Arrest Prabhakaran, says Somawansa

by L.B. Wijayasiri in Kandy

JVP Leader Somawansa Amarasinghe challenged Opposition Leader and UNP Presidential candidate Ranil Wickremesinghe to tell the country whether he would take steps or not to arrest LTTE Leader Velupillai Prabhakaran who has been named an international criminal by the International Police and handover him to the Interpol.

He added that he was prepared to give time till November 15 to Ranil Wickremesinghe to take up the challenge and reply to the nation.

JVP leader threw this challenge at the JVP rally held opposite Central Market, Kandy in support of the United People's Freedom Alliance candidate Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse for the Presidency.

Amarasinghe also challenged Wickremesinghe to issue a public statement to deplore Prabhakaran's conscription of child soldiers despite the United Nations warning that child conscription was illegal, so that it should be stopped. UN Children's Fund too has issued similar warning.

He requested the people not to elect Wickremesinghe to rule the country since he (Ranil) had failed to state in public that the assassination of Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar had been committed by the LTTE. The people should not elect such a leader as their Executive President. He made a special request to UNPers in this regard.

Amarasinghe appealed to the people to vote for Prime Minister Rajapakse who was committed to achieve peace without betraying the country and any particular community. Peace could not be ushered in by dividing the country and thereby denying the people of all ethnic and religious groups in the country of their democratic rights and freedom.