The Hon. Bimal Rathnayake

¶ 01 Even in the Army, there are people. Do they not do anything good in the North? False claims are being made. They say there are Navy checkpoints every two kilometres. I am willing to give Hon. Gajendrakumar a ride from Kokkuvil through Nayaru to Mullanivila to see how many camps there are. These are lies. I also request from the Sri Lanka Army—okay, I have the figures. They keep saying the Army runs salons in the North, the Army runs shops, and that because of the Army the Northern economy has collapsed. Hon. Moulasana Rusu, yes, within Army camps there are canteens and shops. But what is the number available to the general civilian population? In the entire Vanni District there are only two tailor shops and one salon. In the entire district, did the economy of salons collapse because one “88101” hair-cutting place was set up? There are six cafeterias. I told the State Minister of Defence that these should not be operated outside the camps, because people in those areas are poor. I agree. In fact, the restaurant equipment you have could be given to those people. A false narrative is being built. For the entire Vanni District there are 68 cafeterias, 38 welfare shops, 28 tailor shops, and 18 salons. So, stop this propaganda. You can talk in Geneva, but these must be said in Sri Lanka too. These are lies!

¶ 02 Hon. Moulasana Rusu, I do not wish to take more time. Finally, I say this: in the North, the party with the biggest base among Tamil people is the National People’s Power (NPP). Some have forgotten history and still speak as if the Northern Tamils—when one Gajendrakumar is there, there are three Ilangkumarans and Ramalingams from Jaffna alone. The Gajendrakumar Ponnambalams did politics in Jaffna for 70 years and still it is one seat. The last time they sent two; Kajendran was there. From Vanni alone, we have that number. We have seven MPs from the North. We have around 150 local councillors. Hon. Gajendrakumar has only one, as far as I remember. Therefore, think of the North, South, Uva, and West as one country.

¶ 03 We respect MPs of other parties in the North. You have a historical connection. We say: please do not fear national reconciliation. When there was a time of chauvinism here, you used nationalism to climb. That is true. Now, the Pohottuwa’s fuel has run out. Those who rose on nationalism, when it fades, concoct some “’68-type incident” to have some fun for a day. That is what is happening. We say that today those who most fear national reconciliation are some MPs from the North. We work in favour of national reconciliation. Hon. Moulasana Rusu, I am anyway lengthening my speech; I will conclude.

¶ 04 Former Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva—hero of our Hon. Chamara Sampath—made a speech on 09 April 2002, recorded in the Hansard. I am grateful to Indexing; on request the report was found. What did he say then, addressed to Sajaba governance under PM Ranil Wickremesinghe, about abductions and arrests? He said:

¶ 05 “Today, when there are not enough grounds to file a single case, the Police use ‘B’ reports changing them time to time and present them to courts and under the Offensive Weapons Act, in particular, they file cases and keep our people six to seven months on remand. They filed a big case against Hon. D.M. Dissanayake. They publicized it.”

¶ 06 I table the relevant Hansard columns (1275–1278) including that extract.

¶ 07 Those were the people who first spoke. We stand for national reconciliation. At the same time, we express our support for the good work done by the Police and the Armed Forces, and I conclude my speech.

¶ 08 Thank you very much.