RANIL WICKREMESINGHE SAYS HE WOULD LOOK INTO FAVORABLY THE PRO-LTTE REQUEST TO STOP ARMY BARRACK IN JAFFNA TOWN
By Walter Jayawardhana reporting from Los Angeles
April 12. 12.15 PM:The pro-LTTE parliamentary group led by R. Sampanthan who are on a crusade to stop the Sri Lanka Army from building its Jaffna city barracks within the city’s municipal limits, allegedly disadvantageous to the future military plans of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, met Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe in Colombo and reiterated its demand to build it outside the city, The Tamil Net, official news web site of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam reported.
The Prime Minister, whose government is on a one-vote majority in the parliament and very much dependent on the Tamil group for its very existence, promised, “to look into the request favorably,” said a press release issued by the Tamil National Alliance.
The group of Tamil National Alliance MP’s led by R. Sampanthan met Sri Lanka Army and Defense Ministry officials in Jaffna and visited the places the LTTE had suggested as suitable to the Sri Lanka Army. With two other places one place suggested by the pro-LTTE group was the deserted Kakkativu Island of the North.
The three places suggested by the Tamil Parliamentarians for the Jaffna city barrack to move were, Kalundai Veli and Cey-nor premises and Kakkativu. The Jaffna Commander Sarath Fonseka and other officers had rejected all suggestions, army sources said. They said all places lacked basic amenities for the Army to move.
One objection raised by R. Sampanthan against the Army barracks to come up was a racist one when he openly stated that the majority of the Army coming to reside would be Sinhalese. But critics pointed out, in Sri Lanka more than 50 per cent of the Sri Lanka Tamils live in majority Sinhalese areas.
The controversy arose when Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe suspended a plan on the request of the Tamil National Alliance when the Sri Lanka Army Jaffna town brigade headquarters were trying to move to a state land in the Municipal Council limits.
New premises have not yet been found.
