Anti-Indian protests to be held in the East

(October 25, Batticaloa, Sri Lanka Guardian) News received from sources in the Eastern town of Amparai confirms that the government officials and the military and police are actively involved in preparing for a anti-Indian hartal and demonstration in the Batticaloa town tomorrow (26 October 2008). Leaflets in Tamil and Sinhalese have been widely distributed by the officials in Batticaloa and other nearby towns asking people to participate in the campaign.

Reliable sources have confirmed special buses have been arranged by the officials to transport large numbers of Sinhalese from Amparai, Polonnaruva and Kiran and the JHU have been entrusted with the task to ferry its activists from Trincomalee district for the demonstration.

Further inquiries reveal that the Tamil Tiger operatives in the East are distributing leaflets threatening the Tamil people not to attend or participate in the demonstration.

The anti-Indian campaign in the government controlled North ant East initiated by the President and the Minister Douglas Devananda was entrusted to organise it. Hartal was originally planned on the 23 October 2008 in Jaffna, Batticaloa and Vavuniya.

Due to unexpected publicity about President’s involvement in initiating the campaign and some pressures put on Douglas Dvananda by some Tamil groups, the Hartal changed its track and was only held in Jaffna under a changed theme to protest against the sinking of the ships by the LTTE in their recent suicide attacks. The Military and Minister Douglas Devananda’s paramilitary cadres ensured closure of the shops and brining the public transport to a standstill in Jaffna.

There is widespread concern in the East that the Chief Minister of the Eastern Province Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan known as Pillaiyan is not doing anything to control excesses of the officials in forcing people to participate in the campaign. - Sri Lanka Guardian