PROPOSED LTTE COMPENSATION SCHEME COMPLIED WITH LLRC RECOMMENDATIONS – MINISTER

The Cabinet paper that proposed to work out a compensation scheme for former surviving or deceased LTTE cadres, was not a move to promote separatism. It was implemented in keeping with the LLRC recommendations, said Resettlement Minister DM Swaminathan yesterday.

He made these remarks while speaking to Daily Mirror. He vehemently denied the interpretation given by Udaya Gammanpila, to the Cabinet paper, at a rally in Matara on Friday.

“This was not a move carried out because of any personal agenda of mine.

This was not a move carried out because of any personal agenda of mine. It was implemented as a part of the LLRC recommendations

It was implemented as a part of the LLRC recommendations. It was proposed by one of the agencies (REPPIA) that comes under the purview of my ministry,” he said.

However, the Cabinet paper had not been approved, and Mr. Swaminathan said it made no difference to him, since he had only done it to comply with the recommendations assigned to his ministry by the LLRC.

He added that members of the former government should not make such remarks as most of the former LTTE cadres had now been rehabilitated and re-integrated into society.

“The former government included LTTE leaders even in its Cabinet. I don’t see why they should give such a wrong twist to a Cabinet paper that sought to pave the way for these families to start a new life,” he said.

He went on to say that the proposal, if approved and implemented, would have helped those who had survived the conflict and were attempting to rebuild their lives.

“It was to ensure that they come into society as Sri Lankans and not as a group that felt that it had been discriminated against and subjected to injustice,” he said.

During a rally in Matara on Friday, Gammanpila had referred to the Cabinet paper and said that it was evidence of an agenda by a separatist group that was attempting to raise its ugly head in the country.