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Bhikkus
to hold pooja to stop JM The religious programme will coincide with the commencement of the Sri Lanka Development Forum being hosted in Kandy on Monday and Tuesday, attended by more than 120 representatives from donor countries, lending agencies including the World Bank and Asia Development Bank and local representatives. The NBF has called the Buddhist clergy and others to assemble opposite the Dalada Maligawa. The Front said the donor countries should not exert pressure on the government to offer aid on the condition that it establishes the joint mechanism. The move came as the National Patriotic Movement (NPM), in which the JVP also plays a major role with its propaganda Secretary Wimal Weerawansa being the convener, issued a strongly worded statement opposing the proposed joint mechanism. The NPM, along with 10 other organisations in their statement, called on representatives attending the Development Forum to 'rethink' their stand on the proposed mechanism. They pointed out that some of the donor countries were urging the government to establish a joint mechanism with the LTTE which still carried illegal arms, demanded a separate state, engaged in killings, extortion and other illegal activities. "Therefore the establishment of a joint mechanism by the government with the Tigers means the approval of all these terrorist actions of the LTTE. It also confers legal recognition to the actions of the LTTE", the statement stated. The organisations quoted a report submitted by the Indian Home Ministry to the Lok Sabha that the LTTE continued to "be an extremely potent, most lethal and well-organised terrorist force in Sri Lanka and has strong connections in Tamil Nadu and certain pockets of South India". They pointed out that the LTTE has not allowed any other political parties which did not toe its line to survive and none of them have been able to surpass the LTTE killing squads' skill and power. The statement added that if anyone suggested that the government should enter into a joint mechanism with the LTTE which was an internationally proscribed organisation, the same people should also propose to the US to set up a joint mechanism with the Al Qaeda terrorist leadership. |
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