Correction

IUSU denied access to meet counterpart of Jaffna University

[TamilNet, Sunday, 13 June 2010, 04:39 GMT]
The Vice-chancellor of Jaffna University did not permit Saturday more than seventy representatives of Inter University Students’ Union (IUSU) from South who had come to Jaffna to give the war affected Vanni students in Jaffna University things they had collected, to enter the university premise, sources in Jaffna said. The IUSU representatives led by Uthila Premaratne were stopped at the entrance as Jaffna University VC directed the security guards to close the main gate. Jaffna University Student Union (JUSU) representatives were told curtly by the VC that Jaffna University was not a place for their political activities, the sources added.

Professor N. Shanmugalingan, the VC, had gone to the entrance gate and had the doors closed on the student union representatives from South.

Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Intelligence Wing men were present in Jaffna University surroundings from Saturday morning and they had phoned the administration around ten times to know the situation and it emerges that the VC acted under powerful political pressure, JU administration sources said.

Uthila Premaratne, speaking to local media, said that their motive of coming to Jaffna University was not political but to hand over the things collected by them in the South to the Vanni students in Jaffna University who had been affected by the war.

He added that the incident clearly reveals the true state of affairs in Jaffna and blamed the government for spreading racial hatred between the Tamils and Sinhalese.

“Actually there are no ethnic problems between the Sinhalese and Tamils of Sri Lanka which had been created by politicians and they continue to add fuel to it so as to make their living,” Uthila Premaratne said.

“The present rulers of the country too do the same,” he added.

“It is our duty to help the Vanni students in distress and we came only with this motive,” Uthila Premaratne said.

JUSU representatives, however, did meet the student representatives from South at a place outside Jaffna University.