The Hon. (Dr.) Ramanathan Archchuna
Hon. Ramanathan Archchuna supported the motion and raised concerns about alleged violence against fishermen in Trincomalee and Mullaitivu, including claims of Navy involvement in an assault and Police refusal to record a complaint. He questioned why citizens would have to approach the Human Rights Commission to lodge grievances and said the security situation for northern fishermen had deteriorated. He also referred to the Minister’s statement that inquiries had been ordered and played an audio recording in which the Minister denied allegations relating to a promised statue for Prabhakaran.
Verbatim record (translated)
Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English¶ 01 [5.16 p.m.]
¶ 02 Thank you, Hon. Presiding Member. I welcome this motion by Hon. Kariapper.
¶ 03 Recently, a fisherman in Trincomalee was shot at; and about 15–20 days earlier in Mullaitivu a fishermen’s society leader was assaulted—video shows Navy involvement, and victims were detained and beaten. At the DCC, a Police officer claimed no complaint was filed, even though the victim was hospitalized and MLEF/MLR completed. Police said he signed not to complain; the community told me Police refused to take the complaint, so they would go to the Human Rights Commission. In what country must citizens go to HRC because Police won’t take complaints?
¶ 04 Under our national leader, northern fishermen rowed without fear; despite massacres, they braved the seas. Today the situation has deteriorated.
¶ 05 The Minister has said he has ordered inquiries. [An audio recording was played.] In it, the Minister refuted claims he promised a statue for Prabhakaran, noting such propaganda songs are false. People are not fools to be deceived. Thank you.
Provenance
- Source
- Hansard, Thursday, 5 June 2025 ·No. 1750828922068945 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
- Page · column
- not yet extracted — page/column anchors are not in the current dataset; the source PDF is the citable location.
- Permalink
/lk/speeches/21385
Cite as: The Hon. (Dr.) Ramanathan Archchuna. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 5 June 2025. No. 1750828922068945. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/21385