Everyone in East must value STF's services: Minister

COLOMBO: The Sinhalese, Tamils and Muslims in the East should value the services of the Special Task Force (STF) and continue to get their services to these areas, said Irrigation Minister M. Anver Ismail.

"People in villages under terrorist threat in the East attend to their cultivations and go to sleep at nights without fear due to the security provided by the STF to these areas," the Minister said in a statement yesterday.

Ismail on behalf of the people living in the East, extended his appreciation to the STF serving with dedication and commitment for many years than the salaries they receive.

"If not for the security provided by the STF, the LTTE would have by now acquired these areas," he said.

The release added: "The STF's mentality has diminished due to Sri Lanka Muslim Congress Leader Rauf Hakeem's statement about the killing at Pottuvil to gain personal political popularity.

In 2003, during the period of the United National Front Government, the LTTE burnt bodies of those killed at Valachchenai when the bodies were being taken for burial, in front of the members of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Committee and the Armed forces. Did Hakeem request for an International inquiry into this incident?

Further in that year, when residents of Muttur were killed at Kattaparichchan, Hakeem demanded then Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to visit Muttur and that he will not come to Colombo until Wickremesinghe arrived in Muttur.

But Wickremesinghe did not visit Muttur. Hakeem sought the help of the Navy officials at Trincomalee Base and returned to Colombo with their assistance. Has Hakeem forgotten all this?

I think it is the duty of those living in a civilised society to remind him of these incidents. Did Hakeem act in that manner because he was a Cabinet Minister in Wickremesinghe's Government?

President Mahinda Rajapaksa was in America to address the United Nations' Conference when this incident occurred and no sooner he came to known of this, he telephoned the Defence Secretary and the Chief of Armed Forces to take immediate security measures for the safety of the Muslim people living in Pottuvil and in the East. I thank the President for this action on behalf of the people of those areas.

Hakeem is trying to gain popularity through the killings in Pottuvil and issuing statements to this effect is a cowardly action. It is a sad fact that Hakeem has forgotten the services and the security provided to him for so many years by the STF.

I request Hakeem not to speak to plummet the spirits of the Special Task Force who have been providing security to him as well as the Sinhala, Muslim and Tamil people of the East for many years.

By now 90 per cent of the displaced people from Muttur have comeback. I thank President Mahinda Rajapaksa, Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, Senior Advisor to the President Basil Rajapaksa and the Armed Forces and the Police Department on behalf of the people of the East for establishing a Police Station in Muttur and providing security to the people of the East to alley their fears of LTTE terrorism."