PLOTE leader slams Norway, SLMM

PEOPLE'S Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE) leader Dharmalingam Siddharthan while seeking the assistance of the International Community to secure the release of the senior party colleague Sinnathamby Ganeshalingam alias Farook who was abducted by the LTTE on Monday slammed the Norwegians and the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission charging that they were acting as willing tools of the LTTE.

The ex Parliamentarian speaking to the Daily News said that a total of 21 PLOTE members and supporters had been killed by the LTTE since the Ceasefire Agreement came into effect in February 2002.

"Seven cadres were abducted and three of them managed to escape from the LTTE custody. Seventeen PLOTE members have been injured due to attacks on them by the LTTE," Siddharthan said.

He said that after the CFA, PLOTE had handed over the weapons it possessed. "We were depending on the SLMM and the Norwegian Government for our protection and for our political activities in the North and East.

However, since the CFA came into effect the Norwegians and the SLMM were dancing to the tune of the LTTE and they have done nothing to protect the political parties which had entered the democratic mainstream".

"The PLOTE organisation which has been actively participating in humanitarian activities such as the re-settlement of displaced civilians has been very much under threat. We are not free to move around in the areas where we used to function," Siddharthan said.

He also said that PLOTE member Sinnathamby Ganeshalingam alias Farook who was abducted by the LTTE on Monday was a very senior member in the organisation and he had even closely associated with the PLOTE founder Uma Maheswaran.

Sinnathamby Ganeshalingam alias Farook is 50 years and a father of two.

Three persons have been taken into custody by the police in Vavuniya in connection with the abduction of Farook. Interrogations have revealed the LTTE's involvement in the abduction.