Ex-rebel groups to support UPFA in East

Ridma DISSANAYAKE

People’s Movement of the East for National Harmony coordinator S Amarasinghe yesterday said many Eelam People’s Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF) and People’s Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE) activists of Eastern province have decided to support the United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) at the upcoming election.

S Amarasinghe

Around 15 members of Batticaloa, Ampara, Wawunathivu, Kalawanchikudi, Kokkadicholai and Wellawali Pradeshiya Sabhas and more than 600 chief organisers serving as active members of the EPRLF

and PLOTE for a number of years will support the government at the polls, he said.

Amarasinghe addressing a press briefing at the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute (SLFI) yesterday, he said the government has done a lot of development in the Eastern Province during the past three years after eradicating terrorism.

“They have spent a huge sum for these development projects. Tamils were subjected to suppression by previous governments. But the present government is following a very humanitarian approach,” he said.

“We should have a peaceful and developed country for our children. Only the present government can fulfill our dreams. We have suffered much during the past three decades due to the war.

Because of that we do not like to give a chance to TNA to create such a situation in Sri Lanka again,” Amarasinghe said.

“The TNA is looking forward to America and India to create a separate state by combining the North and East and handing it over to the TNA.

But we are not ready to allow the TNA to come to power in the Eastern province.

The Chief Minister’s post in the Eastern province will not be given to the TNA because we need a peaceful and developed country for our future generation,” he said.