Weliweriya, Gandpass attacks: Evidence being destroyed – UNP

Hand-picked army and police officers have been contracted to carry out attacks on the Opposition, the UNP said yesterday.Matara District UNP parliamentarian Mangala Samaraweera, addressing a news conference in Colombo, said that a select group of army personnel had been used to crush a recent protest by Weliweriya villagers who were asking for clean water.



Witnesses to the Weliweriya shooting were now being arrested with a view to wiping out all evidence, Samaraweera claimed.

The MP pointed out that even in the case of last week’s attack on a Mosque in Grandpass, by a pro UPFA mob, there was ample evidence to arrest the culprits, but the police had not even recorded their statements.

Samaraweera said that having unleashed state terrorism to stifle democratic protests and also create religious conflicts, operations were now on to silence the witnesses.

Unless impartial inquiries were held and stern action taken, all those in the army and police would be blamed for the illegal actions of a small number within their ranks.

The MP said it was also important to ascertain who had given orders to the law enforcement officers since no one had taken responsibility for a series of government sponsored attacks on people who had staged peaceful protests to secure their basic rights.

Broad coalition against state terrorism

A broad coalition comprising political parties and civil society was in the making with many government members also pledging to join it, UNP MP Mangala Samaraweera said yesterday.

Samaraweera said that various political parties, civil society members and many in the ruling UPFA had realised that the country was being taken down a dangerous path of conflict and violence, instead of unity and amity, over four years after the war had ended.

The new grouping, or unity force, would be formalised next Thursday, the MP said. Its main objective would be to form a buffer against what he called state terrorism.

Some problem or the other was created regularly at the expense of life and property, with a view to diverting attention from the deteriorating economic situation and the rising crime wave.

Samaraweera observed that there were encouraging signs of people now willing to come out in their numbers to protest against the suicidal manner in which the country was being run.