“We still live under military rule. Unless the President takes any action, we will seriously think about co-operating with the government on anything. The military should not interfere in such political matters. Only, the police must be empowered to do so.” – TNA
17 June 2011/By Kelum Bandara
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) today sought intervention by President Mahinda Rajapaksa to bring those responsible for Thursday’s attack on the party meeting in Jaffna to book as soon as possible.
The five TNA MPs who were present at the meeting by the time of the attack requested the President in writing today to take prompt action. The party charged that a group of men in uniform stormed the hall in Alaveddi in the Walikamam –North of the Jaffna district, where the meeting was in progress, and assaulted the participants.
The letter says, “We had a meeting with our party candidates and workers for the forthcoming local government election at a hall in Alaveddy in the Tellipalai police area.
The police and the army had visited the place earlier in the day and made inquiries about the meeting. The meeting commenced at about 6.30 pm with about 30 party members. At about 7.30pm, while the meeting was in progress, some army personnel entered the hall and gave orders to stop the meeting.”
The MPs who were present are Suresh Premachandran, Mavai Senathirajah, M.A. Sumanthiran, S. Sritharan and P. Saravanapavan.
Asked for a comment, Mr. Premachandran said that the government had failed to establish civil administration in the North even after the lapse of two years after the end of the war.
“We still live under military rule. Unless the President takes any action, we will seriously think about co-operating with the government on anything. The military should not interfere in such political matters. Only, the police must be empowered to do so.”
Asked whether they would stop talks on a political solution with the government, he replied, “We cannot say. We will decide on our next course of action.”
Dm
http://www.dailymirror.lk/news/11972-tna-writes-to-mr.html