General Secretary of United National Party (UNP), the main opposition party, Tissa Athanayake, said that the UNP believes in one country with equal rights to all its people, in a press meet held Thursday in Jaffna City Hotel. Tissa Athanayake, accompanied by Dr. Jayalath Jayawardene, UNP parliamentarian and UNP principal candidate in Jaffna Municipal Council (JMC) election, A. S. Sathiyendra, explained the policy of his party to the media. “One of the main functions of the ICRC is family reunion of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and Rajapakse’s government’s decision to stop ICRC’s functions and to expel it from the country is ridiculous,” Dr. Jayalath Jayawardne said.
“The aim of the government to expel ICRC and to bar anyone other than government ministers, parliamentarians and officers from visiting the camps in Vavuniyaa where the Vanni IDPs are held is an obvious act to prevent the real state of the IDPs in the camps being exposed”, Jayawardene said in response to a question raised by a reporter.
“The IDP families, separated from their members are being held in the camps barred from meeting them; they have been silenced so as to keep the outer world from knowing their sufferings. Besides, parliamentarians of the opposition parties are not allowed to visit the IDPs,” Jayawardene further said.
“The present government is a government of a few persons run for the sake of a few persons; we invite all political parties to join together to build a country with justice to all,” Tissa Athanayake said in the press meet.
“Sri Lanka has become a dangerous place for the Tamils to live and UNP will continue to fight for the rights of all the people of Sri Lanka,” Athanayake added.
“Resettlement of the Vanni IDPs is the primary aim of UNP and we continue to stress this”, he said.
“The President invites the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu and the government dignitaries of Philippines and Britain to visit the camps in Vavuniyaa where the Vanni IDPs are held but refuses permission to the opposition parliamentarians and the media to enter these camps,” Dr. Jayalath told the media.
“The IDPs are held in camps which are but prisons where they have been silenced and forced to lead a miserable life; UNP wants these IDPs to be resettled at the earliest,” he added.
Tissa Athanayake also mentioned that this was his first visit to Jaffna and he was grieved to see the houses destroyed by war, abandoned villages and people in distress.
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