Sri Lanka’s lone Tamil woman minister, who resigned last week, has alleged that anyone raising issues of the minority Tamil community is branded as an LTTE sympathiser. Her statement comes days after her controversial remarks seeking revival of the separatist militant outfit led to an uproar in the island nation’s Parliament and forced her to step down.
Vijayakala Maheswaran
Colombo:
Vijayakala Maheswaran, 45, was the state minister of child affairs from the northern Tamil region representing the ruling United National Party (UNP) led by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.
Maheswaran resigned following her remarks at a public gathering in Jaffna last Monday where she had said that due to the deteriorating law and order situation and rising crime, people in the northern province were wishing for the LTTE’s revival and return.
The premier had sought an inquiry into her comments that led to an uproar in Parliament as well as in the Sinhala-majority south. UNP leaders had also demanded her sacking. Maheswaran later stepped down following talks with her party leader Wickremesinghe.
Her speech has now been referred to the attorney general to probe if she had violated the Constitution by publicly promoting the separatist cause of the LTTE.
In these circumstances, she has claimed that she was quoted out of context. In her first public reaction since her resignation, Maheswaran told a meeting in the north on Saturday that “When you talk of the problems of the Tamil people, the south looks at you as Tigers (LTTE). I will fight to deliver justice to the people despite opposition to my efforts. I resigned my post for the sake of the people.” The LTTE had run an armed movement for a separate Tamil homeland in the northern and eastern provinces of the island nation for nearly 30 years before its defeat in 2009 by the Sri Lankan army.
Maheswaran said the present condition of Sri Lankan Tamils was still better than during the rule of former president Mahinda Rajapaksa under whose tenure the LTTE was crushed.
Island nation’s Army chief warns against anti-reconciliation groups
Sri Lanka’s Army chief Mahesh Senanayake has accused certain politicians, retired officers and civil society activists of trying to sow seeds of war in the country by sabotaging the country’s reconciliation efforts with the Tamil minority community.
Senanayake ordered his troops not to allow any individual to drive a wedge between the military and the civilian population in the former battle zones in the north and eastern provinces. In a memo sent to Army battalions and released to the media, Lt General Senanayake said, “Such people should not be entertained at any military camp and the Army should not take part in any events organised by them and should not patronise such anti-reconciliation elements.” His remarks came after Sri Lanka’s lone Tamil woman minister Vijeyakala Maheswaran resigned last week after her controversial remarks seeking revival of the separatist militant outfit led to an uproar in Parliament.