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| Friday, 26 March 2004 |
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A war widow, a mother of two, said yesterday that the United National Party duped her and used her and her two children for election propaganda work. "This is not something done for the sake of peace, but an abuse of me and my two children and the name of my dead husband by the UNP to win the election. I vehemently protest against the UNP for using me as a publicity tool," J. A. Leel Gamini's wife. Gamini was killed in the Elephant Pass battle. She is in deep pain over belittling the supreme sacrifice made by her husband, J. A. Leel Gamini, Sergeant Electrical Engineer, at the Elephant Pass battle that was threatening the unity and the territorial integrity of the country by preparing an election propaganda advertisement in this manner by the UNP. The war widow has brought to the people's notice that some people purporting to be from a War Hero's Welfare Association visited her house and asked her to appear in a program about peace. "We agreed to it because peace, after all, is a good thing. My two children and I were taken from the War Hero's Housing Complex at Salawa, Kosgama to a house in Mirigama. Thereafter pictures were taken. We were then taken back to our house at Kosgama," she said. "However, on March 16, we received telephone calls from some known persons. They asked me 'what is it that you have done?' I bought a copy of the Lankadeepa newspaper. I felt very angry and hurt when I saw the advertisement. I was not told anything about what was in the advertisement. I knew that my husband laid down his life for the country. Even during the time of peace, Army Intelligence Unit members and others were assassinated. These people cheated me by saying that they were from the Ranaviru Seva Authority," she said. Gamini's wife said she felt very uneasy when she saw the advertisements. "This is selling my dead husband's name? Strongly condemn this act done with sinister and sinful objective of making the heroic death of my husband on publicity tool for the benefit of the UNP. Why are women's organisation "Silent about injustices like this done against helpless women like us", she asked. "What has been done by this advertisement is to sacrifice me, my two helpless children and my dead husband to canvass votes for the UNP. This was not something that they did for the sake of peace. This was a dastardly act perpetrated by them to misguide the voters with objective of making political mileage by selling the names of helpless people like us and dead war heroes", she said. |
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