Mahinda inciting racial hatred between Sinhalese and Tamils - Suresh Premachandran

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 19 January 2010, 14:01 GMT]
“President Mahinda Rajapakse, on learning Tamil National Alliance (TNA) intention of supporting his rival Sarath Fonseka in the presidential election, is actively engaged in whipping up racial animosity between the Sinhalese and the Tamils,” Suresh Premachandran, TNA parliamentarian said in a press briefing held Tuesday in his Jaffna office. “Mahinda, Minister Douglas Devananda and other government supporters are deceiving the Tamils with their false promises,” he further said.

Suresh Premachandaran also said that TNA will be holding a big campaign meeting in support of Sarath Fonseka in Nalloor on Sunday.

Many TNA parliamentarians will speak in this meeting and publicly announce the stand they have taken, he informed.

The government which promised resettlement of Vanni people in their own places had left them unattended like orphans, he said.

Meanwhile the government and its minister Douglas Devananda have created a false impression that the government has paid the first stage 5000 rupees to the resettled IDPs while it is the UN and other international donors that had given this money, Suresh Premachandran said.

In response to a question raised Suresh Premachandran said that so far none had been resettled in the High Security Zones of Sri Lanka Army (SLA) though Mahinda Rajapakse and minister Douglas Devananda claim that resettlement in HSZ has taken place, deceiving everyone.

“Recently, TNA parliamentarian Sivasakthi Anandan who had gone to Thellippazhai HSZ to see his sister’s house had not been permitted to enter the HSZ by SLA officials who told him that no one will be allowed to resettle in the HSZ,” Suresh Premachandran added.