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| Thursday, 26 February 2004 |
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| Over 600 Colombo UNPers join Freedom Alliance by Anura Maitipe Over 600 UNP supporters from Colombo, including Municipal Councillors crossed over to the Freedom Alliance yesterday and obtained the SLFP membership from Colombo District SLFP organiser Fawzan Anwer. The supporters said despite the war, the People's Alliance Government protected the Muslim community in the East. "However, following the so called peace agreement between the UNF and the LTTE, Muslims in the East felt insecure. Since signing the secret pact, hundreds of innocent Muslims were killed and their properties destroyed. But the UNP leadership and SLMC leader Rauff Hakeem maintained a silence about these killings, they said. "We are not surprised about Rauff Hakeem's departure from Kandy to Digamadulla district because he himself is aware that if he contests Kandy under the UNP list, he will not get elected. Therefore to avoid defeat, he has moved to Digamadulla. His fate in Digamadulla could be far worse than Kandy," the supporters said. The public is aware that at the tail end of the People's Alliance Government, Hakeem clamoured for Independent Commissions for Elections, Free Media, Public Services, Bribery and Corruption and independence of the Judiciary and gave a 100 day dead line and suddenly withdrew from the PA Government for not fulfilling his demands, they said. According to them, if Hakeem was keen about these demands why didn't he persuade the UNP to establish these Commissions. "During the last two years he was a Cabinet Minister of the UNP Government, but made no mention about these issues," they said. "It is plain that this was not the real reason for him to leave the PA join the UNP." Hakeem's hidden agenda is to help the secret pact between the UNP and the LTTE, the supporters said. The ex-UNPers said Hakeem destroyed the unity of the Muslim Congress while helping the LTTE to destroy the Muslim community in the East. "He is totally responsible for the plight of the Muslim community in the East as well as the rights of the Sinhalese in Ampara," they said. "We support the Freedom Alliance because under its umbrella, the party destroyed by Hakeem has been reorganised and strengthened to represent the Muslim Community in the East," the ex-UNPers said. |
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