Sarath Weerasekara
Sri Lanka's public security minister Sarath Weerasekara claimed that his regime is about to file cases against the tens of thousand of Tamil protestors who marched through the North-East in recent days, adding that Tamil politicians who attended needed to have been tear gassed and arrested.
Weerasekara, a former Sri Lankan Navy admiral, was speaking on a Hiru TV, when asked how he will deal with the Tamils and Muslims who took part in the peaceful protest he responded.
"As you know when something like this happens, we receive intelligence reports," said Weerasekara. "So, we got court orders."
"The crowd seems unnatural," said the Sinhala moderating, claiming that "the police wouldn't allow something like this in Colombo."
“If we had attacked this or tear gassed and arrested them, that’s what people like Sumanthiran needs," Weerasekara responded referring to the Tamil politician. "That’s what Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam needs”.
"Did you see how Shanakiyan Rasamanickam talking to police?" the moderator continued.
"Exactly! Therefore we tolerated this. But since we had obtained court orders, now we have their photos and we have their vehicle numbers, we know who these individuals are. We can sue them and confiscate all their vehicles and put them in prison… We have already started the process. Within the next few days, we will file cases against them”.
"Will you file a case against Sumanthiran too?" the moderator asked. "Definitely," Weerasekara responded, stating that he had ordered the withdrawal of the the TNA MP's Special Task Force security team.
The Pottuvil to Polikandy march was organised Tamil and Muslim civil society members across the Tamil homeland to draw attention to key issues faced by the Tamil community. Fifty thousand people joined along the route which went from the southernmost part of the Tamil homeland to the Northernmost. Some of the issues highlighted include the continued land grabbing and Sinhalisation of traditionally Tamil areas, the ongoing and intensifying militarisation of Tamil lands and the denial of the right to remember those who gave their lives in the Tamil struggle for freedom.
""We will put them all in prison" says Sri Lanka's public security minister from JDSLanka on Vimeo.
Watch the Sarath Weekasekara interview above.
