No confidence motion against Gen. Ratwatte?

[TamilNet, Sunday, 05 April 1998, 23:59 GMT]
The Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) will seek an adjournment debate on the indiscriminate arrests and harassment of Tamils in Colombo and other parts of the country when the Sri Lankan Parliament resumes sittings tomorrow.

A Party spokesman said this evening that if the Sri Lankan government's response to the issues raised in the adjournment debate is not satisfactory, the TULF will move a no confidence motion in Parliament against Gen. Anuruddha Ratwatte, Deputy Minister for Defence.

This was decided at the party's working committee meeting at it's headquarters in Havelock road in Colombo this morning.

TULF leader Mr. M.Sivasithamparam, Secretary General R.Sampanthan MP, Dr.Neelan Thiruchelvam, Mr. Joseph Pararajasingham MP, Mr.K.Thurairajasingham MP (Batticaloa), Mr.P Selvarajah MP (Batticaloa) and working committee members from the Mannar, Vavuniya, Jaffna, Trincomalee, Batticaloa and the Amparai districts took part in the meeting.

Initially it was proposed by the working committee members of the Trincomalee branch that the no confidence motion should be moved first, but it was decided to go for the adjournment debate before that for procedural reasons.

The TULF working committee also discussed the reorganising of the long defunct youth league.

The party has called a meeting tomorrow to resuscitate its youth league which became defunct in the late seventies. However, Mr.Joseph Pararajasingham MP strongly objected to the whole idea.

He told the TULF working committee that all the Tamil militant groups emerged from the TULF youth league as a consequence of which it became defunct.

"Some of them (the Tamil militants) have joined the democratic mainstream today but the Liberation Tigers are still carrying on with the struggle for the cause to achieve which the youth league leaders took up arms initially. When the Liberation Tigers controlled Jaffna the TULF did not utter a word about reviving the youth league. But it is keen to do so now. The Tigers control more than eighty percent of the Batticaloa district and are running an administration there. Why is the party trying to revive the youth league at this juncture ? It would be act aimed at demeaning the struggle of the Liberation Tigers" said Mr. Pararajasingham.

Party leader Mr.M. Sivasithamparam agreed with him and called on Mr. Pararajasingham to raise the issue at tomorrow's meeting said TULF sources. However, Mr.Pararajasingham refused to do so on a matter of principle they said.