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A large number of political parties including those of the Left, as well as people's organisations, Trade Unions, Professionals, Media personnel and artistes who have never shared a common platform with the UNP in the history of this country will shortly join hands with the government to form a National Centre for Peace.

Accordingly pro government and anti government forces will polarise into propeace and anti peace forces marginalising the Sihala Urumaya, JVP and communal elements of the PA. No force can prevent this new development said Lands Minister Dr. Rajitha Senaratne addressing a series of familiarisation seminars for local government representatives held in the Anuradhapura, Matale, Polonnaruwa and Kandy district over the weekend.

The Minister said "nearly three quarters of the population of this country lacked a proper awareness about peace. This has led to the building up of an anti-peace force in the country. The lack of a pro-peace force is therefore a grave national drawback. When we pointed this out to the Prime Minister he agreed to the formation of a pro peace force with the UNF as a motivating factor. A committee has been formed under my chairmanship to attend to this matter and we are now in the process of forming this pro-peace centre," said the Minister.

Dr. Senaratne said it was the Up Country Sinhala Sabha which first mooted the idea of a federal form of government for our country during the time of the British. The Tamil Congress opposed the idea then. When Sri Lanka gained Independence, Tamil Congress leader late G.G. Ponnambalam placed a demand for fifty-fifty saying that the number of Parliamentary seats should be divided equally among Sinhalese and Tamils.

The Minister said that when India gained independence, Mohamed Ali Jinnah who was a pioneer in the Indian Freedom movement rejected all proposals made by Mahatma Gandhi and demanded a separate state for Muslims. Resultantly India was bifurcated into two separate states known as India and Pakistan.

But in Sri Lanka the Tamil leaders of that time spurned communalism and acted democratically. Tamil leaders such as Ponnambalam Ramanathan and Ponnambalam Arunachalam joined their Sinhala counterparts to carry forward the freedom movement. When Ponnambalam Arunachalam returned from England bringing the message of Independence from British rule it was the Sinhala people who drew his cart from the Colombo harbour after untying the horses from it.

The Minister said it was in the 20th century during British rule that unity among Sinhala and Tamil communities simmered giving rise to disunity. The national crisis which grew up as a result had caused grave destruction to the country.

Recalling the policies of deception carried out by the JVP in the history of the country the Minister said the party held its last National Convention before its proscription at the Colombo New Town Hall in 1982. One of the resolutions adopted at this convention said "Tamil communalism is progressive because it is communalism of the oppressed: Sinhala communalism is reactionary because it is the communalism of the oppressive majority community."

Minister Dr. Senaratne said the fifth resolution adopted at that JVP convention read as follows:- "The JVP will raise its red banners and support the Tamil Eelam struggle to set up a separate state for Tamils". The JVP which supported Norwegian facilitation during its tie up with the PA in the probationary government was now vehemently opposing it. The Federal form of government has been accepted by all political parties at various periods in the history of this country.

The Minister recalled that the SLFP led by late Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranaike called upon the people to boycott the first Provincial Council elections held in 1988 according to the 13th amendment to the constitution. The JVP which described Provincial Councils as Eelam killed 64 members of the UNP and the United Socialist Front who contested that election.

The JVP which also killed thousands of persons who voted at those elections is now sitting pretty in several Provincial Councils and boasting that they are ruling them by remote control. The JVP fanned anti-Indian hysteria during the time of the Indor Sri Lanka Pact and requested people to boycott Indian goods. It even killed Dr. (Mrs) Gladys Jayewardene, chairman, Sri Lanka Pharmaceuticals Corporation for importing Indian drugs and several traders for selling Mysoor dhal. But today Wimal Weerawansa of the JVP considered the Indian High Commission as his altar.

The Minister said President Kumaratunga never revealed the details of the MOU she signed with the LTTE in 1995 to the nation. But the country is fully aware of all the details of the MOU Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe signed with the LTTE in Vavuniya.

Today the peace talks are progressing rapidly with both parties committed to forget past rivalries and proceed towards a lasting political solution.

LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran in his heroes day speech had said he is prepared to accept a form of internal self rule for the Tamil people. At the peace talks held in Oslo Anton Balasingham startled everyone by announcing the LTTE's acceptance of a federal form of government for the North and East.

At the media conference held in Vavuniya in April last year both Prabhakaran and Anton Balasingham responding to a question by a journalist refused to accept Ranil Wickremesinghe as their Prime Minister. But on December 1 last year Mr. Balasingham told journalists that he had met Ranil Wickremesinghe by accepting him as Prime Minister. Today LTTE delegates are attending peace talks with passports issued by the Sri Lanka Government.

Dr. Senaratne alleged that the President in a recent television interview spoke humbug about Federalism, self determination and self rule. The political package put forward by her PA Government also tried to offer Federalism to the Tamil people. But it had deleted the word 'unitary' and referred to Sri Lanka as the 'Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka'.

The President had said the Federalism was first tried out in Russia. This was a wrong perception. What Russia had was not Federalism but a confederation where each state could secede if people take a majority decision at a referendum. Federalism does not allow secession or the setting up of a separate Parliament, Institution of a separate Prime Minister or a separate legal system.

In an interview with the Time magazine on February 9, 1998 the President had said she was prepared to hand over the North and East to Prabhakaran for a period of 10 years.

Minister Dr. Senaratne said the next Budget of the government will be a true people's budget if there is lasting peace in this country.

From next year the Government will undertake a systematic programme to uplift the economy and grant all possible relief to farmers, workers, fishermen and the general public, the Minister added.

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