{"id":31784,"date":"2014-07-10T17:24:40","date_gmt":"2014-07-10T21:24:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=31784"},"modified":"2014-07-10T22:05:56","modified_gmt":"2014-07-11T02:05:56","slug":"wigneswaran-tells-ramaphosa-that-roads-built-in-north-helped-army-to-keep-quick-and-effective-control-over-the-area-and-for-southerners-initially-to-make-triumphal-entry-into-areas-of-capture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=31784","title":{"rendered":"Wigneswaran Tells Ramaphosa that Roads Built in North helped Army to keep quick and effective control over the area and for Southerners Initially to make Triumphal Entry into areas of capture"},"content":{"rendered":"

By <\/p>\n

Dharisha Bastians
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

The South African initiatives to assist reconciliation in Sri Lanka will complement processes unfolding at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva and bilaterally with India and other international partners, Pretoria\u2019s Special Envoy Cyril Ramaphosa observed during his visit to Jaffna this week.<\/p>\n

\"Deputy<\/a>

Deputy President of South Africa calls on Chief Minister-08 July 2014-pic: np.gov.lk<\/p><\/div>\n

Northern Province Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran told the Daily FT that he had asked Deputy President Ramaphosa if South Africa\u2019s reconciliation efforts in Sri Lanka were a separate exercise from the Indian initiatives, the UNHRC resolutions in Geneva and attempts by other Western countries to resolve the issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe assured us that it was a complementary exercise,\u201d the Chief Minister noted, following the meeting with Ramaphosa at the Tilco Hotel in Jaffna on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Wigneswaran said that the South African Envoy had explained that the Sri Lankan Government had invited the ANC to share their experiences with Sri Lanka after the Commonwealth Summit in Colombo last year.
\nThe Northern Province Chief Minister, who traced the history of the Tamil problem for the South African official, explained that the biggest problem facing the Northern and Eastern Provinces at present was the heavy military presence in the regions.<\/p>\n

\u201cI explained that the problem was that the Government had stationed the very same Army \u2013 about 150,000 troops \u2013 that had bombed, shot, terrorised and fought the war in the north in the areas of the offensives even five years later,\u201d the Chief Minister told the Daily FT about the meeting.<\/p>\n

Wigneswaran said he pointed out to the South African Deputy President that the military was involved in every aspect of civilian life in the Northern Province.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have taken over acres and acres of fertile lands. They bring persons from the south for fishing and often prevent locals fishing. They allow southerners to take away sand, granite and other resources from the Northern Province. They use up precious ground water in certain areas by pumping off wells or tanks into their bowsers. Locals are deprived of water in those areas, especially at a time like this when there is a drought,\u201d Wigneswaran complained.<\/p>\n

The Chief Minister told the Daily FT that Ramaphosa had asked his delegation whether the Government\u2019s infrastructure development initiatives had not improved the quality of life in the former war zone.
\nWigneswaran said he had replied in the affirmative, with the caveat that the roads had helped the south more than the north.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey helped the Army to keep quick and effective control over the area. The roads helped the southerners initially to make a triumphal entry into their areas of capture. They helped the southerners to make a quick buck by exploiting the local markets by taking away products at very cheap rates and selling them at tremendous profits,\u201d the Chief Minister told Ramaphosa.<\/p>\n

He explained to the South African Deputy President that the TNA had won such an overwhelming majority in the north at the September 2013 provincial poll, in spite of heavy intimidation, because \u201cdevelopment had never touched the people in a significant manner\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Chief Minister also explained to the South African Envoy that the Government was appointed ex-military Governors only for the North and East Provinces. \u201cThey run a parallel administration,\u201d Wigneswaran said.<\/p>\n

The issue of land and Police powers for the provinces also came up in the discussions between Wigneswaran and Ramaphosa.<\/p>\n

The Chief Minister told the Daily FT that the NPC Legal Advisor had explained to the South African Envoy that the Government could not pick and choose which elements of the Constitution it wanted to implement.
\n
\n Courtesy:DailyFT<\/em><\/p>\n

Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Dharisha Bastians The South African initiatives to assist reconciliation in Sri Lanka will complement processes unfolding at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva and bilaterally with India and other international partners, Pretoria\u2019s Special Envoy Cyril Ramaphosa observed during his visit to Jaffna this week. Northern Province Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran told the Daily …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Wigneswaran Tells Ramaphosa that Roads Built in North helped Army to keep quick and effective control over the area and for Southerners Initially to make Triumphal Entry into areas of capture’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31784"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31784"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31784\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31792,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31784\/revisions\/31792"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}