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| Friday, 25 June 2004 |
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| Govt has no involvement with Karuna faction - Mangala Government Spokesman Minister Mangala Samaraweera said yesterday it was obvious that UNP Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe has played duplicitous role in the Karuna affair by using his advisor Ali Zahir Moulana to endanger the peace process. While reiterating that the Government officially has had no direct or indirect involvement with the breakaway LTTE faction, the Minister said the UNP used the Karuna affair as trump card to make the LTTE feel that Government was playing a duplicitous role with Karuna to jeopardise the peace process. Addressing the media at the Cabinet press briefing, Minister Samaraweera said that duplicity of Wickremesinghe and the United National Party exposed for all to judge subsequently the confession of one of the female LTTE cadres who was with Karuna for sometime. "We will not do anything to jeopardise the peace discussion by any foolish adventures of this nature," Samaraweera asserted. He said the Government sees the LTTE Karuna split as an internal problem of the LTTE and it believes the two parties can settle their problems without resorting to violence and fighting. The Minister also said the Government will order the Defence Ministry to make an informal inquiry to find whether there was any informal involvement by the Security Forces in the Karuna affair. The Minister said it was extremely clear that Wickremesinghe had played a key role with Moulana who was his advisor, to engineer the eviction of Karuna from the Eastern province while encouraging a parallel policy of continuing a media campaign to accuse the Alliance Government of duplicity and of having secretive operations with Karuna specially to endanger the peace process, the Minister added. "Ranil Wickremesinghe has tried as usual to wriggle out of the situation by getting Moulana to resign from his Parliamentary seat after the episode was bared," the Minister added. Minister Samaraweera pointed out that Moulana was appointed as a National List MP bypassing the senior Members of the UNP like Tyronne Fernando, Tilak Marapone and A.H.M. Azwer. "The very tone of the pathetic denial of the UNP confirms that the UNP leader was extremely guilty. Wickremesinghe is smarting after his resounding defeat in the recent elections and also fighting desperately to retain his leadership within the party, has made this issue to sabotage the peace process," he added. |
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