His Excellency Mr. Mahinda Rajapakse,
President of Sri Lanka,
Colombo-03
Your Excellency,
Please permit me to express my views on the Provincial Council Elections to be held in the East shortly.
I had contested four elections to the local bodies and ten Parliamentary General Election held, since 1960. I have a moral duty to give a little bit of advice based on my experience that extends to a period of over half a century. Our country is in a mess facing innumerable problems and the worst is that there are problems within problems, that have accumulated over a period of 50 years. They cannot be sorted out over-night or in a short period and should be dealt with one by one.
I hope you will not disagree with me if I say that our Parliament itself is not properly constituted. How else can I describe it when it is having 22 of its 225 members elected fraudulently? The Election Monitors of the EU, the Commonwealth, the PAFFREL and the CMEV will bear testimony. These 22 members of the TNA, acknowledged proxies of the LTTE, go round the world glorifying even the atrocious activities of the LTTE without uttering one word about the worst type of human rights violations taking place in areas under the control of the LTTE where people can open their mouths only to eat and yawn. The Government had failed in its duty to expose properly the atrocious activities of the LTTE in their areas behind the Iron-Curtain.
Although it is unpalatable to admit that a lot of human rights violations take place in areas under the control of the Government also, the fact remains that people are aware that there are a few hidden hands that are responsible for such violations. The world does not know what happened to the S.S.P Charles Wijayawardene when he went to investigate a murder caused accidentally by a soldier. The LTTE cadre requested the said officer to go unarmed and without security. When he went there they hacked him to death. This happened only about 3 miles away from the Jaffna Town. Within minutes of the incident a pro-LTTE Tamil website released the news with photograph, putting the blame on the innocent civilians. There are hardly any Tamil Police officers stationed in Jaffna. More than 90% of them are Sinhalese officers. How can we blame the Sinhalese Police officers for failing to conduct proper investigations in such a situation. This is one of the reasons for the increase in human rights violations in the North and in the East too. Every day some killings or abductions are taking place both in the North and the East. If the Government is determined to catch the real culprits, although all cannot be traced, atleast some of them can either be traced or many killings can be prevented. Among others the culprits include the LTTE cadre also.
To make this appeal short let me come to the subject of Elections in the East held recently and to be held shortly. There is no doubt that the East had been liberated. It is only liberated but we must admit that it is not cleared fully of the LTTE menace. Even before the proper mopping operations are over and with some LTTE pocket still existing you had decided to hold the elections to the local bodies in the East in great hurry. Lot of odds have to be cleared. The people of the East should have been allowed freely, to breath the air of independence, after a lapse of 15 to 20 years. Even before normalcy returned and people still living in fear and tension and killings continue un-abated without even one single assailant caught and when people are still aware as to who and who are responsible for various violations, you had called for elections to be held immediately.
I have consulted a number of local people of standing. What they say is that although arms were not used by anybody to threaten the voters the fact that knowledge of possession of weapons was good enough to serve as a deterrent to free thinking. That is a fact which no one can deny. Helping to put one group in power is not our problem but, that party should have been encouraged to gain credibility among the people as a first step.
With great reluctance and deep regret I wish to bring to your notice that the Government is blamed by the people for doing everything in great hurry. The Government must now play the roll of the umpire and conduct the elections by encouraging every political party including yours to contest the forth-coming election promising all to protect all democratic norms including dis-arming all armed groups. That is the only way the Government can regain its lost prestige and convince the International Community of its genuineness to bring back normalcy and peace to the country. If any group needs protection of the Government from the LTTE, such group can seek Government Security for its protection. If you take this as a genuine advice coming from a person who loves the country and its people, kindly give effect to it. Your roll at this election should be like that of an umpire encouraging every political party including yours and Independent Groups to stake their claims. Please rest assured that my co-operation is available to you for the conduct of a free and fair election and to redeem the prestige the country lost by meddling with the democratic rights of our people to vote for the man and the party of their choice.
Please allow the S.T.F. to remain in the East still the Elections are over
Thanking you,
Yours Sincerely,
V. Anandasangaree,
President – TULF.
