Udayan fanning communal flames - Maj. Gen. Hathurusinghe
Rakshana Sriyantha
The Editorial published in the Udayan Newspaper on April 30 was a
deliberate attempt to stoke the flames of communalism in this country
once again and drive the Tamil people towards another war, Security
Forces Commander in the North Major General Mahinda Hathurusinghe said.
He said the Editorial stated that the government had resorted to
political deceit by killing time to hold the Northern Provincial Council
elections.
"However, the government is forced to hold the election due to
international pressure. Now the government is acquiring the traditional
lands belonging to the people in the North prior to the elections with
the intention of giving them over to Sinhala people. Now the government
has started settling Sinhalese in the North in a subtle manner. Certain
politicians in the North are only holding candles (Kavadi) to the
government," the Udayan Editorial had claimed.
Maj Gen Hathurusinghe commenting on this Editorial said it was an
attempt made by the owner of the Udayan newspaper to further his
political prospects by taking undue advantage of the internal split in
the TNA. This could be stated as a very unpatriotic statement.
He said as civilian life should be brought back to normal before an
election is held, the resettlement programme is now being completed. The
government's sole intention was to hold an election in the North soon as
it never feared to face elections, he said. He also said the presence of
the armed forces in the North is also being drastically reduced. The
armed forces strength which was 43,000 during 2007-2008 period has now
reduced to 13,350.
He said the army camps set up at Subash and Gnanam hotels in Jaffna
have been withdrawn and the hotels are now in operation as normal.
The Udayan Editor was jealous of the friendship and amity prevailing
between the armed forces and the general public in the North. As such
the paper was trying to fan the flames of communalism once again to set
the Tamils against the security forces.
People who realized this Udayan tactic were now holding
demonstrations protesting against the removal of army camps.
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