Wimal under fire for meeting Pillayan

Opposition parties yesterday charged that JVP defector and Leader of the newly formed National Freedom Front (NFF), Wimal Weerawansa has acted against the democratic forces in the country by meeting with Eastern Province Chief Minister and leader of the armed paramilitary TMVP, Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pillayan.

Weerawansa met with Pillayan at the National Freedom Front office in Battaramulla behind closed doors yesterday at a time the opposition parties in the country as well as the international community were calling for the disarming of Pillayan’s group. The TMVP has refused to disarm despite claiming to have entered the democratic process.

The JVP has charged that Weerawansa’s act has been against all the democratic forces in the country.

The JVP says that the party as well as all the democratic forces in the country called for the disarming of the Pillayan group during the Eastern Provincial Council elections last month.

"However, the government did not listen to it and Weerawansa too said that the Pillayan group should not be disarmed when all democratic forces wanted the group to be disarmed," the JVP charged.

According to the JVP, Weerawansa’s meeting with Pillayan was an endorsement of his support to the government and all undemocratic forces.

The UNP also charged that Weerawansa’s actions showed his support to undemocratic forces in the country.

UNP parliamentarian Lakshman Kiriella told The Sunday Leader that even when the United Nations has asked the government to stop all its connections with the armed Pillayan group, Weerawansa has now actively met with him to further his political career by turning his back on the democratic forces in the country.