|
|
 |
 |
| Sunday, 09 March 2003 |
 |
|
 |
Security |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
|
LTTE to share peace dividends with Muslims by S. Selvakumar The Muslim population of the North and East has welcomed the LTTE offer to equally share the benefits accrued to the Tamils of the North and East on the successful completion of the peace talks although it falls short of their request for a separate unit. At a meeting in Kilinochchi on Friday, 14 Tamil National Alliance Parliamentarians and a delegation of the LTTE headed by its theoretician Anton Balasingham, it was agreed that all the benefits accrued to the Tamils of the North and East on the successful completion of the peace talks would be equally shared with the Muslims. The offer comes in the wake of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's agreement in principle to accommodate a Muslim delegation at the peace negotiations. At a meeting in Colombo on Friday Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe met with a delegation of seven Muslim parliamentarians on the North and East and agreed in principle to accommodate a Muslim delegation at the peace negotiations at least from the seventh round of talks scheduled to be held at Bangkok, after talks in Hakone Japan this month. M.L.A.M. Hisbullah, a national unity alliance MP who was in the delegation that met the Prime Minister when asked to comment on the LTTE and TNA stand said the Muslims of the North and East most welcome this stand. "We want peace and that peace to prevail the Tamils and the Muslims should unite. I am very happy to hear from the LTTE that they wanted to equally share the benefits with the Muslims" he further said. When asked whether the requested accommodation at the peace talks was to ask for a separate unit for the Muslims, Mr. Hisbullah said that it was to air their views and to reach a compromise on thorny issues. However, at the talks with the TNA on Friday the LTTE also expressed concern over the disunity among the Muslim Parliamentarians of the North and East and insisted that there should not be any division among them and it was only then that all Muslims could equally share the benefits with the Tamils in the proposed federal structure. At the Kilinochchi talks Balasingham requested the TNA to arrange a meeting between the North-East Muslim MPs and the LTTE prior to his departure to Japan which the TNA agreed to do. Meanwhile, the high profile personalities Norwegian Foreign Minister Jan Peterson, his deputy Vidar Helgessen, Director General of Amnesty International Ian Martin and Canadian foreign Minister Bill Graham will arrive in the country within the next few days for talks with the government and the LTTE. The first three will travel to Vanni to meet with LTTE supremo V. Prabhakaran. |
|
News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security Produced by Lake House |
