Sri Lanka's Minister of Public Security Sarath Weerasekara has vowed to introduce a bill to ban Tamil MPs from mentioning the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and it's leader Velupillai Prabhakaran in parliament.
Speaking to BBC Tamil, Weerasekara said that praising the LTTE and Prabhakaran in the parliament would not be tolerated. He claimed that since the LTTE is a proscribed outfit in Sri Lanka, no room would be given in the country’s parliament for positive remarks to be made about the organisation.
Comparing the LTTE to the Third Reich, Weerasekara said making speeches about the Nazi regime or Hitler is banned in the German Bundestag.
Responding to Weerasekara, Selvarajah Kajendran, the Tamil National People's Front's (TNPF) General Secretary, told BBC Tamil that Weerasekara's racist mindset has led to such comments.
Kajendran highlighted that during the three decades of armed struggle for liberation, the Sri Lanka's security forces killed Tamil civilians. He called on Weerasekara to tackle the credible war crime allegations that have been made against the Sri Lankan army and the government for their role in the massacre of tens of thousands of Tamil civilians at the end of the armed conflict in 2009.
Kajendran added that Weerasekara’s proposed ban is aimed at preventing Tamils from memorialising fallen LTTE cadres and suppressing Tamil rights. He also branded Weerasekara’s idea to pass a bill proscribing references to the LTTE as completely undemocratic and vowed to fight the bill if it is introduced in parliament. Kajendran warned that if the Sri Lankan government proceeded with the idea, the state would be subject to closer scrutiny from the international community.
