TNA isolates Tamils in North and East - Prof. Vitarane

by P. Krishnaswamy

The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) leadership was trying to isolate the Tamil community of the North and the East from the rest of the Sri Lankan society by seeking international intervention and support for its rigid stance on a political solution to the Tamil problem, Minister of Science and Technology and leader of the LSSP Prof.Tissa Vitarane said.

At meetings in the run up to the April 8 parliamentary election the TNA is seeking the mandate of the Northern and Eastern Tamils for internal self-autonomy based on the Tamil motherland concept and falsely claiming that their stance on this was supported by the international community.

The Minister who is also the chairman of the All Party Representative Committee (APRC) said that they should remember that all past efforts of Tamil hardliners to bring the international community into the Sri Lankan scene spelt disaster to the community.

Obviously, the former TNA parliamentarians did not participate in the APRC because the LTTE prevented them from doing so. Now that the LTTE has been eliminated and the TNA is contesting the polls as an independent political party they should air the grievances of the Tamils and present any political proposal at the APRC sittings.

Since its inception in June 2006,the APRC held over one-hundred sittings for deliberations in an effort to find a solution acceptable to all communities and political parties within a unitary state, Prof. Vitarane said.

Political parties representing inter-alia, the North, East Tamils, the up-country Tamils and the Muslims who are committed to pluralism and democracy participated in the APRC to reach a consensus on a package of measures to guarantee the rights of the Tamils, he said.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa has said that the TNA would be invited to take part in the APRC process after the parliamentary elections as it is the right forum to evolve a political solution, the Minister said.