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MINISTER HAKEEM ACCUSES HIS OWN GOVERNMENT AND TAMIL TIGERS FOR THE RAGING ETHNIC VIOLENCE SPREADING IN EASTERN PROVINCE

The army separating two rival groups in Muttur. Pic by Manoj Ratnayake ( photo courtesy: Daily Mirror )

By Walter Jayawardhana reporting from Los Angeles

April 19, 08:25 AM:Cabinet minister Rauff Hakeem accused the lethargy of his own government to quell violence and the supply of grenades and other weapons to the Tamil attackers by the LTTE as main causes for the intensity of the Muslim-LTTE riots now raging the Muttur area of Eastern Province, killing at least three people.

Obviously on a collision course with Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s government the cabinet minister and leader of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress said that even though a 12-hour curfew had been declared in the area the police and the army refused to use weapons against open violators of the curfew committing acts of arson etc.

He said Tamil rioters instigated by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam had robbed and set fire to more than 150 Muslim houses and hundreds of Muslims had to flee the area for their safety.

Rejecting the denial of the LTTE of having to do anything with the ethnic clashes Rauf Hakeem speaking to the BBC’s Sinhala program said the rioters would not have received grenades and weapons without the help of the LTTE.

Under a ceasefire agreement signed between the government of Ranil Wickremesinghe and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam the rebel group was the only section which was allowed to be armed. The weapons of the other Tamil groups had to be surrendered to the government under the agreement.

Rauff Hakeem said a handful of Tamil shops and few Tamil houses had been also set on fire.

He emphasized that the security forces had been strictly instructed not use weapons under any kind of circumstances.

He also accused the Norway backed Sri Lanka Monitoring mission for not paying any attention to the sorry plight of the Muslims in the area. He said although he had demanded a meeting with the LTTE through the SLMM at Sampoor nothing had come out of it.

A Tamil National Alliance leader R. Sampanthan replying to Rauf Hakeem over the same radio service said the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam had nothing to do with the LTTE- Muslim clashes. Replying to a question why the LTTE did not come to explain and sort out matters at the meeting where Thilak Marapane came Sampanthan said they were never invited. He said anybody could accuse anybody else for committing a crime and that did not prove a thing. He said kidnappings and murders also took place in the Colombo and Gampaha Districts. He asked whether those crimes were also committed by the Tamil Tigers.

Defense ministry sources said extra troops would be sent to Muttur to maintain law and order.

Amal Jayasinghe of the AFP said he heard gun shots all the while when he was at Muttur and also witnessed rival groups on both sides of the road aiming projectiles at one another. The security forces in the middle of them were trying to stop them from hurting the rivals, he said. Hakeem said both he and the Police Chief Anandaraja attempted to quell the violence by speaking to the priests and influencing the others It was not very much successful, observers reported.



(19/04/03 go2lanka.com)