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While several leading trade unions in the country yesterday hailed the Government's move to start immediate ceasefire talks with the LTTE in Geneva next month, Ceylon Mercantile Union, General Secretary Bala Tampoe said that the Government representatives who take part in the talks must first realise that Sinhalese, Tamils and Muslims are the three major communities in the country and talks should start by protecting the self determination of each community.

"The Government must first recognise that as the majority Sinhalese who ruled the country from independence, the minority Tamil and Muslim communities too have the right of self determination.

Therefore the forthcoming talks should commence by focusing much attention on this important issue, else we will never succeed or come to a political settlement," Bala Tampoe told the Sunday Observer yesterday.

Quoting an example of the importance of self determination, Tampoe said that although the former President J. R. Jayawardene convincingly won the General Election in 1977 with 80 per cent votes, not a single seat was won by the UNP or the SLFP other than the TULF (Tamil United Liberation Front) from the Northern District.

"This situation clearly indicates that majority Tamil and Muslim communities living in these areas highly admire the self determination concept," he said.

Meanwhile Ceylon Bank Employees' Union, General Secretary, M. R. Shah welcomed the forthcoming talks between the Government and the LTTE and said that trade unions in the country do not accept the concept of communalism. "As many petty political parties in the country turn a blind eye on this matter, we are not bothered about the venue of the talks scheduled to take place," he said.

He said that the trade unions want to urge the Government to commence talks immediately in order to stop killings and other unlawful activities as taken place at present. Meanwhile Public Service Trade Union Federation President W. H. Piyadasa highly admired the decision taken by the Government and the LTTE to commence talks next month and said that the Governments move must be protected from chauvinist political parties in the North and South.

"These so called political parties always try to disrupt the talks to gain undue political advantage," he said.

(AK)

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