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LTTE STOPS SUPPLIES TO THE DELFT ISLAND IN ORDER TO DRIVE OUT ITS RIVAL EPDP AND PROVE THEY ARE SOLE REPRESENTATIVES OF TAMILS By Walter Jayawardhana reporting from Los Angeles The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam has stopped all supplies to the Northern island of Delft where 5000 people live in order to starve the people and drive out its rival the Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP) from the island, the party’s leader Douglas Devananda charged. The terrorists of the LTTE have been protesting and performing violent acts to drive out the opposition EPDP from the island for the past few days despite the public announcement of their Chief negotiator Anton Balasingham that multi-party polity would be allowed in the Northern and Eastern provinces by the terrorist group. T.Maheswaran, the UNP member of Parliament and Minister of Hindu Religious Affairs who visited the Delft island denied any involvement of the LTTE in the current political turmoil and said it was the people of the island who were agitating against the EPDP. The UNP Minister from the day of his election has been defending the LTTE in all his statements and has little credibility. "A prolonged cut-off may lead to starvation. We have lodged a strong protest with the Ministry of Defense," EPDP leader Douglas Devananda was quoted as saying. D. B. S. Jeyaraj , a journalist who is very close to the LTTE admitted that the present agitation to deny the EPDP its right to get involved in day to day politics was organized by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. The LTTE in its notorious Fascist policies think that they are the sole representatives of the Tamil people. They only allow the subservient Tamil National Alliance to exist and operate in the Tamil areas. The LTTE who has a strong navy called Sea Tigers which has been strengthened after they signed a cease fire agreement with Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has laid this siege to the island after they attacked the EPDP offices in Vadamarachchi South, Delft and Chavakachcheri. The LTTE allegedly ordered all ferry services to the island stopped to put an end to the supplies. Devananda said that he would start a boat service to the island to carry food to the people if the siege on the island was not lifted. D.B.S. Jeyaraj writing in the Sunday Leader of November 24 said , “There were many who thought that the LTTE had transformed itself and was tolerant of dissent and alternative political opinion. Recent events on ground have disproved that. Even an insignificant outfit like the Socialist Equal Party is not permitted to put up posters in Jaffna. Attempts to hold a 75th birthday commemorative meeting in Chulipuram for the late Appapillai Amirthalingam were crushed. Only the totally subservient TNA is allowed some space. Even that is limited with the LTTE controlling every act of the TNA. Independent decisions by people like TULF President in the arena of transfers and appointments have been nipped in the bud. With that kind of intolerant attitude prevailing, there is very little doubt about the underlying motives in the anti-EPDP campaign.” (EOM) (25/11/02 go2lanka.com)

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