‘SLMC requested separate admin unit for part of Ampara’

By Rathindra Kuruwita

During the 2015 Presidential election campaign, SLMC Leader MP Rauff Hakeem had requested former President Maithripala Sirisena and former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to create a separate administrative district for Tamil speaking people along the coastal areas of Amapara District, the Presidential Commission of Inquiry (PCoI) investigating the Easter Sunday attacks was informed on Monday.

Hakeem told the PCoI that his proposal was fair because people had the right to engage in their administrative work in their own language.

“We were of the view that a separate administrative district should be given to the Tamil speaking people in the coastal areas of the Ampara District. I don’t think such an arrangement would have been a barrier for the country’s reconciliation. Hakeem said so responding to a question raised by the Attorney General’s Department counsel who led the evidence.

Hakeem added that there was a significant difference between an administrative unit and a political unit.

The AG’s Department official asked the witness if that request was a part of the Oluvil Declaration by a group of university students during the late Minister A.H.M. Ashroff’s time as the leader of the SLMC. 

Hakeem said the Indo-Lanka agreement signed by the then Sri Lankan government, in 1987, had adversely affected the Muslims. During the armed conflict, the Muslim leaders were worried that Muslims would also take up arms, he said.

The AG’s department official told Hakeem that most of the administrative activities in the Northern and Eastern Provinces were at present conducted in Tamil.  Hakeem admitted that it was the case.