Wednesday, 11 September 2013 01:40
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Minister calls it the most extremist document in the post-war period
Claims it aims to keep Sinhalese and Tamils divided eternally
Manifesto aimed at getting international support for separatism: Goverment.
The Government yesterday slammed the Tamil National Alliance election manifesto for the upcoming Northern Provincial Council election, saying it was aimed at soliciting international support for a resurgence of separatism and provoking the people of the south.
Addressing a media briefing yesterday, Minister of Youth Affairs and Skills Development Dulles Alahapperuma said the recently unveiled manifesto by the country’s main Tamil party was a document strategically aimed at keeping the Sinhala and Tamil people eternally divided.
“At a time when a Sri Lankan identity is being created after a 30-year war, this document seeks to keep the Sinhalese and the Tamils divided forever,” he claimed. “This is the most extremist document to see the light of day in the post-war period.”
He said far from being a manifesto, the document unveiled by the TNA had several strategic motives.
“It is aimed at getting international support for a separatist cause, it is aimed at obtaining assistance from India and furthermore, an attempt to provoke the people living in the south,” Alahapperuma charged.
He said the document proved the TNA had learned no lessons from the 30 years of war.
The Minister also charged that the manifesto was an extension of the 1976 Vaddukoddai Resolution adopted by the TULF calling for the creation of an independent Tamil state under the leadership of S.J.V. Chelvanayakam. “Political analysts say that Resolution was the beginning of a lot of problems in the country,” the Government Minister charged. (DB)
