To protest attempts to sabotage development ... :

Joint TUs to hold massive demo today

The Joint Trade Union Alliance has organized a massive demonstration from Lake House Roundabout to Pettah today beginning 3 p.m to protest against attempts made by local and international forces to sabotage the accelerated development process launched in the country after the liberaton of the motherland from terrorism.

The JTUA called upon the working class including state and private sector employees to protect the victory achieved by the people as Sri Lankans and

show their unity and solidarity to the international community in protecting the hard won freedom.

President of the Joint Trade Union Alliance and Western Province Governor Alavi Mowlana in a statement issued in this connection said certain NGOs have joined hands with reactionary forces in this country have planned futile trade union activities to disrupt the accelerated development goals achieved by the country and the time had come for workers who love their country and hard won freedom to join enmasse to thwart such conspiracies. No one could allow these local and foreign conspiratorial forces to act according to their whims an fancies at this crucial juncture in the country’s history.

The statement added that the massive crowd belonging to SLFP organizations which assembled on May Day which symbolized the victory of the working class in this country proved to be a day of peace devoid of enmity and hatred. The government had created an environment for ordinary masses to live freely and improved the living standards of the rural masses by building schools, reservoirs and roads countrywide outshining the achievements made by other countries. The government was also rendering a unique service under its electricity for all concept.

Steps are also being taken to eliminate unemployment by providing jobs to unemployed graduates in the private and public sector and setting up Vocational Training Centres for school leavers to ensure jobs opportunities for them.

The Joint Trade Union Alliance would therefore request all workers not to fall prey to the conspiracies hatched by sinister forces aided by certain NGO groups at this time the country is reaching development and progress step by step by building expressways, roads and bridges to link the North and South to enable people to enjoy the fruits of victory achieved by the country.

“Our organization wants to have one national consolidation and political reforms in the country which would guarantee the benefits to the country as a whole, said. Thambimuttu opined that the new political reform that they are demanding in the country should not be looked at from a regional basis nor ethnic perspective. Our organization views that existing provincial council system has not delivered significant benefits to the people in the many provinces where this system has continued for more than two decades . Arun Thambimuttu said that Tamil people in the North and East still remember the reign of terror under EPRLF leader Vardharajah Perumal who declared UDI in the 1988-89 period. The youths who were forcibly conscripted to the EPRLF lost their lives while fighting with the Armed Forces as well as the LTTE. Thambimuttu stressed that the time has come to abandon the provinces demarcated by the British and a devise a new model of administration based on districts. “Tamils of Sri Lanka are geared to argue our case among the friends abroad and to understand this attempt is in the interest of the 3 million Tamils in Sri Lanka”, he said.

Thambimuttu whose farther represented the people of Batticaloa in the legislature for years before he was killed by the LTTE said that the organization will apprise India too about the importance of having a viable system to reach the people at grassroots level. “India is our good friend. We are happy about India’s concern over the Tamil people living in the country”, he said. He added that India should not see this as Sri Lanka taking a hostile step towards India. “The bottom line is India should understand the benefit of the system that we are advocating”, he added.