UNP says it was forced to call for Int’l probes

The UNP said yesterday that it was forced to call for international inquiries into the recent Weliweriya killings and state sponsored terrorism against its very own citizens, because nothing would come out of local investigations.



General Secretary of the UNP and MP Tissa Attanayake said that the Rajapaksa regime, as usual, was hiding behind hackneyed slogans, by referring to anyone who demanded that the law be implemented as "traitors".

The people were fed up with hearing the same old record being played over and over again. It was high time the Rajapaksa regime stopped making baseless allegations against its critics and allowed the law enforcement authorities to act against a surge in killings, rape and daylight robberies, Attanayake noted.

The MP pointed out that in the case of the Weliweriya killings, three young lives had been lost and 60 persons injured due to indiscriminate firing by the army, which should not have been deployed there in the first place.

An international probe, he stressed would have to ascertain as to who had called in the army and given orders to shoot on unarmed civilians, who had only requested for clean water.

During the recent attack on the Grandpass Mosque, by a pro-government mob, the Police had been passive observers instead of doing their duty, Attanayake observed.

He said that since the UPFA came to power, there had been numerous instances of civil, politicial and labour demonstrations being dispersed in the most violent manner resulting in the loss of precious lives. But, the culprits had gone scot free.

The reason for the UNP to call for international probes was out of concern for Sri Lankan citizens and not because they were traitors, the MP pointed out.