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The first meeting of the committee appointed by the United National Front government to look into the incidents of post-election violence took place yesterday (January 9).

The committee which convened under the chairmanship of Minister of Power and Energy also comprised Minister of Interior John Amaratunga, General Secretary of the People's Alliance D M Jayaratne, IGP Lucky Kodithuwakku, Senior DIGs H.M.G.B. Kotakadeniya, and Gamini Navarathne.

Over 2,000 complaints related to incidents of post election violence received by President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, who had given them over to Minister Karu Jayasuriya, were handed over to IGP Lucky Kodithuwakku.

The IGP in turn handed over the complaints to Senior DIG Kotakadeniya who directed all other DIGs in charge of the respective provinces to inquire forthwith into these complaints and hand over a full report to the IGP with regard to any legal action to be instituted.

General Secretary of the People's Alliance D M Jayaratne who also participated in the discussions pointed out that there could be several more complaints received with regard to post election violence and all complaints thus received should be directed to Senior DIG H.M.G.B. Kotakadeniya for his perusal.

Jayaratne said that certain Police officers who were transferred due to various acts of wrongdoing had managed to return to their former places of work and that they were acting with vengeance.

The committee members therefore decided to inform the PA General Secretary to provide further information in this regard at the next meeting.

Minister of Power and Energy Karu Jayasuriya speaking at the committee meeting said that the bane of all post election related violence was the present electoral system and emphasised the importance of changing the electoral system after discussions with other political parties.

Meanwhile, the UNF government decided to appoint a special committee to look into the incidents of post election related violence after Opposition leader Ratnasiri Wickremanayake met Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe for a special discussion.

As a result of that discussion the government decided to appoint a special committee comprising Minister of Power and Energy Karu Jayasuriya, Minister of Interior John Amaratunga, Opposition Leader Ratnasiri Wickremanayake and the General Secretary of PA D. M. Jayaratne.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe ordered the committee to submit to him a full list of names of all MPs, Provincial Council members, and Pradeshiya Sabha members who are in remand custody and assured that he will take necessary steps to free such members after a complete inquiry.

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