By IANS
Colombo : A Tamil human rights activist and member of Sri Lankan parliament Mano Ganeshan said Saturday he was planning to flee the country in a couple of days because of the ever present threat to his life.
Ganesan, who heads the Western Province Peoples’ Front and the Civil Monitoring Commission (CMC), told IANS that following the drastic reduction in police security since Dec 19, the stage had been set for his “assassination”.
“I plan to leave the country in two or three days,” he said, but declined to give his destination.
His security was reduced from 10 men to two. The police escort vehicle too had been withdrawn.
“The government has been angry with me for being chosen first runner up for the first Annual Freedom Defenders’ Award which was given by the US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice Dec 10,” he said.
Rice had praised Ganesan for exposing the “impunity” with which extortions and abductions of minority Tamils and Muslims were taking place in Colombo through 2006.
Though of Indian origin, and an acknowledged leader of the Indian origin Tamils in Colombo city, Ganesan has been fighting for all minorities.
“The government had withdrawn the security to ministers who had not voted for the annual budget in parliament. But my case is different. As a leader of the CMC I face a threat to my life from criminal elements whom I had exposed,” he said.
He had appealed to the foreign envoys in Colombo to put pressure on the government but to no avail. “They seemed helpless, and some of them even advised me to leave the country for my own safety,” he remarked.
The government had withdrawn the security given to the posts minister and leader of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress, Rauf Hakeem, and the National Heritage Minister, Anura Bandaranaike, after they crossed over to the opposition ahead of the budget vote this month.
By withdrawing the security, the government had “opened the front gate to Prabhakaran’s assassins”, Bandaranaike charged.