President of Sri Lanka,
Colombo-03
Your Excellency,
ELECTIONS TO THE EASTERN PROVINCIAL COUNCIL
Please permit me to express my views on the Provincial Council Elections to be held in the East shortly.
I had contested four elections to the local bodies and ten Parliamentary General Election held, since 1960. I have a moral duty to give a little bit of advice based on my experience that extends to a period of over half a century. Our country is in a mess facing innumerable problems and the worst is that there are problems within problems, that have accumulated over a period of 50 years. They cannot be sorted out over-night or in a short period and should be dealt with one by one.
I hope you will not disagree with me if I say that our Parliament itself is not properly constituted. How else can I describe it when it is having 22 of its 225 members elected fraudulently? The Election Monitors of the EU, the Commonwealth, the PAFFREL and the CMEV will bear testimony. These 22 members of the TNA, acknowledged proxies of the LTTE, go round the world glorifying even the atrocious activities of the LTTE without uttering one word about the worst type of human rights violations taking place in areas under the control of the LTTE where people can open their mouths only to eat and yawn. The Government had failed in its duty to expose properly the atrocious activities of the LTTE in their areas behind the Iron-Curtain.
Although it is unpalatable to admit that a lot of human rights violations take place in areas under the control of the Government also, the fact remains that people are aware that there are a few hidden hands that are responsible for such violations. The world does not know what happened to the S.S.P Charles Wijayawardene when he went to investigate a murder caused accidentally by a soldier. The LTTE cadre requested the said officer to go unarmed and without security. When he went there they hacked him to death. This happened only about 3 miles away from the Jaffna Town. Within minutes of the incident a pro-LTTE Tamil website released the news with photograph, putting the blame on the innocent civilians. There are hardly any Tamil Police officers stationed in Jaffna. More than 90% of them are Sinhalese officers. How can we blame the Sinhalese Police officers for failing to conduct proper investigations in such a situation. This is one of the reasons for the increase in human rights violations in the North and in the East too. Every day some killings or abductions are taking place both in the North and the East. If the Government is determined to catch the real culprits, although all cannot be traced, atleast some of them can either be traced or many killings can be prevented. Among others the culprits include the LTTE cadre also.
To make this appeal short let me come to the subject of Elections in the East held recently and to be held shortly. There is no doubt that the East had been liberated. It is only liberated but we must admit that it is not cleared fully of the LTTE menace. Even before the proper mopping operations are over and with some LTTE pocket still existing you had decided to hold the elections to the local bodies in the East in great hurry. Lot of odds have to be cleared. The people of the East should have been allowed freely, to breath the air of independence, after a lapse of 15 to 20 years. Even before normalcy returned and people still living in fear and tension and killings continue un-abated without even one single assailant caught and when people are still aware as to who and who are responsible for various violations, you had called for elections to be held immediately.
I have consulted a number of local people of standing. What they say is that although arms were not used by anybody to threaten the voters the fact that knowledge of possession of weapons was good enough to serve as a deterrent to free thinking. That is a fact which no one can deny. Helping to put one group in power is not our problem but, that party should have been encouraged to gain credibility among the people as a first step.
With great reluctance and deep regret I wish to bring to your notice that the Government is blamed by the people for doing everything in great hurry. The Government must now play the roll of the umpire and conduct the elections by encouraging every political party including yours to contest the forth-coming election promising all to protect all democratic norms including dis-arming all armed groups. That is the only way the Government can regain its lost prestige and convince the International Community of its genuineness to bring back normalcy and peace to the country. If any group needs protection of the Government from the LTTE, such group can seek Government Security for its protection. If you take this as a genuine advice coming from a person who loves the country and its people, kindly give effect to it. Your roll at this election should be like that of an umpire encouraging every political party including yours and Independent Groups to stake their claims. Please rest assured that my co-operation is available to you for the conduct of a free and fair election and to redeem the prestige the country lost by meddling with the democratic rights of our people to vote for the man and the party of their choice.
Please allow the S.T.F. to remain in the East still the Elections are over
Thanking you,
Yours Sincerely,
V. Anandasangaree,
President – TULF.
