serious and damaging not only to the disputants personally, but also for businesses and the economic development of the country. The delays in concluding cases impacts the economy adversely, both directly and indirectly, but are often seen only as an access to Justice concern. This is unfortunate. In many jurisdictions across the globe, alternative dispute resolution processes (ADR), such as mediation, have been introduced to alleviate laws delays. While Sri Lanka enacted legislation (1988) to provide for mediation in respect of minor community disputes of a low monetary threshold, the enactment of the new law heralds a commitment to provide for the recognition of a disciplined regime for its use for higher value civil and commercial disputes.

The new law provides for the recognition of mediation as a dispute resolution option that can be voluntarily selected by parties, and for a governance regime to ensure that mediations are conducted in compliance with certain standards which are globally accepted. It provides statutory recognition to the principle that a mediated settlement agreement that has been signed by the disputants, is valid in law. It does not provide for any management control by government or establish entities. In addition to the voluntary reference by parties, a court can also refer a dispute in an action before it, to mediation, at its discretion, after considering all circumstances and if considered appropriate. The voluntary nature of the process is not affected because, while the court can refer the dispute to mediation and the parties must then engage in the mediation, there is no compulsion for the parties to settle against their will.

The law sets out the obligations of Mediators, disputants and the Service Provider. Certain categories of disputes cannot be referred to mediation. These are disputes the settlement of which requires the inclusion of terms that can be given effect to, only on a decree of court, such as the termination of a marriage or a declaration of nullity of marriage or the adoption of a child or the partition of land to obtain rights in rem. A schedule sets out eleven (11) categories of actions that cannot be settled by mediation. However, matters relevant to such disputes may be mediated for the purpose of submitting terms of settlement to court for consideration of incorporation in a judgement, decree or order in compliance with applicable law.

The new law also provides that in a mediation, certain key principles of the process must be complied with. These include the confidentiality and the without prejudice rule in respect of matters discussed at the mediation; the rule that Mediators must be neutral and impartial; the party centric nature of the process that provides primacy to the wishes of the disputants including that it is they that determine the outcome and that a settlement is reached only if all disputants agree to the terms; the noncoercive role of the mediator whose duty is to facilitate and manage the process using mediation specific skills and techniques, but is debarred from imposing a decision. Although a settlement agreement is valid in law, provision is included to obtain a decree of court, based on the terms of the settlement. A mediated settlement agreement can be set aside on an application made to court, on specific limited grounds which are provided for, including that it is offensive to the public policy of the country. If the parties are unable to agree on a settlement, a certificate of non-settlement is issued. The provisions of the law are based on international best practices and principles articulated in the 1988 UN Mediation Convention (the Singapore Convention) and the UNCITRAL model law.

The popularity of mediation has grown for its value in being time efficient, cost effective and party centric. Parties have control over the outcome and have the space to discuss their concerns, fears and interests and need never agree to settle unless fully satisfied that settlement terms address their interests. Disputants are free to walk out of a mediation process at any time, if dissatisfied with the progress. The discussions are confidential and a valuable feature is that the process offers an opportunity to reduce acrimony which is prevalent in most disputes, and to restore fractured relationships which is very important in family and business related disputes. This benefit and the prospects for governments to reduce the cost of the administration of justice, by using mediation, is articulated in the preamble to the 2018 UN Convention on International Settlement Agreements Resulting from Mediation (2018) which states that the use of mediation results in significant benefits.

Pursuant to the interest generated within the country regarding the value of using Mediation for commercial dispute resolution, and heralding what we like to see as the initial steps of a Mediation boom in the country, several positive advancements have taken place –

* Parties have opted to include mediation in the dispute resolution clause in contracts;

* Given that mediating disputes requires very specialised techniques and skills, many professionals, including predominantly Lawyers, have engaged in training programmes offered by international training bodies that offer accreditation;

* Trained Mediators are engaged in an effort to form themselves as a professional Organisation;

* Mediation Advocacy training programmes have been held to train Lawyers on their niche role in the mediation process. That role is distinctly different to that of a court Lawyer who’s obligations are centred on an adversarial approach where the dispute is adjudicated in terms of the law alone. Hence lawyers need training to be useful within a non-adversarial process which is party centric and has a focus on reaching a settlement, based on the interests of disputants.

* Sri Lanka enacted the Recognition and Enforcement of International Mediated Settlement Agreements Act No. 5 of 2024 (the UN Mediation Convention Act) and ratified the Convention becoming the 14th country to do so. Sri Lanka will be seen as an investor friendly country in respect of dispute resolution where mediation is used, since it offers an enforcement regime which is recognised universally.

* The landmark determination of the Supreme Court (SC SD 22 of 2025) in the challenge by the Bar Association to the constitutionality of the Mediation (Civil and Commercial Disputes) Bill, found that none of the provisions of the Bill were unconstitutional and gave a judicial sign off to statutory provisions that seek to ensure that mediation services are provided in this country, in a disciplined manner in compliance with universally accepted standards.

