UNDER RANIL’S INSTRUCTIONS MINISTER ORDERS TO GIVE STATE HELP AGAINST ARMY DECISION TO LTTE RALLY, PONGU THAMIL IN VAVUNIYA
By Walter Jayawardhana reporting from Los Angeles
September 02.09.50 PM:Giving a decision against the Sri Lanka Army’s Wanni Command the Minister of Public Administration Vajera Abeywardana ordered that full cooperation of the state officials should be given to the Pongu Thamil celebrations organized by the separatist rebel group, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), in Vavuniya.
Acting under the instructions of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe the Minister of Public Administration rejected the Wanni Command’s letter of reprimand sent to Vavuniya Government Agent, K. Ganesh asking for explanations why he and other government officials were organizing the LTTE propaganda rally that is scheduled to be held on September 15.
Under the instructions of the Minister of Public Administration public money in the form of the time of the government servants could be utilized for the Pongu Thamil celebration. In the past, Pongu Thamil had been used to ridicule the Sri Lanka National Army. Spectators were requested to take part in a mock attack on a Sri Lanka Army camp at the last Pongu Thamil celebration in Jaffna.
In an earlier agreement reached between the Sri Lanka Army, the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) and the LTTE it had been agreed not to use school children in support of political rallies. But contrary to the agreement the Government Agent Ganesh was also trying to use school children for this major propaganda rally in the Sri Lanka government controlled area of Vavuniya.
It is not clear whether Vajera Abeywardana ‘s blanket order to give sponsorship to the LTTE propaganda rally covers using the Vavuniya school children to be forced to shout LTTE slogans in this propaganda rally.
In defending the Ranil Wickremesinghe government’s controversial decision against Sri Lanka’s national army over the BBC’ s Sandeshaya Public Administration Minister of the UNF government said there was absolutely nothing wrong in giving sponsorship through public officials to Pongu Thamil even if it was organized by the LTTE.
He said by supporting the Pongu Thamil, the government could espouse the causes of liberalism and democracy. Under the Ranil Wickremesinghe government’s controversial decision to give sponsorship to political rallies the LTTE became the only political or military organization that received state sponsorship in Sri Lanka.
The Ranil Wickremesinghe government generally disliked political rallies other than those organized by their own UNP and attacked many times JVP rallies often with chemical laced water cannons and tear gas.
Vajera Abeywardana said all support should be given by the state to organizations to espouse liberal and democratic causes. But Tamil political parties have complained to the major human rights organizations of the world how the LTTE was killing their members misusing the agreement signed with the Ranil Wickremesinghe government.
The army has also complained since the signing of the Ceasefire agreement dozens of intelligence officers of the army had been killed by LTTE assassins.
Although the Ranil Wickremesinghe government claimed that allowing the LTTE to hold its propaganda rallies with the help of the state officials using public funds the leading human rights organization of the Tamils, the University Teachers for Human Rights (Jaffna) ( UTHR-J) has alleged the “Fascist” LTTE has not changed even by a bit after the signing of the Ceasefire agreement.
The LTTE calls itself the sole representative of the Tamils and believed in the physical elimination of political opponents. It openly abducts under age children for military conscription, slave labor and some times for sexual exploitation, according to a US state Department report. The Ranil Wickremesinghe government refuses to intervene in the child abductions in the form of offensive action under the Ceasefire Agreement. The Fascist political group also believed in ethnic cleansing under which their armed cadres have massacred and chased out Muslims and the Sinhalese from the Northern and Eastern Provinces. Even right now, the LTTE was actively engaged in killing Muslims, Muslim organizations have accused. The Ranil Wickremesinghe government depends on pro-LTTE groups for its paper-thin majority in the Sri Lanka parliament.
