Blood stained parties resort to violence

Lakshmi DE SILVA

The political groups around NDF presidential candidate Sarath Fonseka had blood stains on their hands.

They are a minority that want to make the presidential election of January 26 the last democratic election of this country, Environmental Affairs and Natural Resources Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka said yesterday.

Addressing the UPFA press conference at the Mahaveli Centre, Colombo he said the JVP as well as the Yellow Cats, Green Tigers and other para military groups of the UNP were all guilty of murdering thousands of civilians. These blood stained parties were trying to come to power with NDF Presidential candidate and take up arms after that.

What they could not do with the bayonet they were now trying to do with the ballot. Using the slogan Vishvasaniya Venasak (credible change) these parties want to go back to arms as they did in the past.

The JVP was responsible for killing thousands in 1971 and again in the 1988- 90 period. They murdered 13 Buddhist monks including the Ven Pohaddaramulle Chief Incumbent Thera during the second period.

The UNP government of the time of which Ranil Wickremesinghe was a member murdered 66,000 people using the para military groups like the Yellow Cats. The affidavits filed by the mothers of each of those civilians killed were collected by the then Opposition parliamentarian, present President Mahinda Rajapaksa who formed the Mothers Front to stop the continued killings by the UNP paramilitary groups.

The total number killed in 1971 was 20,000 and in 1988-90 about 70,000 people. This country had seen enough bloodshed over the past four decades and the people do not want to see any more bloodshed. They want democracy protected and a small minority of people cannot be allowed to bring back violence, he noted.

Answering a question about Vinayagamoorthy Muralitheran, the former LTTE eastern commander joining the government, the Minister said his leaving the LTTE before he joined the government stopped the killing chain saving the lives of thousands of people. If he had remained with LTTE leader Prabhakaran the fate that befell the other LTTE division leaders would have befallen him.

There had been elections elsewhere in the world that were alleged to have been plagued by violence and these blood stained parties were also resorting to acts of violence trying to sully the image of President Mahinda Rajapaksa who is a democrat and had continued to hold democratic elections during the past three years.

Therefore, these killer elements should not be allowed to tarnish the image of democracy we have preserved, he noted.