Treat tsunami rehabilitation joint mechanism as a pre-condition: CPSL

COMMUNIST PARTY of Sri Lanka (CPSL) General Secretary D. E. W. Gunasekera, yesterday announced optimum cooperation of their party for the common mechanism on the post-tsunami rehabilitation activities in the North and East proposed by the Government.

Announcing this consensus on the part of their party, Gunasekera in a release set out five basic factors which the CPSL considered to come to this conclusion.

The media release detailing the factors considered by the CPSL said: The tsunami catastrophe proved itself to be the worst tragedy that came upon the North and East inhabitants who were already battered by the ravages of two decades of war.

The majority of the tsunami victims belonged to the two minority communities, Tamil and Muslim. The affected area was reckoned to be the "poor belt" of Sri Lanka.

The North is populated predominantly by the Tamils while the Eastern Province has a multi-racial population shared by all the three communities more or less on equal proportions.

The three communities live suspicious of each other solely due to the war conditions that overran them throughout two decades. The larger part of the North and East is under Government control while a few areas are under LTTE control.

The Government wields military and administrative authority over the areas controlled by the Government, but the political power often remains either with the LTTE or with Muslim or Tamil parties.

Therefore, the diversity of ethnic, religious, cultural and political concepts are deep rooted. In spite of the existing ceasefire, a condition of cold war, complexity, confusion and conflict prevails.

It is the responsibility of the Government to see that no injustice or discrimination is caused to the innocent and helpless poor people devastated by the tsunami.

The CPSL is never prepared to acknowledge the LTTE as the sole representative of the Tamil people. But LTTE is the only party at war. Therefore it is imperative basically to discuss any issue with them for solution.

This is the reality we have to acknowledge. Under these circumstances, we must not treat the tsunami rehabilitation joint mechanism as a problem but as a precondition to forge ahead the initiation of discussions for a lasting peace.