Trincomalee to observe general shut down Friday

[TamilNet, Thursday, 07 October 2004, 00:15 GMT]
Trincomalee Tamil Peoples' Forum (TTPF) Wednesday issued a statement appealing to Tamil speaking people of the port district to observe general shutdown (hartal) on Friday, 8 October, in support of the Interim Self Governing Authority (ISGA) proposals of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and to urge the international community including United States of America (USA) to exert pressure on the Sinhala political parties to take steps to restart the peace process.

The full text of the statement follows:

Nothing has been done to restore normalcy in the lives of Tamil speaking people living in the war-torn northeast province even after nearly two and a half years have passed since the signing of the ceasefire agreement. But those who are opposed to peaceful solution, are very active in sabotaging the peace process with the intention of thrusting another war on Tamil speaking people.

Every Tamil should oppose the activities of anti-peace elements.

We should oppose chauvinist elements that are constructing Buddhist shrines and establishing Sinhala new settlements in the Trincomalee district taking cover under the ceasefire agreement.

We condemn the statement by the security establishment applying pressure on the LTTE to pull back and remove its sentry points from their controlled areas while Sri Lanka Government forces are constructing new sentry points in the northeast province.

We also condemn the assault on the Human Rights Commission officials in Jaffna and the speech made by President Ms Chandrika Kumaratunge in UN General Assembly.

We salute to the 12 LTTE cadres including Kumarappa and Pulendran who died seventeen years ago due to a plot by the governments of India and Sri Lanka.

We appeal to Tamil speaking people in Trincomalee to observe a peaceful general shut down without any violence on Friday by closing schools, private tutories, government and private sector offices, banks, offices of non-governmental organization and business establishments.