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Sri Lanka Muslim Congress Leader Minister Rauf Hakeem yesterday denied a statement allegedly made by the PA Parliamentarian Ferial Ashraff that, he had made a proposal to the government to provide military training to Muslim youths in the East, a SLMC news release said.

Proliferation of weapons in the East, the SLMC leader said, has already done enough damage to the maintenance of law and order in the East and a move to boost martial capacity, he stated will only help to aggravate the situation.

"The security of the Muslims in the East has become an issue of grave concern. However the SLMC would not at any point advocate arming or providing weapon training to Muslims as such a move will definitely have far reaching adverse implications on the potential for peace", Minister Hakeem observed.

While admitting that there's a demand by the Eastern Muslims that they be armed in self defence, he said that the SLMC still holds the belief that it can resolve the security issue of Eastern Muslims through democratic means.

Rather than dealing with symptoms piecemeal, he said, the aim should be to effect a complete "cure" for the disease.

In this regard he said it is imperative that the LTTE should abide by the assurances it gave to the Muslims, pledges undertaken through the joint SLMC-LTTE statement and the ceasefire agreement.

He emphasized that the failure to adhere to the promised self-restraints has created a dent in the reliance the Muslim community had in the LTTE.

"The government on the other hand has a responsibility to ensure that law and order are strictly maintained in the East especially under the circumstances of relocating of army camps", he added.

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