Only those who had been displaced due to terrorism and fighting in the northern and eastern provinces would be allowed to settle in...!!! ???

Govt won’t change ethnic ratio in Vanni.......by Shamindra Ferdinando

The government yesterday assured that it wouldn’t take advantage of the ongoing resettlement programme to change the existing ethnic ratio in the recently liberated Vanni region.

Addressing a press conference at the Mahaweli Centre yesterday, Minister Dallas Alahapperuma dismissed a recent statement attributed to Mangala Samaraweera, MP, that the Rajapaksa administration was planning ‘Sinhalisation’ of the Vanni.

The Minister said though no one here (in Sri Lanka) would take the former foreign minister, who had switched allegiance to the Opposition, seriously, it would tarnish the country’s image abroad. He pointed out that the likes of Samaraweera, who had coined the word ‘Sinhalisation’ were bent on ridiculing the country by propagating lies for the ears of the international community.

He said that the LTTE and its allies, both here and abroad, had accused the government of planning to settle Sinhalese in the East at the height of the war in that region. But as publicly assured by Basil Rajapaksa MP, who had spearheaded the resettlement programme, the government ensured that there weren’t any outsiders among the resettled civilians. He emphasised that only those who had been displaced due to terrorism and fighting in the northern and eastern provinces would be allowed to settle in. The bottom line is that no outsider, whether Sinhalese, Tamils or Muslims, would be moved to the provinces, he said, adding that about 99 per cent of the displaced easterners had been re-settled.

The newly appointed Tourism Minister Nandana Gunatilleke of the National Freedom Front (NFF), said that though the LTTE had been defeated and no longer posed a military threat, the conspiracy against the country was very much alive. He warned that it would be a mistake to believe that the destruction of the LTTE had automatically caused the collapse of the anti-Sri Lanka front. Acknowledging that any move to change the ethnic ratio in any particular region was counter productive, the former JVP heavyweight said the President wouldn’t let anyone undermine Sri Lanka’s victory over LTTE terrorism by playing into the hands of his enemies.

Alahapperuma said that Samaraweera and the UNP had joined hands to undermine and de-stabilise the country. Referring to another statement attributed to Samaraweera also on Times Online, the Minister ridiculed the assertion that 1,400 Tamils die weekly at Vavuniya welfare centres. Although his baseless statements wouldn’t have any impact locally, it would cause immense damage to Sri Lanka internationally.

Alahapperuma said that the UNP had forced the Tamils out of their villages north of Weli Oya in 1984 and then turned a blind eye to eviction of 100,000 Muslims from the Jaffna peninsula and the Vanni region by the LTTE six years later.

Ministers Alahapperuma, Rajitha Seneratne and Nandana Gunatilleke said that the likes of Samaraweera and a section of the UNP had become a key element in the propaganda campaign against Sri Lanka. The Times Online piece authored by a journalist based in India was part of the campaign, Alahapperuma asserted. He said baseless allegations relating to the deteriorating situation at welfare centres in the Vanni and attacks on political opponents in Jaffna, were all part of a UNP campaign to take the gloss out of another mega UPFA victory at the Uva PC elections as well as elections for the Jaffna Municipal Council and Vavuniya Urban Council on August 8.

Alahapperuma said that their campaign was on track in the Uva Province with the ruling coalition launching a house-to-house campaign. The President, too, would address two rallies, one each in Moneragala and Badulla districts, he said, while expressing confidence that they would be able to do even better than at the last Presidential elections in November 2005.

He rejected UNP claims that the government had unleashed terror in Jaffna targeting the opposition. He promised to take a group of journalists for an on-the-spot visit to Jaffna as it would help to clear any misconception.



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