People in Jaffna live in fear – Suresh Premachandra

“The people in Jaffna live in fear of the government armed forces and the paramilitary groups operating with them. They are scared to air their views or to openly participate in election related activities,” Suresh Premachandran, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Jaffna district parliamentarian, told TamilNet in a special interview Friday in Jaffna. “Though government ministers invading Jaffna continue to offer promises to the people of Jaffna they cannot be deceived as they fully well know that the promises will not be kept because the government does not have the money to fulfill the promises,” he further said.

“The government which faces a great financial crisis cannot even pay the salaries to its employees and the promises of its ministers will never be fulfilled and the people know this, Suresh Premachandran said.

“SL government stands accused of the war crimes in Vanni and the thousands of innocent people it killed in the war and the International Community is well aware of it. Therefore, the government is hell bent on winning the Jaffna Municipal Council (JMC) election so that it could prove that the Tamil people are with it,” he said.

“The false face that the government is showing to the International Community will be torn when the election results come out”, he added.

“During the past three years there have been countless killings, robberies, forced disappearances and abductions in Jaffna peninsula which the people accuse the government as responsible for and so far none had been arrested or taken to the court. The people know that Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and the paramilitary groups operating with the government are the perpetrators of these crimes and that is why they are afraid to open their mouths,” he further said.

“Even the government minister who was elected as a representative of Jaffna district cannot contest under his own party symbol but had to contest under the Betle symbol of ruling United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA),” Suresh Premachandran told TamilNet.

“TNA continues its election campaign since the day of nomination. We hold ‘pocket meetings’, in a house to house campaign as the fear which grips the people does not allow them to express their feelings and views openly,” he said.

“Mavai Senathirajah and I are meeting the voters and Pathmini Sithamparanathan joined us today while Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam and other TNA parliamentarians will soon be with us,” Suresh Premachandran said.

“Today we met the voters in Kurunakar and we are confident of our victory,” he concluded.

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