Sri Lanka’s defence secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse has threatened arrest for anyone suggesting rebuilding cemeteries for LTTE martyrs.
Responding to Ceylon Today on the government’s reaction to demands for re-erecting memorials for LTTE cadres killed in the war, Gotabhaya said:
Responding to Ceylon Today on the government’s reaction to demands for re-erecting memorials for LTTE cadres killed in the war, Gotabhaya said:
"The LTTE is a banned organization, both locally and internationally and they have no legitimacy in the first place. They have no right whatsoever to ask for war cemeteries to commemorate the dead. Anyone who does that, will be arrested,"He also dismissed suggestions that the NPC was fighting to gain land and police powers, saying:
"We will do the same thing that we did to the other ex-LTTE cadres, by arresting them and rehabilitating them as they are misguided youth, who were a part of a banned organization and who wreaked havoc over three decades,"
"Why should the NPC have special privileges on police powers?" the Defence Secretary queried and added, "The core function of the police is to maintain law and order and that is the function of the Central Government and the mandate of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who is also the Defence Minister and Commander-in- Chief of the Armed Forces.”Gotabhaya also warned that the ‘Northerners’ would reject the TNA unless they cooperate with the government and engage in development work, which is apparently what the people and voters expect of them.
"The TNA can utter their rhetoric on election platforms, but they will have to consult the government on key issues. That is because the North is not some other country, but it is a part of Sri Lanka. The North also comes under the aegis of the government and Sri Lanka too,"