CM asks why govt is silent when court orders are violated in North

May 19, 2015, 9:26 pm 

By Dasun Edirisinghe

Western Province Chief Minister Prasanna Ranatunga yesterday asked the government why it was silent on LTTE commemorations in Mullaitivu by Northern Province Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran, while politicians in the South who engaged in peaceful protests were taken before courts alleging violations of court orders.

He said that more than 20 MPs and Provincial Council members had to appear in Courts over alleged violation of a court order recently after protesting opposite the Commission to Investigation Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC).

"Northern Chief Minister and its councillors conducted a ceremony to mark fallen members of the LTTE terrorist organisation on Monday at Vellamullivaikkal, while there was an order issued by the Mullaitivu Magistrate Court banning any celebration within the Mullaitivu Police area," Ranatunga said adding that now the government was silent on that.

The Chief Minister said that when Sinhala flag was hoisted in the South the government asked them to appear in the Criminal Investigations Department (CID), but no punishment for those who hoisted the LTTE flags in the Northern Province despite it being a banned organisation.

"When we are raising these issues and talking about harassment of the people in the South they call us racists," Ranatunga said adding that those who accused them forget how they lived in the country before 2009.

Some cabinet ministers argued that if the people in the South celebrated the war victory Northern people would be hurt by it. "I like to say that Northern people or Tamil people will not be hurt by war victory celebrations, but LTTE sympathisers will be hurt definitely," Ranatunga said.