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Sri Lanka Moslem Congress leader Rauff Hakeem is planning to meet Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam leader Velupillai Prabhakaran in the Wanni for talks to resolve differences between their ethnic groups, amidst fresh fears spreading among the Muslims in Mannar area due to a pamphlet distributed by a purported Tamil Tiger front demanding the Muslims to quit that area. Security Forces indicate leaflets asking the Muslims to vacate Mannar before September 30 2002 had been circulated among the Muslim community there on September 18. The leaflet, supposed to have been signed by Ellalan Force, a long known front of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam that came out whenever the Tamil terrorist group wanted to engage itself in illegal activities like ethnic cleansing or political assassinations in the past had instilled great fear among the Muslims, sources said. A security report said, “A group claiming themselves to be members of Ellalan Force has carried out this distribution of leaflets. The leaflet threatened that action would be meted out to Muslims who defied this order by the said deadline.” Security forces authorities said they had reported the matter to the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission in Mannar and also to the Mannar Police. But Rauff Hakeem, the leader of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress who just returned from direct talks in Thailand with the LTTE delegation headed by Anton Balasingham played down the threat and said the leaflet would have been distributed by some other party to create dissension among the two ethnic groups. He said he had been assured by the LTTE authorities in Wanni that the LTTE had nothing to do with it. But in the past LTTE had always denied any connection with the Ellalan Force. Rauff Hakeem said the LTTE promised him to act swiftly and remove whatever threat posed to the Muslims by this pamphlet. Rauff Hakeem said he would be soon going to Wanni to meet LTTE supremo Prabhakaran as soon as Anton Balasingham arrived there from London. Using “Matithuma”- a Sinhalese honorific (meaning Honorable Minister) to address Prabhakaran the Sri Lanka government Minister said he would try to resolve some matters “deeply” that surfaced in Bangkok talks. He said one problem to be resolved was the re-settlement of the Muslim refugees who lost their homes in Jaffna. The Muslims lost their homes and fled to Puttalama as refugees, when the fascist dictatorship of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam ordered them out of Jaffna under an ethnic cleansing program. Anton Balasingham, the chief negotiator of the LTTE tendered his group’s apologies recently for this act and Prabhakaran signed a second agreement by his group with Muslims, Rauf Hakeem signing as the sole representative of the community, assuring the community a place in the Tamil speaking areas. But only few months elapsed when the LTTE attacked the Muslims killing scores of them in a LTTE-Muslim riot. The Ranil Wickremesinghe government has been accused by many Muslims for failing to protect the Muslims when they were attacked. The initial ethnic cleansing of the Muslims took place after a former Muslim leader Badiudeen Mohamed signed an agreement with the Muslims. Rauff Hakeem said that he would be also discussing ways and means of sharing power in the coming interim administration between the Muslims and the LTTE in the talks with Prabhakaran and Balasingham. (EOM) (02/09/22 go2lanka.com) |