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Urgent appeal to all Parliamentarians!
Parliament has to take immediate
measures to pass legislation preventing the judicial from interfering
in matters of national security.
A Door to Door Search for Undesirables
Vajiragnana Warnakulasuriya
Today it is heartrending to see and hear in all modes of media about
the tragic death of innocent victims of the LTTE almost all over Sri
Lanka. These deaths are caused by claymore mines, bomb explosions and
brutal massacres in villages by the agents of LTTE who have now migrated
from the North, East, or those who are sympathizers of LTTE who have
been living with the rest of the citizens. These incidents are increasing
by the day as they are getting tightly cornered by the continuous attacks
of the forces regularly. Undoubtedly these are ethnic cleansing as they
have targeted predominantly Sinhala areas.
The intentions of these attacks by the LTTE on the innocent public
is to arouse public anger, disgust and finally to create a no confidence
in the Government, furthermore the unpatriotic opportunist opponents
would seize the moment to promote the negative feelings that gradually
creeps into to the disturbed minds of the public. If the people lose
the confidence in the Governments and start protesting to put and end
to the fighting in the North and the East, LTTE are the victors. Would
it mean that the Government has to surrender the area captured thus
far? Well that happened in the past!
So, the question is how did this come about? True it is extremely difficult
or impossible to put a face to a terrorist to identify an ordinary person
from a terrorist, nonetheless it the duty of the Government to take
drastic measures to provide the basic security of the masses.
Though unpopular to some, a door to door search for unscrupulous people
is a must to carry out. If the implementation of such a search is hindered
by the Law, it is time for the Government to take appropriate steps
to amend or change the existing Laws; I don’t think one needs to
be a rocket scientist to realize this.
Here in Australia there was a classic case where the police found it
was very difficult for them to carryout their investigations due to
the interference by the media. So, Aussie police chief called for media
blackout on terrorism cases until all legal proceedings and appeals
have concluded. That means the police and intelligence agencies could
prevent any public scrutiny of their activities, including mass arrests,
secret interrogations, lengthy detentions and frame-ups, for years while
those arrested await trial and appeals.
The AFP chief proposed laws that would even "prevent journalists
from reporting proceedings in open court". He emphasized: "This
media blackout continues until the case is disposed of; abandoned; discontinued
or withdrawn".
If developed countries like Australia, who preach about Human Rights
Violations of people to us are talking of introducing such laws just
to eradicate the possibility of terrorism taking root in Australia,
for heavens sake what lengths can’t we go to eradicate the menace
that has become a cancer?.
These measures may appear to be draconian, yet at times they have to
be used under certain conditions that prevail in a country. These laws
can be redressed, when the country comes to a normalcy.
My unequivocal appeal to you Sirs’ is to take this suggestion
seriously.
Yours Sincerely,
Vajiragnana Warnakulasuriya
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