JVP: ‘wipe out LTTE and its supporters’

[TamilNet, Thursday, 10 August 2006, 14:20 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s ultra-nationalist JVP party has called for the government to “wipe out not ony LTTE but its supporters as well” in a heated debate Thursday over the Trincomalee crisis. Jayantha Wijesekara, JVP MP from Trincomalee district made his comments in support of JVP Propaganda Secretary Wimal Weerawansa, who said that the LTTE areas of Sampur and Maavilaru must be captured by the Sri Lankan military. The Trincomalee situation dominated Thursday’s deliberations in Parliament.

The Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) leader Rauf Hakeem tabled a motion on the plight of the Muslim people of Trincomalee.

JVP’s Weerawansa claimed that Mavilaru and Sampur were Sri Lankan governemtn controlled areas at the time of signing of the February 2002 Ceasefire Agreement (CFA).

He said the government had pulled its forces from these areas after the truce “in the name of peace” and this had allowed the LTTE to infiltrate and create a presence.

He said the LTTE’s blocking of the Maavilaru water sluice are tied up with the Tigers intentions of taking over Trincomalee harbour.

Mr. Weerawansa said that under these circumstances the government must retake Maavilaru and Sampur immediately.

Speaking in support of Mr. Weerawansa, Jayantha Wijesekara, JVP MP from Trincomalee district said that for the reasons stated by his colleague, the government must not only wipe out the LTTE “but all its supporters as well.”

Mr. A. L. M. Athaulla, leader of a breakaway faction of the SLMC, expressed similar sentiments.

Mr. Athaulla said that the government has a duty to arm the Muslims to face the LTTE, arguing that that the Sinhalese were armed, the Tamils were armed, but the Muslims were completely vulnerable.

What is going on in Sri Lanka is a terrorist problem and nothing else, he charged.