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Wednesday Dec 04, 2024
Saturday, 20 August 2016 00:02 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
State Minister of Defence Ruwan Wijewardene has Thursday dismissed the claims by the Tamil politicians in the North that the rehabilitated members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) have been poisoned by the Government when they were undergoing rehabilitation at Government camps.
Sri Lanka’s Tamil politicians have alleged that 105 former LTTE members have so far died mysteriously, after being injected with a drug when they were undergoing post-war rehabilitation in Sri Lankan army run camps.
“It is sad to hear some politicians in the North making false allegations when the Government is making a genuine effort to resolve the issue of the Northern people,” the State Minister was quoted as saying in a report in The Hindu.
“Anyone, including those from the international community, can visit the rehabilitation camps after obtaining permission from the Government and see for themselves the work that is being done,” he said, referring to claims by members of the Northern Provincial Council.
Chief Minister of Northern Province C.V. Wigneswaran has said that the US Air Force medical team, currently in the Tamil-dominated north, will examine the former rehabilitated LTTE cadres, who he alleged had fallen sick because they were injected with poisonous substances at Government detention or rehabilitation centres.
The Provincial Health Minister Dr. P. Sathiyalingam said a special program was launched to ascertain whether there is a truth to the allegation that the Government has poisoned the rehabilitated ex-LTTE cadres during the Government’s rehabilitation program conducted at the army camps.
Co-cabinet spokesman Dr. Rajitha Senaratne told the media that the Health Ministry is ready to conduct a health survey of the ex-cadres and the Government will launch an investigation into the allegations.