* Perhaps, inspired by the statutory obligation imposed on judges to attempt pretrial settlement of disputes, in terms of the Small Claims Court Act and the Small Claims Court Procedure Act (both of 2022) and the Civil Procedure Code provisions on Pretrial Conference and Pretrial Orders, 125 District Judges were recently trained (with support from the ADB) in Mediation. The training provided a dual benefit – it provided training in skills that are required to settle disputes and equally importantly, provided a comprehensive understanding of how mediation will function when judges themselves refer disputes for settlement by private mediators.

* Trained Mediators are already conducting mediations with success.

* A not-for-profit guarantee company, the International ADR Centre – www.iadrc.lk ) was established in 2018 as a joint venture of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce and the Institute for the Development of Commercial Law & Practice (ICLP) to promote ADR and is actively engaged in promoting mediation through training, disseminating information and creating awareness among stakeholders, including the business sector. In addition to the International ADR Centre, “Udecide” is a project that promotes training of mediators and other activities that enrich the mediation culture.

* Commercial Mediation has been included in the Masters level programme at the Colombo University;

* The Sri Lanka Law College offers a component on Mediation in the Post Attorney Diploma programme, which commenced recently.

The private sector was actively engaged in the drafting of the Mediation Bill under the leadership of the International ADR Centre, which held many stakeholder consultations to obtain feedback from those that were conversant with the subject. The Centre had previously assisted the government to draft the UN Mediation Convention Act (Act No. 5 of 2024).

Several international Organisations that previously provided for resolution of disputes by arbitration, have provided for institutional rules to provide mediation services. These include WIPO and the ICC. Specifically, in relation to Investor State dispute resolution (ISDR), the International Bar Association (IBA) adopted its Mediation Rules in 2012 and ICSID (of the World Bank group) adopted its Mediation Rules in 2022. UNCITRAL, which is currently working on reforming ISDR, promotes mediation, observing that the use of mediation could reduce the costs of ISDS and also preserve relationships between the investor and the State. UNCITRAL has formulated provisions on and Guidelines for, Mediation for investor state dispute resolution.

(To be continued)

by Dhara Wijayatilake
Attorney-at-Law; Former Secretary to the Ministry of Justice; Director and Secretary General of the International ADR Centre.

Features

A Testament to the Sri Lankan family

Published

7 hours ago

2026/06/16

Sahan Weerasooriya

The passing of Dr. Devanesan Nesiah a few days ago brought back memories that spanned more than four decades. Devanesan signed the witness register at my marriage in 2002. It was a year of hope. The Ceasefire Agreement between the government and the LTTE had brought a respite from a war that had devastated the country for nearly two decades. The possibility of peace seemed real. It was fitting that Devanesan should be present on that occasion because his entire life was dedicated to building bridges across divides and seeking rational and humane solutions to conflict. He was a friend, mentor, and guide whose life embodied values that Sri Lanka, indeed the world, needs today.

In reflecting on Dr. Nesiah’s life, we need to be reminded that the forces that unite us as a people in Sri Lanka are stronger than those that divide us, and that the bonds of human affection can transcend even the deepest divisions of ethnicity, history and politics. I first met him in 1984. I had just had my very first newspaper article published in the Jaffna-based Saturday Review. The editor was Gamini Navaratne, a Sinhalese. This was a reminder that even during the darkest period of ethnic conflict, the bonds between communities remained strong. The article I had written was based on my encounters with the anti-Tamil violence of July 1983.

At that time, Dr Nesiah was the Government Agent of Jaffna. Tens of thousands of Tamil people who had fled violence in the south had been transported to the north by a government that had failed to protect them. He came up to me at an event, introduced himself, and told me that he liked what I had written. He also said that he would soon be leaving for Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and that we could meet there. Over the next three years, Devanesan and his wife Anita adopted me into their family. I used to visit them two or three times a week, not only to be given meals by Anita but to discuss matters with Devanesan. These included the academic papers and newspaper articles that were written. Later, Anita earned her PhD in religion and served on the boards of many civic organisations, including the National Peace Council.

Practical Solution

In 1992, we had both returned to work in Sri Lanka when Devanesan invited me to accompany him to Jaffna to celebrate the eightieth birthday of his father, K Nesiah, the distinguished educationist affectionately known as Professor Nesiah. The older Nesiah had been a leading member of the Jaffna Youth Congress. This remarkable movement championed complete independence from British rule, national unity, and the eradication of social inequalities based on caste and communal identity.

At a time when many feared that independence would lead to majoritarian domination, the leaders of the Youth Congress chose instead to place their faith in a shared Sri Lankan future. They believed that people from different communities could build a common nation while preserving their distinctive identities. So did Devanesan. This vision remains relevant today. It needs to be actualized.

The tragedy of Sri Lanka’s post-independence history is not that diversity exists. Diversity exists in every society. The tragedy is that we often allow diversity to become a source of fear, though we share many of the same values of family, hospitality, respect for elders and compassion towards others. During our visit to Jaffna in 1992, we met representatives of the LTTE administration, including Raheem. The discussion turned to the controversial issue of merging the Northern and Eastern Provinces. Dr Nesiah argued that if the merger could not be achieved due to political opposition, it might be more rational to seek greater powers for provincial councils instead. Raheem disagreed. Devanesan was interested in finding practical ways to achieve justice and coexistence. That was characteristic of him.

