PNM, MEP happy with abrogation decision

Dharma Sri ABEYRATNE

The Patriotic National Movement (PNM) expressed its gratitude and appreciation to the Government for its recent decision to abrogate the Ceasefire Agreement, based on a Cabinet memorandum submitted by the Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayaka at the Cabinet meeting last Wednesday as a policy decision.

Addressing a media briefing in Colombo Patriotic National Movement said the Government’s decision to annul the ceasefire agreement with the LTTE was the third time the PMN was successful in getting the Government accede to its demands.The first was the scrapping of P-TOMS and other demerging North and East, the Chairman of PNM Dr. Gunadasa Amarasekara said.

“What happened by the Ceasefire Agreement was that a part of the country was handed over to the LTTE. Under the power vested by the Ceasefire agreement the LTTE could manage to establish their own structures such as the police, courts . In another word the LTTE were considered as another government under the CFA,” Dr. Amarasekara said.

In addition the international community could intervene in the problem unnecessarily disregarding all conventions due to the shortcomings of the CFA, he said.

“The patriotic people continuously pointed out the danger of the CFA even before it was signed between the former Premier Ranil Wickremesinghe and Vellupillai Prabhakaran on February 22 in 2002.

But the then UNP Government signed the CFA without considering the voice of the patriotic people. Hence it was the very reason Sri Lanka could experience the bad effects of the CFA, the Secretary General of PNM parliamentarian Wimal Weerawansa said.

He further rejected concerns by some groups that the international community would take tough action against Sri Lanka such as cutting aid due to the abrogation of the CFA.

“The LTTE had consistently and blatantly flouted and violated the CFA when the Government tried it best to protect it. Even under these circumstances some countries like Germany, Britain and the U.S.A. reduced aid to Sri Lanka “, Weerawansa said.

However, as the second step in this process the Government has to ban the LTTE as a terrorist organisation as has been done by many countries. “Then only can the LTTE be isolated and pressurised, he pointed out.

A statement issued by the Mahajana Eksath Peramuna said, the abrogation of the ceasefire agreement proves the independence and the sovereignty of Sri Lanka as a unitary state.

The statement signed by to MEP leader and Urban Development and Sacred Area Development Minister Dinesh Gunawardena said the MEP was against it from the very inception of the agreement. Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe had also pointed out the need of having an amendment, the statement issued by the MEP added.