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| Wednesday, 17 November 2004 |
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| President asks LTTE: Are you ready to resume talks within this month? by Uditha Kumarasinghe President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga yesterday called on the LTTE to inform the Government whether it was prepared to resume peace talks within this month. President Kumaratunga expressed this view during an interview with ITN Chairman Newton Gunaratne and SLBC Chairman Hudson Samarasinghe which was telecast over ITN last night. At present all that is necessary for the resumption of peace talks have been created. The two major parties think as one on the resumption of peace negotiations. The President completely denied the comments made by the LTTE that there is no agreement within the Government on this issue. She said the policy of the Sri Lankan Government on the ethnic issue is the same whoever is at the helm of power." In future, if I am no more the head , the next leader has to take forward this policy. Therefore change of leadership will not pose any problem to the LTTE to discuss this issue. "The most essential fact is that the LTTE should first come to the negotiating table. At present the LTTE is finding various excuses not to come for peace talks. All the parties in the Government are willing to resume talks with the LTTE. In this situation, the necessary environment needed for the resumption of talks has now been created. Therefore I request the LTTE to inform the Government whether they are ready to commence peace talks within this month." President Kumaratunga stressed that the LTTE has conducted negotiations with the Sri Lankan Government several times. On the sixth occasion it was with the former UNF Government where a ceasefire agreement was signed. This ceasefire agreement has lasted the longest duration between the Government and the LTTE. This was a good trend to be continued. The present attitude of the LTTE indicates that they have no intention to sabotage the peace talks. At present they are trying to find out solutions within the ongoing Ceasefire Agreement. Questioned on the recent discussions with the Norwegian delegation and on certain media reports of a secret agreement, President Kumaratunga noted that there was no secrecy in her administration and categorically denied such agreement. Especially this news had been published in media institutions biased towards the opposition. Two thirds of the country's media institutions are directly supporting the opposition, she said. The President said the LTTE had suspended peace talks a full one year prior to the UPFA Government coming into power. After the UPFA assumed office, the LTTE expressed its view that it was willing to commence talks. However, they are yet to agree to peace talks. "The view of the LTTE is that the discussions should be based on ISGA proposals. But they have also stated that after they come for talks they are willing to discuss even Government proposals. Therefore the LTTE should announce this in public. Following the talks held in Oslo between the Government and the LTTE, the LTTE has accepted that the peace negotiations should be conducted within a unitary state and should be based on federalism. This clearly indicates that the Government was not in agreement to a separate state." She said the UPFA Government was not opposed to an Interim Self Governing Authority (ISGA). However this should be a subject for discussion. An ISGA structure should be created which can be accepted to both Government and the LTTE. Generally the LTTE has not expressed any opposition to this view. But they have stated that they only want to discuss the ISGA. The Government is ready to discuss these ISGA proposals but how this framework should be worked out has to be discussed.It is for this purpose that we should resume talks to reach a compromise. The President said the intention of the Government is to reach a lasting solution to this issue. The UPFA was formed after lengthy discussions with People's Alliance and the JVP. The JVP has also accepted that this problem should be settled through discussions and some kind of devolution of power should be the solution to this problem. Therefore peace talks should be commenced to decide on the structure and the nature of this devolution of power. President Kumaratunga referring to the Executive Presidential System said the need of the hour is to change the electoral system rather than the Executive presidential system. She said this kind of electoral system is not implemented in any country. In 1994, the People's Alliance won nearly 82 per cent of the electorates. According to these figures the PA would have had eight tenth majority in Parliament. But the PA had only one member majority in Parliament in terms of the current electoral system. Therefore the need of the hour is to first change this electoral system. The President also noted that if somebody wants to further retain the executive presidency, the powers of this office should be reduced. President said that she was a born democrat and came to power with people's vote and through her grit and determination.She had no intention of introducing her children into the dirty game of politics. "All our family members entered politics to serve the nation not to live on it. My dream is to end my political career as a backbencher in Parliament," she said. |
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