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by Ranga Jayasuriya

President Mahinda Rajapakse will meet political parties on Thursday in an all party conference seeking a southern consensus on the solution to the ethnic question.

Thursday's meeting will be the first of a series of consultations with the political parties and civil society organisations aiming at evolving a national consensus as highlighted in President Rajapakse's election manifesto and as well as in his inaugural address at the Swearing-in ceremony.

These initial discussions are expected to conclude within a period of three months.

The meeting comes following an initial session held last Monday where the political parties agreed to nominate a maximum of five members from each party for future discussions, which will also be attended by the representatives of civil and religious organisations.

Monday's meeting was attended by the representatives of SLFP, UNP, JVP, JHU, CP, MEP and LSSP, NUA and UPF.

Notable absentees were the Tamil National Alliance which said it had not been invited and Sri Lanka Muslim Congress and Ceylon Workers Congress.

Meanwhile, the TNA yesterday said the all-party-conference would further procrastinate the existing tension in the North-East and demanded the government to hold immediate talks with the LTTE.

" Before any all-party-conference, killings have to be stopped... The government and LTTE should talk now to stop killings." TNA MP A. Vinayagamoorthy said.

He said the TNA would, however, consider its participation if it is invited to the conference. UNP Deputy General Secretary Tissa Attanayake said the UNP had always underlined that the ethnic question required a political solution and the party is for devolution of power within an "undivided Sri Lanka".

"But, before evolving a national consensus, constituent parties of the government and its key backers, JVP and JHU should reach a consensus," he said.

The Jathika Hela Urumaya has submitted to the President a set of proposals for discussion at the All Party Conference, its Parliamentary Group Leader Ven Athuraliye Rathana said.

"We have submitted a set of proposals to the President on evolving an all party consensus and we have also highlighted the need for an effective publicity campaign for our efforts to reach a consensus," he said.

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