Jaffna undergrads hold demonstration supporting JM

[TamilNet, Monday, 13 June 2005, 11:36 GMT]
Several hundreds of Jaffna undergraduates Monday held a protest demonstration condemning the opposition by Sinhalese nationalists and Buddhist monks to the establishment of a joint mechanism for the rehabilitation and reconstruction of the tsunami destroyed coastal areas in the northeast province, sources said. The demonstration was organized by the Jaffna University Students' Union.




The demonstration began Thursday morning around 10.30 a.m. from Jaffna university premises and went through Palaly Road. Students carried a coffin symbolising the chauvinism and an effigy of Mr.Douglas Devananda, leader of the Eelam Peoples Democratic party (EPDP), which is a close ally of President Chandrika Kumaratunge's United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government, sources said.

Undergrads burnt the effigy and the coffin at Parameswara junction.

Academicians, students, employees and members of public participated in the demonstration. The traffic in Palaly Jaffna highway was blocked for about an hour due to the demonstration, sources said

Jaffna University Students Union (JUSU) in a statement stressed that Sinhala nation should come forward to find a satisfactory political solution to the Tamil national question and to reject chauvinist policies. Secession is inevitable if a just and fair solution is not found, the statement warned.

JUSU questioned whether the government is capable of finding a permanent political solution to the Tamil national question if it is unable to establish an administrative machinery for the rehabilitation and reconstruction of the tsunami affected coastal areas in the northeast.