Somebody Has Gone In A Helicopter And The Buried Gold Has Been Taken Away – Sampanthan
December 4, 2013
“I have got information now, Sir, how Nadeshwara College and a house opposite it were bulldozed yesterday. They found gold there in the premises of this house. Apparently, a person who is not there now had buried the gold there in his foundation thinking that it will be safe. It appears the gold has been taken away.” leader of the Tamil National Alliance, R. Sampanthan said yesterday.
” ‘Somebody has gone in a helicopter’, I am told. The gold has been taken in a helicopter. So, I do not think, Sir, these are good things. I do not think these things should be allowed to happen. I heard many people talk about the TNA today. Unfortunately, I do not have the time to deal with all that. But, you have much more to do with the LTTE than me. I do not know who KP is. I have not seen him. But, he is your buddy. There is a Minister in your Cabinet who has been referred to the LLRC Report in regard to something that happened in Batticaloa sometime ago. You had the former Chief Minister in the Eastern Province who did not win this time. You made him win. I have nothing to do with the LTTE. You have a lot to do with them. Can you deny the fact that the LTTE influenced the election verdict in your favour in December, 2005? Can you deny that? So, please do not throw stones at us. We have nothing to do with the LTTE. We worked with them to bring about a political solution when we needed to work with them, but beyond that we never had any talk with the LTTE. I want to say that on the Floor of this House, and I want everyone of you to get that very clearly, that you have much more to do with the LTTE than I have or that we have.” Sampanthan made above remarks in the parliament yesterday.
We publish below the speech in full;
Mr. Chairman, I want to commence my speech by referring to the comments made by the Hon. Dinesh Gunawardena on the question of democracy. I will speak about this later in the course of my speech. But, let me publicly state that the most democratic election conducted in recent times in the past several decades was undoubtedly the election conducted by Madam Sirimavo Bandaranaike in 1977.
We are now discussing, Sir, the Votes of the Ministry of Defence and Urban Development and also the Votes of the Ministry of Law and Order. Our points of view may not be the same as the points of view of the Government. We listened to the Hon. Dinesh Gunawardena patiently and quietly and did not disturb him. We do hope that even if our points of view are different from the points of view expressed on behalf of the Government, you will kindly extend to us the same courtesy.
I propose, Sir, in the course of my speech today, to deal with the presence and the actions of the armed forces and of course, of the police, particularly in the Northern and Eastern Provinces. I must say that though the police may be accused of inaction at certain point of time, in the course of the elections in the Northern Province – I happened to be there quite frequently when the elections were taking place – the police officers, particularly those in the higher hierarchy of the police in the Northern Province, seemed very receptive to whatever we had to say. I also observed that at the meetings that were conducted on behalf of the TNA, there was police presence in sufficient numbers to ensure that the meetings were conducted without much disturbance. In any case, Sir, both the armed forces and the police are instruments of the Government and cannot but be reflective, at least to some degree, of Government policy. I propose, Sir, to deal with the role of these institutions, particularly during the course of the elections in the Northern Province, particularly by the armed forces. Read More
