On Saturday ( 24) thousands of Sri Lankan Tamils led by Northern Province Chief Minister C V Wigneswaran staged a demonstration in Jaffna to highlight issues faced by the minority community in the country.’’Although seven years had passed since the war ended,Tamil people are yet to receive reasonable solutions to their grievances,” C.V.Wickneswaren said
The demonstrators asked the government to halt Sinhala majority settlements and stop building Buddhist religious shrines in Tamil areas, return of the Tamil civilian lands held for military purposes, release of Tamil political prisoners and solution for missing people. “Businesses remain shut in the Jaffna town in solidarity,” the residents said.
The main Tamil party, Tamil National Alliance, didn’t participate in demonstration. “The TNA pledged Tamils a federal solution at the last election. So the Tamils can be only happy with a federal solution by merging the north and east,” TNA lawmaker Dharmalingam Siddathan said.
The “Ezhuga Tamizh” (uprising Tamil) rally and general strike which were organized in Northern Province on Saturday, came under fire by southern politicians . This is aimed to capture power and position in Tamil nationalist politics rather than a genuine attempt to find a realistic and sustainable solution to the Tamil question, said silent independent observers of the North Sri Lankan political scene.
The organizers of “Ezhuga Tamizh” the Tamil Peoples’ Council (TPC), had voised that movement is about the unity of Tamils cutting across party lines. But in reality, the TPC has failed to take into confidence the moderate Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchi (ITAK), the main party in the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) which also has the largest number of Sri Lankan Tamil members in parliament and the Northern Provincial Council (NPC).
Although TPC’s co-chair and Chief Minister C.V.Wigneswaran said in his speech at the rally that the movement was not against the ITAK, few would take him seriously on this, given the on-going cold war between him and the leaders of the ITAK such as R.Sampanthan and M.A.Sumanthiran.
UPFA Secretary Mahinda Amaraweera criticised Northern Chief Minister CV Wickneswaran for creating unpleasant environment , while the Government seriously considering solution to the ethnic problem in Srilanka. Further he said, that this will delay the process .
State Minister of Defence, RuwanWijewardena said , that the Government would not agree to remove army camps in Northern province although they were holding demonstration in the North demanding removal. Referring to “Ezhuga Tamizh” demonstration in the North he said , when the Government is putting its utmost effort to establish reconciliation among the races and religions, such extremis activities cannot be accepted.
Several other politicians too expressed their protest against this of “Ezhuga Tamizh” event staged in Jaffna.
