He said the Editorial stated that the government had resorted to political deceit by killing time to hold the Northern Provincial Council elections. "However, the government is forced to hold the election due to international pressure. Now the government is acquiring the traditional lands belonging to the people in the North prior to the elections with the intention of giving them over to Sinhala people.
Now the government has started settling Sinhalese in the North in a subtle manner. Certain politicians in the North are only holding candles (Kavadi) to the government," the Udayan Editorial had claimed. Maj Gen Hathurusinghe commenting on this Editorial said it was an attempt made by the owner of the Udayan newspaper to further his political prospects by taking undue advantage of the internal split in the TNA. This could be stated as a very unpatriotic statement.
He said as civilian life should be brought back to normal before an election is held, the resettlement programme is now being completed. The government's sole intention was to hold an election in the North soon as it never feared to face elections, he said. He also said the presence of the armed forces in the North is also being drastically reduced. The armed forces strength which was 43,000 during 2007-2008 period has now reduced to 13,350. He said the army camps set up at Subash and Gnanam hotels in Jaffna have been withdrawn and the hotels are now in operation as normal.
The Udayan Editor was jealous of the friendship and amity prevailing between the armed forces and the general public in the North. As such the paper was trying to fan the flames of communalism once again to set the Tamils against the security forces. People who realized this Udayan tactic were now holding demonstrations protesting against the removal of army camps.
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