The Chief Minister of the Northern Provincial Council called on the United Nations to have closer collaboration with the North-East, but stated that it could not come about “at the expense of being manipulated by the Central Government”.

In a meeting with the United Nations Country Team, C V Wigneswaran lamented how there were “differences of opinion” with the previous UNDP Resident Representative in Sri Lanka Subinay Nandy. Though the people of the North-East had rejected the government of Mahinda Rajapaksa, and were the “dominant force” in bringing about the current government in January 2015, Justice Wigneswaran said Mr Nandy had felt “we need to be an appendage of the Central Government, carrying out what the Central Government wanted”.

“We had told Mr Nandy that many matters that needed consideration by the UN at that time were not considered by him,” he added.

The Chief Minister went on to state the issues still plagued North, particularly militarisation with tens of thousands of Sri Lankan troops stationed there.

“Let us not forget that still an Army of 150,000 is stationed in the North using our arable lands, official buildings, using our natural resources including drinking water,” hew said. “They are a source of fear and annoyance especially to our fishing communities since they openly get down fishermen from the South to resort to illegal methods of fishing in our waters depriving the locals of their livelihood.”

“There had been criticisms levelled against projects by UNHABITAT in the Mullaitivu District,” he continued. “Forests have been cleared to put up roads and houses for Muslims without going through the normal processes.”

He concluded by calling on the UN to have closer collaboration with people of the North-East, adding it “is possible provided the UN recognizes the fact that we of the North and East have been agitating for our special rights in consonance with our individuality for over half a century and still there is hesitancy on the part of any Government to grant our legitimate rights”.

“What the Government had been hesitant in granting the North and East could now be introduced through the SDGs,” he said.

“Closer collaboration with you is what we want but not at the expense of being manipulated by the Central Government. There are many areas in which we have seen such manipulation.”