Tamil MPs protest march in Sri Lanka Parliament

[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 February 2005, 08:26 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance MP marched on the driveway to the Sri Lankan Parliament carrying placards condemning Colombo for failing to avail itself of the cease fire with the Liberation Tigers signed three years ago. “Do not buy weapons with Tsunami aid”, “Disarm the paramilitaries”, “Don’t divide the Muslims and Tamils”, read some of the placards. The march and demo were led by senior Tamil Parliamentarians Mr. R. Sampanthan, Mr. Joseph Pararajasingham, Mr. Mavai Senathirajah and Mr. Selvam Adaikalanathan.



"The Sri Lankan government is trying to take the whole world for a ride with the cease fire. It has used the cease fire agreement to stop our freedom struggle while continuing to deny our rights. We are doing this to register the Tamil speaking people’s disgust at the manner in which the Sri Lankan state has squandered these three valuable years of peace by trying to find ruses to preserve the unitary Sinhala Buddhist state by means other than war", said Mr. Selvam Adaikalanathan, explaining the TNA decision to hold the demo and protest march at the Parliament.

TNA's Parliamentary group leader Mr. R. Sampanthan, Senior Parliamentarian Mr. Joseph pararajasingam, Jaffna District Parliamentarians Mr. Gajendrakumar Ponnampalam, Mr. S.Kajendran, Mrs. Pathmini Sithamparanathan, Mr. Suresh Premachandran , Vanni District parliamentarians Mr. S. Kanagaratnam, Mr. Selvam Addikkalanathan, Mr.N. Sivasakthi Ananthan, and Batticaloa district parliamentarians Mr. S. Jeyananthamoorthy and Mrs. Thangeswary Kathirgaman took part in the protest.