Tamil alliance calls for 'Hartal' against rape

[TamilNet, Friday, 29 June 2001, 14:09 GMT]
The ten Tamil party alliance said in Colombo Friday that itís calling a general shut down in the Northern and Eastern provinces on 6 July as a protest against the rape of Tamil women by Sri Lankan security forces. Addressing a press conference Friday afternoon at the Grand Oriental Hotel in downtown Colombo, spokesmen for the Tamil alliance said that there would be a protest demonstration in Colombo and a strike in the tea and rubber plantations. They said that the rape of the Tamil girl at the Police checkpoint in Maradana in downtown Colombo on 25 June "once again underscores the fact that the draconian Emergency Regulations promote torture and rape of Tamil women by Sri Lankan security forces".

The Tamil alliance called on the parties that vote for the extension of the Emergency to stop doing so forthwith and act conscientiously, to be mindful of the atrocities that were committed and are being perpetrated on the Tamil people under the Emergency Regulations.

The Tamil alliance said that they would be holding discussions with the Ceylon Workersí Congress about organising a protest strike in the plantations on 4 July.

The leader of the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation Selvam Adaikalanathan, MP, the leader of the Democratic Workers' Congress Mr. Mano Ganeshan, Secretary of the All Ceylon Tamil Congress Mr. N. Kumarakuruparan and United National Party MP, Mr. M.S Sellasamy.

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