We never intended to disrupt anti-war meeting - Galabodawatte Gnanasara thera

by Jayantha Sri Nissanka

The mini battle took place at Viharamahadevi Park last Thursday has given birth to a new organisation called Anti Terrorists Front.

Secretary of the Jathika Sanga Sammelanaya, Galabodawatte Gnanasara thera who led a team of 40 monks to the Anti War Front meeting plans to establish the new organisation and expose Dollar accounts of NGO leaders and political parties that financially benefited from LTTE front organisations.

He told the Sunday Observer that they wanted to participate in the event to express their views exercising democratic rights peacefully. "But we were not allowed and we never intended to disrupt the meeting", Gnanasara thera claimed.

"When we were displaying our banners in the dias, suddenly the peace activists turned to war activists began assaulting dragging us by the robes, he lamented.

"It was the New Left Front Presidential candidate Chamil Jayanethti who reportedly assaulted me and tried to remove my robe", Gnanasara Thera charged.

He claimed that when the LTTE denied water to 15,000 families in Mavilaru and killing soldiers and innocent people, the Dr. Kumar Rupasinghe led Anti War Font activists never staged any picketing against such LTTE atrocities. But when the security forces started a defensive operations against LTTE's offensive operations, these peace activists suddenly decided to pressurise the Government to stop retaliating LTTE, he asked.

When contacted, a leading member of the AWF Vasudeva Nanayakkara condemned the provocative attempts of the JHU to disrupt the mass rally calling the Government and the LTTE for an immediate cessation of hostilities.

Nanayakkara charged that after the meeting started, a gang led by monks stormed the stage and started to disrupt the meeting.

Monks displayed banners condemning the rally and attempted to seize the microphone, he added.

"We made repeated appeals to the monks to leave the place peacefully but it proved futile.

This provoked the crowd and they attempted to remove the monks from the stage. Even the Police failed to arrest these monks who formed themselves into an unlawful assembly", he added.

Nanayakkara calls upon the Government to take strong measures to prevent any recurrence of such gangsterism against democratic rights.

He requested the Police to investigate and prosecute the culprits without delay.