Mangala’s firing draws crossfire in P’ment

By Rathindra Kuruwita
SLFP-M Leader Mangala Samaraweera said in Parliament yesterday that the government wanted to create a Zimbabwe-style Police State for the benefit of the Rajapaksa family regime. He added that, there is a systematic campaign to establish a countrywide network of spies to gather information on opposition politicians.

“When the Defense Secretary visited China, he paid much attention to how the Chinese government has created Intelligence Units in each village,” he said. “Now, under the guise of ‘restructuring Intelligence Units’, the government is creating a network of spies to gather information on its political opponents,” he added.

Samaraweera also criticised the Defense Secretary and the Army Commander for misleading the public on the casualties of war. “Only Prabhakaran and the Rajapaksa brothers want a war,” he said.

Meanwhile, the UPFA, the JVP and the NFF MPs criticised the SLFP-M leader for his statement. They claim that, Samaraweera is now playing the lead role of an agenda to demoralise the military forces.

“Terrorism has to be defeated, the whole world accepts it,” said Minister Anura Priyadharshana Yapa. “Samaraweera was once the government’s media spokesman and back then, he was a critic of the LTTE. I don’t know what made him change his mind to this extent,” he added.

JVP, MP, K.D. Lal Kantha claimed that, Samaraweera has become a spokesman for an imperialist campaign to demoralise and divide the military. “He is trying to create tension between soldiers and their superiors”, he said. When the LTTE is in dire straits, the UNP, the TNA and Tamil Nadu want to help them, now Samaraweera has joined these forces,” he added.