Bathiudeen to appeal to Supreme Court against Court of Appeal decision against him over destruction of Kallaru

By Rathindra Kuruwita

MP Rishad Bathiudeen on Saturday told the PCoI investigating the Easter Sunday attacks that he would appeal to the Supreme Court against the decision of the Court of Appeal regarding the deforestation of the Kallaru forest reserve.

Justice Janak de Silva and Justice Nissanka Bandula Karunaratne who delivered the verdict on the destruction of the forest are also members of the PCoI.

Bathiudeen made this statement when a Commissioner asked him how many Sinhala people he had resettled when he was the Minister of Resettlement.

Bathiudeen said that more 200,000 Tamils had been resettled and he looked at taking steps to resettle businessmen including Sinhala bakery owners in the Eastern Province.

Bathiudeen said: “There were only 2% Sinhalese population in the Northern Province and there were 5% Muslims. During the war Sinhalese and Muslims were made to leave.”

After defeating the LTTE in 2009, the Mahinda Rajapaksa administration commenced resettlement under the supervision of the current National Organizer of SLPP Basil Rajapaksa, Bathiudeen said.

“As the Chairman of the Vanni District Committee, I gave my fullest support to it. 5,000 Sinhalese were resettled in Kalabogaswewa, Namalgama. Almost 75, 100 year old large trees were cut down to resettle these people,” he said.

MP Bathiudeen said that no one had filed a petition against the above matter and Vijaya village in Kallaru houses had also been built for Sinhala people.

“The trees in Kallaru have not been cut down to resettle Internally Displaced Persons (IDP). We will challenge the Wilpattu verdict in the Supreme Court.”