Sumanthiran read out the demands of the ”From Pottuvil to Polikandy” rally in Parliament

Jaffna District Parliamentarian  MA Sumanthiran mentioned the 10 demands of the “From Pottuvil to  Polikandi” uprising rally held in the North East a few days ago.

He said while addressing a discussion on the Ministry of Labour yesterday that he would like to mention those 10 demands in Parliament for the purpose of avoiding distortions of information and for the purpose of record.

Sumanthiran said in his speech:

Thank you presiding member, today’s regulation that deals with wages is an important one particularly for the estate sector, who have been agitating for a salary increase of 1,000 rupees for quite some time and with the increase in the cost of living during that period of time it should have now become 2,000 rupees at least. Nevertheless, even that 1,000 rupees is not being given to them, the last few days the last week we had a protest walk from Pothuvil to Polikandy with 10 demands placed before the government and this was one of those, I’d like to for the purposes of record read out those 10 demands because it is important that the record is straight and miscommunication, misinterpretation, misinformation be avoided. The 10 demands are:

-Continuing land grab in Tamil areas and converting our traditional and historical places into Sinhalese areas by establishing Buddhist temples after destroying Hindu temples. The government is also targeting around 200 temples for this purpose.

-Since the war ended ten years ago the militarization of Tamil areas is continuing and Tamil’s historical identity is destroyed with the aim to change demography in favour of Sinhalese, using different government departments, especially the archeological department. Also the Government – sponsored Sinhalese settlements are continuing.

-Disturbingly Government is targeting journalists who bring to light human rights abuses and Civil Society activists who protest human rights abuses.

-Tamil cattle owners are facing numerous problems, where their gracing areas are being occupied by Sinhalese and their cows are killed.

-Tamils have been denied the right to remember their war dead, as demonstrated by denying remembrance events, destruction of cemeteries of the war dead and demolition of memorials.

-Muslims who died due to Covid – 19 are cremated against the wishes of the families and against the Islamic teachings.

-PTA has been used to imprison Tamil youth without charge or trial for over 40 years is now being used against the Muslims also.

-Tamil political prisoners have been imprisoned for years without trial. The Government pardoned Sinhalese on a regular basis but none of the Tamil political prisoners were pardoned.

-Families of the enforced disappeared have been protesting to find their loved ones, but the government refuses to give them an answer.

-Tamils in the upcountry are urging for pay raise of 1,000 rupees, but the Government is not responding to their demands.

These were the 10 matters that were put forward by the North East Civil Society forum, and I am reading off their letter dated 1st February 2021. This protest that was organized by the civil society was supported by our party too, based on these demands and these are all justifiable demands, these are matters of Justice and we had a right to democratically express our protest, and the March was a peaceful march that was a huge success, people turned up in their numbers to support this demand and I urge the Government to take this to heart and to respond to this democratic wishes of the people of the North and East.

But soon after the conclusion of this event, as you have seen in the Media, my special security was withdrawn. I want to also make it clear that I never made a complaint to anybody that I needed special security or that there was ever any threat to my life. All of these matters were matter that the Government put forward there is a case in the High court of Colombo HC/242/18 where 4 persons have been indicted for attempting on my life, there are other cases, I have a bundle here of all the cases that the police have filed against various persons. I didn’t know any of this existed until the police arrested and then detained over 30 persons including 15 who are from the South, Sinhalese persons who belong to the underworld here, one of those cases here is B/6284/19 in the chief magistrate’s court. So if it is a position of the Government as they have detained so many persons without my knowledge or my complaint that there is a threat to my life, why would they withdraw the special security equated for this particular reason. Either it must be that this is true but the Government has withdrawn my security because they are annoyed with me for participating in this protest. Or this is not true and they have detained unnecessarily innocent persons or third which is the most sinister is that by withdrawing my security they have given signals to those who would now act and if anything should happen the government must take the responsibility for that.