North and East should be de-merged - Ferial Ashraff

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 27 August 2003, 18:20 GMT]
“The North and East should be separate provinces and the administration of the provinces should be handed over to the people. All three ethnic groups in the country should have equal rights and proper authority to exercise their rights. Only then can the ethnic problems in the country be solved,” said Mrs. Ferial Ashraff, parliamentarian and the leader of the National Unity Alliance, speaking at a meeting following a protest march and shutdown in Ampara town.

A group that calls itself “Committee to Safeguard the East” organized the shutdown and the protest march, calling for the de-merger of the Northern and Eastern provinces.

“The Muslim people in the Northeast have no security today,” Ms. Ashraff said in her speech. “They live in fear and under oppression. The legitimate rights of the Muslim people should be safeguarded. The Northeast belongs to all three ethnic groups. We cannot allow one community to administer the entire Northeast.”

She said that most people would remember what happened to the Muslim people in the Jaffna district. “They were asked to leave the district in one day. The NUA is firm and it will not allow a similar situation to arise in the East,” Ms. Ashraff asserted.

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