P.K. Balachandran, IANS, 27 December 2007

 

[see also Sri Lanka para military holds Tamil Members of Parliament as hostages and threatens MPs from voting against President Rajapakse's budget]
 

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Colombo : The pro-Tamil Tiger Tamil National Alliance (TNA) will go to court challenging the government move to hold local body elections in the troubled district of Batticaloa in eastern Sri Lanka.

TNA MP K. Srikantha told IANS Thursday: "The security situation is not conducive to holding free and fair elections.

"We will definitely go to court, preferably the Supreme Court, as the issue involves the sovereignty of the people and their inalienable right to exercise their franchise without fear," said Srikantha, one of the 22 TNA MPs.

Nominations for nine local bodies in the Tamil-majority areas of Batticaloa district will be accepted from Jan 14. Polling is expected to take place in February-March.

Elections to the local bodies in the eastern districts of Trincomalee and Amparai and the Muslims areas of Batticaloa district were held in March 2006. Tamil parts of Batticaloa could not have the elections because of conditions created by the war.

"The same conditions exist now. Thousands continue to be displaced and armed groups roam around with impunity," Srikantha pointed out.

The lawyer MP accused the pro-government Pillaiyaan group, an offshoot of the LTTE breakaway Karuna group, of indulging in abductions, extortions and crimes under the protective shield of the Sri Lankan armed forces.

The Pillaiyaan and Karuna groups have been accused of abducting relatives of TNA MPs from Batticaloa in order to force the latter to vote for the government's annual budget Dec 14, he said.

Those abducted were released after the vote. The four MPs from the district had not been able to go to their constituency for the past year because they were under threat from these armed groups, Srikantha pointed out.

He said that under the present conditions only candidates put up by the Pillaiyaan and Karuna groups would fight the elections.

"The government's game plan is to legitimise the power of these armed groups and give a legal stamp to their criminal activities. The other plan is to marginalize the TNA. We are ready to face the challenge, provided we are ensured a level playing field. But the field is far from being level," Srikantha said.