Democratic rights of Tamils suppressed - EPRLF

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 May 1999, 23:29 GMT]
The Secretary General of the Eelam People Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF), Suresh Premachandran addressing the May Day rally in Trincomalee, said today that the democratic rights of the Tamil people were being suppressed by the government.

On one side the government was engaged in war against Tamils and on the other side the government was suppressing the democratic rights by postponing the local elections in the east and in Vavuniya. The main aim of the government is to weaken the Tamil community by war and by suppressing their democratic rights, he added.

The meeting was held at Trincomalee Town Hall today evening.

Mr.Suresh Premachchandran further said that Tamils were at cross roads today after twenty years of armed struggle to acheive their demands. The present war had been imposed on the Tamil people by the United National Party government in its seventeen year rule. The war should be brought to an end to safeguard the Tamil people and their traditional homeland in this country.

Mr.Premachchandran appealed to all Tamil political parties to unite under one umbrella organisation to achieve their demands and to save the Tamil race from extinction in this island. " All Tamil political parties say that the political solution to the ethnic problem should be found under federal constitution. They are unanimous in this stand. But these parties are not willing to come under one wing to fight for their demands. Unless all Tamil parties are united, there is no future for Tamil people in this country" said Mr.Premachchandran.

Mr.Sritharan, Central Committee member of the EPRLF said that through foreign Tamil broadcasts appeals are being made to the Tamil people here to continue their struggle. "I want to ask those persons who are making these appeals where their children study and families live," said Mr. Sritharan.

In another May Day rally held under the auspices of the North East Government Minor Employees Union, at Trincomalee Vigneswara Maha Vidiyalayam, Mr.M. Chandrakumar, Member of Parliament of Jaffna District and a member of Eelam People Democratic Party (EPDP) said that mismanagement is pervasive in the north east provincial government administration.

Without a political leadership for the last nine years, the north east provincial council administration had done nothing for the betterment of the people, he added.