Govt. investigates LTTE flag displays at UNP May Day rally

By Uditha Jayasinghe

The Government has launched an investigation into the display of Liberation Tamil Tigers of Eelam (LTTE) flags at the main opposition May Day rally, a top minister said yesterday.

Cabinet spokesman Minister Lakshman Yapa Abeywardana told media that the flag was outlawed since the LTTE are a banned organisation within the country.

“Police are conducting an investigation,” he said adding that it was the United National Party’s (UNP) responsibility to have handed over the offenders to the authorities when they appeared at the rally.

UNP officials have denied the incident and charged that State owned Independent Television Network (ITN) “staged” the flag carrying and then broadcast it nationally.  Abeywardana however denied this by insisting that no media from ITN covered the May Day rally on that day and they had obtained the footage from another source. Nonetheless he did not disclose where the video came from to the media.  He went on to point out that UNP stalwart Jayawickrama Perera had released a statement saying that the LTTE flag carriers were “advised and dismissed” from the rally while UNP General Secretary Tissa Attanayake insists that no such people were present.

“This is clearly and internal matter. As the Acting Media Minister I say with responsibility that no ITN reporters were there. This is what happens when people go to hold rallies with LTTE sympathisers and it is not the problem of the Government,” he said.  The Minister commended TNA leader R. Sambandan for waving the national flag but presented a report that he claimed was from the Sudaroli paper in which he claimed Sambandan “apologised to the Tamil people for waving the national flag.