CLASSIFIED | POLITICS | TERRORISM | OPINION | VIEWS

THE TRAIN OF BROTHERHOOD

The Tamils and the Sinhalese are very closely united culturally. This is evident in places of worship such as Kataragama. The struggle to gain independence from the British colonial administration had the two communities working together in a brotherhood that gave tremendous strength to the independence struggle. However soon after independence opportunistic political aims of both the Sinhalese and the Tamil leaders saw cracks appearing in this Sinhalese Tamil brotherhood. These cracks have widened to such an extent over the passage of time that a call is now being made by the LTTE to divide this tiny country into two nations. If this ever happens the two countries so formed will be at constant war with each other and posterity will never be assured of peace and prosperity.
Therefore since division will destroy all of us while unity will take us from strength to strength, let us endeavour to rebuild the brotherhood that once existed between the Sinhala and Tamil people for a better tomorrow for all of us.

With many Tamil families that underwent tremendous suffering in the hands of the LTTE now slowly but steadily breaking out from the LTTE hold and moving into government controlled areas, there is no better opportunity to reestablish the Sinhalese Tamil brotherhood. As a first step in this direction the Manel Mal Movement is in the process of organizing a Train of Brotherhood. It will travel from Matara, the last railway station in the Southern railway line to Madawatchchiya the last functional railway station in the northern railway line. This train will collect along its way items needed to sustain the Tamil families in internally displaced persons camps, until the habitat in which they once lived is made free of terrorists by the Security Forces for these Tamil families to return and resettle in their traditional villages.

The train will also collect items that are donated to the Security Forces who are sacrificing their blood, sweat, tears and toil and sometimes even their very life and limb to defeat terrorism and usher in peace and tranquility to our country.

The Manel Mal Movement invites all the political parties, Business establishments, social service organizations, religious bodies and the general public in the government controlled areas and even our expatriate organizations in other countries to join hands with us in this endeavour, because reestablishing the lost brotherhood between the Sinhalese and the Tamil people by such a project as the first step is the only way forward to usher in peace and prosperity once more to this beautiful country of ours that has been torn apart by war and strife.

This train of Brotherhood is scheduled to commence its journey from Matara on the 22nd of November and will collect donations from several railway stations before remaining overnight at the railway station in Colombo Fort. It will commence the second leg of its journey on the morning of 23rd November from the Colombo Fort railway station and will collect donations from several railway stations before ending its journey at the Madawatchchiya railway station.

A coordinating office for this project has been established at the Manel Mal Movement head office at No.18, Rodney Place, Colombo 8. The Manel Mal Movement office telephone number is 2699666. The cell phone numbers of the two project coordinators Anura and Chandana are 0713243162 and 0772512823 respectively.

The e-mail address is manelmal@sltnet.lk

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