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| Sunday, 1 December 2002 |
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Politics | Today's Top Story |  |
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Uneasy stand-off in Delft by P. Krishnaswamy An uneasy stand-off between the Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP) and sections of the Delft population continues in the island, according to informed sources. Demonstrations demanding the EPDP's pull out have taken place for the third successive week yesterday, but the party was adamant and had refused to leave their island stronghold. An EPDP spokesman and former MP S. Sivadasan told the "Sunday Observer" that they will not leave the island under any compulsions. He claimed that the Government itself has provided them security for their political activities in the island. A team of journalists who visited the island last Thursday to report on the situation there said that an anti-EPDP hunger-strike had been organised by the people in front of the EPDP office in Delft. The hunger strikers are determined to continue with their protests till the EPDPers leave the island, according to the journalists. The visit by the journalists to the island was arranged by Hindu Cultural Affairs Minister T. Maheswaran and Tamil National Alliance (TNA) MP N. Ravi Raj. Demonstrators were also quoted as having said that the EPDP was resorting to atrocities on the people, harassment and molestation of women, violence and extortions. But EPDP spokesman Sivadasan said that their party set foot on the offshore islands in December 1990 and remained committed to the welfare of the impoverished islanders since then. They successfully negotiated with successive governments and provided the desperately needed with food, medicines, educational facilities, ship services etc., he further said. He refuted allegations that the EPDP had resorted to anti-social activities and said that 'there were certain acts of violence etc. committed by certain persons in the name of the party and they were either punished or expelled from the party'. The EPDP controls the Delft Pradeshiya Sabha and also nine other PSs of the total 17 PSs in the Northern peninsula. It has two MPs, including its leader Douglas Devananda, representing the Jaffna district. |
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