UNP should extend support to Govt:

PSC, the ideal platform to resolve N-E problems

by Uditha KUMARASINGHE

Petroleum Industries Minister Susil Premajayantha said that if the Opposition is sincerely interested in ensuring lasting peace in the country, it is their duty to support the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) which is the ideal forum to resolve the problems faced by people in the North and the East.

The UNP and the TNA can express their views at the PSC to facilitate reach consensus, the Minister told the Sunday Observer.

Explaining the retrogressive stance of UNP and TNA politics, the Minister said both parties are attempting to gain political mileage from this issue. The UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe has decided to have a joint May Day rally with the TNA in Jaffna. We have to analyse the situation and see what they are going to do.

With international pressure or on somebody's advice, the UNP and the TNA try to band together.

What will be its consequences in the Southern part of the country? People are well aware how the UNP leadership signed the ceasefire agreement with the LTTE and permitted the SLMM to operate in the North and the East including the areas under the control of LTTE terrorists.

Even if changes are effected within the UNP, they will definitely resort to the same practices again, the Minister said.

The UNP should extend its support to the Government to resolve this problem regardless of political affiliations. We should have a peaceful country to engage in UNP, UPFA or JVP politics. After 30 years of misunderstandings and fighting one another, one cannot expect all these wounds to heal within two or three years. It will take time.

The Minister said the TNA had to appear on behalf of the LTTE willingly or unwillingly. We saw ourselves the pro-LTTE Tamil diaspora active in Geneva when the UNHRC sessions were in progress. They are holding demonstrations and fund-raising campaigns against Sri Lanka in other countries. The TNA too has become a part of it.

The government has already rehabilitated nearly 11,000 ex-LTTE combatants. After their integration with the society, not a single incident involving them has been reported.

They have changed their attitude and have begun to think themselves as an integral part of the society since peace has dawned in the country. Still the pro-LTTE Tamil diaspora is sending text messages to the Tamils in the North. Despite these challenges, the government has a huge task to carry it out, the Minister said.