Impartial local investigation necessary - Dr. Vickramabahu Karunaratne
- Aug 16, 2016
Radical Tamil liberation groups are critical of TNA leadership for supporting Yahapalanaya. According to them there is not much difference between Mahinda and Maithree. They say that While Maithree talks about reconciliation, PTA is used to lock up political prisoners while military occupation of Tamil private land is continuing. They make this criticism while violent crowd led by Weerawansa and Vasu is making fascistic attacks within the parliament. With that behaviour of fascistic gang, Parliament has dropped all liberal etiquettes and become an arena for Brutus and Hitler. One is sure to loose unless one is fully prepared tp deal with the Shylocks in the Mahinda group. Apparently Tamil radicals have lost interest in the ferocious struggle going within the Sinhala community. In fact they blame Sambanthan and Sumanthiran for the interest the latter give to the struggle in the parliament. At the moment political clash is taking place within the parliament. However preparations are going on within the streets as well. Mahinda group is doing every thing possible to break the anti- fascistic unity between Ranil and Maithree; so far they failed miserably.
While parliament is burning with the battle for constitutional change, with more power to provincial autonomy, Tamil radicals pointed their fingers to a series of mysterious deaths reportedly occurring among former Tamil Tiger cadres who had been rehabilitated and released into society. The suspected heinous crime is creating unease in Lanka’s Tamil-majority Northern Province. Tamil radicals claim that 105 former members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) have so far died mysteriously, allegedly after being injected with a drug when they were undergoing recent ‘rehabilitation’ in Lankan army run camps. The deaths, allegedly due to poisoning, came to light when an ex-cadre reportedly told the Lankan government’s ethnic reconciliation committee at a recent sitting in Oddusuddan, that he had been injected with a drug which has disabled him. With the media reporting 105 deaths, some due to cancer, T. Ravikaran, Northern Provincial Council (NPC) member for Mulathivu district, and former Tamil National Alliance MP, Suresh Premachandran demanded that all the ex-cadres who had undergone rehabilitation be examined by a team of foreign doctors as Sri Lankan government doctors could be biased. It is true that if details are true heinous crime, contemptible in any civilized society has happened. Hence a proper investigation is a must. But why demand an inquiry with foreign doctors?
In Lanka there are Tamil, Muslim and even Sinhala doctors who could do a proper investigation in this issue. We are told that the provincial Health Minister Dr.Sathyalingam has promised to get the ex-cadres medically examined. The Lankan Health Minister Dr. Rajitha Senaratne told the media that the Health Ministry is ready to conduct a health survey of the ex-cadres. NPC, Minister of Health, P. Sathyalingam said two aspects needed to be looked into when taking these allegations into account. Firstly, it was noted that 107 ex-cadres died during rehabilitation and their death certificates needed to be closely examined by specialist doctors to find the cause of death. Secondly, the basic treatment of 15,000 ex-cadres who were released from rehab needed to be looked into by both general physicians and specialist doctors, such as oncologists. These can be done here with the support of health ministry. Impartial local investigation should be done before thinking of foreign investigations.
