Attackers contesting election

24 February 2011 10:45 am Views - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}} 24 Bookmark

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Some members of the gang that attacked Sirasa TV last year are contesting the March 17 local government election in the Kelaniya area, DNA MP Anura Kumara Dissanayake charged in Parliament today.

Mr. Dissanayake, making remarks during the debate on the state of emergency said, Sirasa TV showed video clips of those gangsters at that time, yet the government failed to bring any of them to book.

‘Today, we can see the posters of some of these gang members. They are contesting the election in Kelaniya. This is the kind of government we have,” he said.

The DNA MP charged that the government had used emergency regulations only to suppress the civil and political rights of the people, and to silence dissent. As a result, he urged the government to relax the state of emergency immediately and establish civil administration, particularly in the North where, he said, people had been gripped by a fear psychosis.

Mr. Dissanayake outlined the incidents of attacks on media personnel and institutions in the post war period, and said that perpetrators had not been apprehended in any of these cases.

“These draconian emergency regulations have given enormous powers to the Defence Secretary. It is all the more dangerous to give such powers to one individual to act outside the normal law of the country. Today, the Defence Secretary even has powers to acquire lands and properties under the emergency law,” he said.

Also, he said that the government had done a serious assault on the freedom of expression through emergency regulations. (Kelum Bandara)