Mannar Bishop Rayappu Joseph says there needs to be accountability for 146,679 people who he claims have not been accounted for in the North during the last eight months of the war.
The outspoken Bishop says the government must address Tamil issues and not shift attention from the core issues faced by Tamils.Once seen by the government as being a strong supporter of the LTTE and pushing for a separate state, the Bishop insists he was never for a separate state and had even objected to the violence committed by the LTTE.
“When the LTTE started they were good. But later they took up arms. They took up arms as a last resort when all our political attempts to recognize Tamil rights were suppressed. But I don’t justify violence, I condemn it. I do not accept what the LTTE did by using arms and killing people,” he said.
He accused the government of suppressing the Tamils and penalizing them by taking over Tamil land and colonizing Tamil areas.
“The evil objectives of the government is clear. They are not listening to the people. The government was involved in state terrorism and Tamil were killed. This in part led to the war. Some people in the government keep saying were are one people one country. We are not one people. Yes we are one country but we are different people. On culture, tradition and politically there are differences. Pressure must be exerted on the government to accept sanity,” he said.
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