Devanesan Nesiah was a student of conflict and strategy. He became a doctoral student of Professor Thomas Schelling, who would later receive the Nobel Prize for his pioneering work on conflict and cooperation. Schelling’s insight was that even in the midst of conflict, there are usually common interests that adversaries share. Even adversaries locked in a struggle usually depend on each other for the outcome they each want. The challenge is to identify those common interests and build upon them. Conflict is not simply a contest between enemies. It is also a search for ways to coexist. Together as students and peace practitioners, we applied those theories to the Sri Lankan context to understand what was going on and to share that understanding with the Sri Lankan people.

Rational Empathy

Dr Nesiah spoke his mind, truth to power. He was a man of logic, rationality, and principle. His integrity came at a cost. His public service career experienced many ups and downs because he refused to accommodate irrational or corrupt demands. There were periods when he was sidelined into that administrative limbo known as the “pool” and assigned no substantive responsibilities for refusing to give in to political demands. Like the rest of his larger family, most notably the Hoole family of Jaffna, he would not abandon his principles. In 2018, to protest the action of President Maithripala Sirisena in sacking the then government he returned his Deshamanya Award (Pride of the Nation) national civil honourn which was soon thereafter overturned by the Supreme Court as being unconstitutional. His commitment was not to personal advancement, but to what he believed was right.

My wife Sumadhu recalls a story he told her. One day, while travelling on official duty, he told her how he had seen a thalagoya, a monitor lizard, trussed up and being taken away for slaughter. The sight of the creature’s suffering affected him deeply. He said he saw tears in its eyes and described the moment of awakening. From that day onwards, he gave up eating meat.

The story brings to mind the biblical story of the conversion of St Paul on the road to Damascus and the Buddhist exhortation, “May all living beings be well and happy.” But the deeper significance lies not in religious comparison. It lies in the awakening of empathy.

That was the essence of Dr Devanesan Nesiah’s worldview. The prejudices that society often imposes through ethnicity, religion, caste, or gender had little hold on him. He saw them as human constructs that often served to privilege some while excluding others. Such were his values that made him an extraordinary human being. Dr. Nesiah lived according to that understanding. He showed that integrity can survive amidst conflict. He reminded us that reason and compassion are not opposites but partners, that what unites us as Sri Lankans inhabiting our common island home has always been greater than what divides us, and we need to build our institutions accordingly.

I am proud that he was my friend. I am grateful that he was my mentor.

by Jehan Perera

Features

City of Dreams …Heartbeat of Colombo

Published

7 hours ago

2026/06/16

Sahan Weerasooriya

Enroute

If Colombo’s nightlife had a pulse, you’d find it 23 floors up, at Gatz, City of Dreams, Cinnamon Life.

The entertainment lounge has shed its old skin and stepped out supper-club style — think dim lights, clinking glasses, and live music that doesn’t ask you to choose between dinner and a show. You get both.

What’s more, at the new look Gatz the music never stops and it’s all happening seven nights a week … with live entertainment, and this is the scene, beat by beat:

Monday and Tuesday: Top Hats with Daniella/Naomi, from 7.00 pm onwards.

Sohan, Kamal Munasinghe (GM, Cinnamon Life) and Imran of
Funtime Entertainments

One of Colombo’s most sought-after bands is now a Monday-Tuesday ritual.

With a super repertoire, Top Hats can swing from lounge jazz to dancefloor fire. Big venues love them. Now Gatz gets to claim them.

Wednesday: Enroute with Gananath & Debbie – from 7.00 pm onwards.

Want New York at sunset? This is it. Gananath & Debbie transport you straight to the heady days of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Ray Charles …old-school cool, live and unfiltered.

Thursday to Sunday: Terry & the Big Spenders – from 8.00 pm onwards.

Terry & The Big Spenders

The crowd favourite. A super big band sound that owns the 70s, 80s and 90s.

If you’ve been waiting for horns, harmonies, and nostalgia with volume, Terry & the Big Spenders deliver it nightly. No wonder they’re a huge hit.

Gatz is now an entertainment lounge, in Supper Club style, with Happy Hour very day, from 6.00 pm to 8.00 pm because the night, they say, should start with a toast.

And, from July, weekends at the Gatz go global. Local and foreign guest stars will be around to entertain you. Gatz is certainly booking big.

Wow! That would be another exciting experience for those patronising the most talked about venue in town.

In charge of the new setup is our legendary entertainer/singer Sohan Weerasinghe, along with Imran of Funtime Entertainment.

The twosome, with invaluable assistance from the General Manager, Kamal Munasinghe, and the entire team at Cinnamon Life, have built Gatz into more than a venue. They have turned it into the “Heartbeat of the City.”

So come for happy hour. Stay for Terry’s horns, Sing-along with Enroute and Dance with Top Hats, all on the 23rd floor, and while Colombo sparkles below the bands will take you higher.

Remember, the heartbeat is loudest at Gatz.