LTTE arms surrender a ‘gigantic farce’
HL: North-east merger an ‘illegal by-pass’
Reproduced from “The Island” July 23rd 2006 issue.
President’s Counsel H.L. de Silva on Friday obtained leave from the Supreme Court to proceed with a fundamental rights action relating to the north east merger. In his opening submissions on Friday he said that the LTTE’s surrender of weapons under the Indo-Sri Lanka Agreement of 1987 was "in reality a gigantic farce.’’
"It was manifest that there was no real or effective surrender of arms except for the token display of some rusty unserviceable weapons in the presence of then Defence Secretary General Sepala Atygalle,’’ he said.
"It was only a photo opportunity provided for the paparazzi—in reality a gigantic farce.’’
De Silva described the enforcement of the merger of the Northern and Eastern Provinces notwithstanding the failure of the armed groups to surrender their arms and weapons by resorting to an emergency regulation as "an illegal by-pass operation.’’
He urged that the presumption of validity attaching to the order of merger will affect many vital decisions that are to be made in the near future when the `road map’ for reaching an acceptable solution to the problems of the Northern and Eastern Provinces is being prepared.
"Many citizens of the Eastern Province are apprehensive that their rights and interests will be jeopardised by being yoked together to the Northern Province which will result in one ethnic group gaining an unfair advantage and thus violating the rights of the people of the Eastern Province for equality of treatment and the equal protection of the government,’’ he said.
The three petitioners in this case are JVP MPs from the Eastern Province who are persons from that province and qualified to vote at an election of members for the provincial council established for the Eastern Province.
