Voters from LTTE controlled areas wont be checked - SLA
[TamilNet, Tuesday, 09 March 2004, 13:37 GMT]
The Sri Lankan security forces commander for Jaffna,
Maj. Gen. Susil Chandrapala said Tuesday that the
military would not check people who come to vote at
the 2 April general elections from the LTTE controlled
Kilinochchi district. He told a group of academics and
civil society leaders whom he met at the Sri Lanka
Human Rights Office that if clustered polling stations
for voters from Kilinochchi were to be set up inside
the Sri Lanka army's entry point zone in Muhamalai in
southern Jaffna, the military is ready to pull back
its positions 500 metres away from the voting area.
People coming to vote on 2 April have to show only
their polling cards to the Police to enter the
army-controlled area in Muhamalai, according to him. Tamil parties voiced concern earlier when the Sri
Lanka army insisted that it would subject all voters
from LTTE held areas to its routine checking and
registration procedure under which it takes at least a
minute to frisk a persons body, check his/her
belongings and to register his/her identification card
or papers. This means only 60 persons would be let through each
queue in the checking area of the SLAís entry points
at the line of control in the northeast. Even if extra
check points were to be set up for the elections not
more than 5000 voters can be let through on the day of
polling, according to Tamil parties. There are more than two hundred and fifty thousand
voters in areas held by the Liberation Tigers in the
northeast. Major. Gen. Chandrapala lamented that the press in
Jaffna is not cooperating with him to build better
relations between the military and the people in the
peninsula. He said displaced families in Jaffna have not availed
themselves of the armyís offer to let them settle up
to five hundred metres from the forward defence lines
of large garrisons. If people were to settle in this
zone, then the army would permit them to move up 300
metres closer to its defence perimeters, according to
him.
|