JM puts Muslim devolution rights in grave jeopardy – Rauff Hakeem
Although the Government touts the Joint Mechanism as a mere operational arrangement to distribute Tsunami aid, the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress Leader Rauff Hakeem told the media today that the "Manner in which the document was finalised had very serious implications in the context of substantive devolution arrangements in a future resumption of peace talks.
Speaking at Party headquarters Dar-us-Salaam in
He drove home the point repeatedly that these were the very aspects he sought to secure safeguards against in the formulation stage of the JM and in its implementation stage.". But with Parliament being adjourned, even then we were not able to place on record our position vis—a-vis the JM.
We very categorically insisted that the Muslim community can not be overlooked being a principal party in determining what should be in the document. This has been consistently denied to the Muslim community despite our demands and requests to the government, facilitators, and our complaints to the donor community. Now we find that the way in which the document has been finalised, it has serious implication for the future peace process as well for the Muslim community, he added.
He said the SLMC will immediately launch an awareness campaign among the Muslim people, the affected people in the areas and thereafter decide what its response would be.
Right now I must say the party is of the position that extending our cooperation to this mechanism would be quite difficult given the present composition of the document. Therefore, there may have to be some opportunity for us to raise these issues with the parties concerned, the government and the LTTE. When I met with the President, I did emphasise to her that unless we are able to see in black and white what the document contains.
"We find that some details which have been revealed to us have serious implication for the future of the Muslim community in the peace process. Therefore, we are exercising maximum restraint in taking a total rejection stance because, it also involves the rebuilding of infrastructure and the damaged private properties of the affected people, we would give due consideration to all of that," Mr.Hakeem said, adding that however, "in the mean time we can not compromise the community's basic rights to be consulted, to be involved in the process.
And that has been denied to us and that major blow will also have serious repercussions for the co-existence among communities and therefore as a responsible party we will start our awareness campaigns since the details are only now made available to us, and this has been hatched in total secrecy for so long.
We have been asking our colleagues, who for a variety of reasons had gone and joined the government, to re-unite with us and bring substantial pressure so that at least we would be able to prevent this happening in this manner.
Once again I must reiterate that we are not in league with some of the parties which are totally rejecting any arrangement with the LTTE. We feel that we should have some kind of a mechanism, but this is not the way to go about it, and therefore, I must say that we can not cooperate with this arrangement as it is, that's our position, and we want to make it very clear.
"What we are trying to say here is that by basic denial of our rights to participate in this document as a party, we have not been able to make our input into it and now we find the implications of some of these provisions are going to visit us in a future peace process as well. Therefore, if we did participate without any protest about these matters, without reserving our rights to or without getting the parties who have already signed it to acknowledge that these matters are not going to be taken as a given" it would be a gross abuse of our peoples trust in us.
Bandula Jayasekara in
Another officer said even the CFA had many gaps and the security forces were never consulted on it even then. He said "The politicians have put us into an embarrassing situation. Even the Trinco harbour area could be now controlled by the LTTE in Killinochchi. The LTTE could use most places along the 2 km coastal area as landing places and the LTTE would make demands saying that they have a legal right after the document was signed." He also wanted to know what the government would do then.
Navy officers say that many Navy camps are covered and come under the joint mechanism agreement. They accuse the government for not consulting the Navy, custodian of the Sri Lankan seas. "The LTTE could control from the South of Yang Oya now and they could do whatever they want. There could be many repercussions due to this. We are in serious doubt. What happens if they come and open a so called Tsunami relief camp 10 yards from a Navy camp? What do we do then? Questioned the officers.
Several Security Forces members said they have decided to ignore the charges levelled by President Kumaratunga that security forces were corrupt. "They are baseless. She is also a politician. We know what most politicians are up to. Don't we', said A war veteran
Chairman Airport Authority M. L. A. M. Hisbullah resigned from his post yesterday (Sunday) protesting against the joint mechanism signed between the government and the LTTE. Hisbullah, who is also the Deputy Chairman of the National Unity Alliance (NUA), gave his leader, minister Ferial Ashroff, forty eight (48) hours to quit the government. Hisbullah told Ashroff that he would also quit from NUA if she would not leave the government.
Hisbullah says by signing the joint mechanism, Kumaratunga has betrayed the Muslims, who were most affected by the tsunami. He was also a former deputy minister for Telecommunications and a close confidante of Minister Mangala Samaraweera. SLMC leader Rauff Hakeem welcomed the resignation and the stand taken by Hisbullah. He said " Even though its late he has taken a courageous stand. we hope others also would follow him"
Ashroff is coming under tremendous pressure to quit the government by her people. Several Muslim organizations have called for a Hartal in the Ampara district today to protest against the joint mechanism. They have asked that the shops and other institutions be closed today.
