Sri Lanka’s Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa hit out at the resolutions passed earlier this week by the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchi, one of the main constituent parties of the TNA.
An “irate” Rajapaksa, accused ITAK of attempting to cause “fresh political turmoil” and said a tangible campaign was necessary to neutralise the threat by the party, The Island reported.
The resolutions adopted by ITAK earlier this week included demands for maximum possible devolution to a merged Northeast Province and an appeal to the international community to halt the genocidal actions of the Sri Lankan government.
The defence secretary said that almost all the resolutions encouraged “separatist sentiments”, undermining the Sri Lankan government, and urged the supporters of the TNA in the international community and other local parties to examine the proposals.
Referring to the resolution supportive of the current UN investigation, where ITAK called on Tamils to submit evidence to the inquiry, Rajapaksa said that now “a genuine attempt could be made to ascertain the culpability of the ITAK/TNA in LTTE terrorism”, The Island further reported.
"The ITAK/TNA never contradicted a high profile report put out by the European Union Election Monitoring Mission in 2002 which alleged that the political grouping directly benefited at the Dec. 2001 parliamentary election from LTTE terrorism. Let those affected by ITAK/TNA/LTTE operations go before the UN. The EU report is in the public domain. Anyone with information regarding the anointing the LTTE by the ITAK/TNA as the sole representative of Tamil speaking people in the run-up to Eelam war IV, too, should go before the UN," he said.
Rajapakse said some of the resolutions were similar to demands put forward by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and their proposal for an Interim Self-Governing Authority (ISGA).
"How could we forget that the LTTE forwarded ISGA proposal to the then UNP-led UNF government through Norway on the basis of it being the sole representative of the Tamil speaking people", he said, adding that the TNA supported the LTTE in their decisions at the time.
He also ruled out the re-merger of the Northern and Eastern Provinces, as the Supreme Court had decided in 2006 that such a move was illegal.
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