LSSP lauds President's commitment to set up P-TOMS

The Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP) appreciates the commitment with which the President pursued the task of bringing the Post-Tsunami Operational Management Structure to successful conclusion.

She called the bluff of her Alliance partner the JVP and the Sihala Urumaya and found that the progressive forces and the organised working class stood by her on June 24 when on behalf the government she had the relevant Agreement signed and sent across to the LTTE, said a release by LSSP.

The LSSP is of the view that the Agreement has been drafted with skill and remarkable fairness to all communities in the tsunami affected areas of the northern and eastern coastal belt. The LSSP notes that the LTTE itself has been accommodating within the bounds of the Ceasefire Agreement.

The LTTE's unwillingness to allow any other political party to sign the P-TOMS Agreement is understandable.

The LSSP considers the P-TOMS Agreement as part of the Ceasefire arrangement and that it allows the GOSL to access such areas as have been conceded in the Ceasefire Agreement as "uncleared areas" which of course mean that they are under LTTE control.

The access gained by the GOSL through the P-TOMS agreement is for purposes of tsunami relief. There is nothing in the Agreement that precludes the GOSL from acting on its own and independent of the P-TOMS in bringing relief to the tsunami affected people in areas under its control. The P-TOMS applies only to the funds pledged by the Tsunami Relief group outside the country.

The Party has studied the misgivings of the Muslim political parties and finds that these are misplaced. The guiding principle in the P-TOMS is the equitable allocation of post-tsunami funds to all parts of Sri Lanka struck by the tsunami and is to be determined on accepted needs assessment.

It is a function of the District Committees in the P-TOMS to identify and prioritise the needs of each district and the Agreement provides that "Adequate Muslim representation shall be ensured" in these Committees.

It is only in the Regional Committee which co-ordinates the work of all six districts that the LTTE is entitled to five nominees and the Muslim parties to three. The GOSL has two members and any proposition that does injustice to any party can be vetoed by the GOSL and Muslim parties acting together. The nature of the decisions left to the Regional Council is very much of an administrative kind.

In the High Level Committee which is the top committee or the Apex Body the GOSL, LTTE and Muslim parties together have each a single representative. The LSSP considers these arrangements as adequate and workable with justice and fairness to all parties.

Such fanciful objections that the P-TOMS would enable the LTTE to build bunkers in the coastal belt of the cleared areas do not merit consideration. In these areas the security forces and the police are free to take necessary measures against such activity in accordance with the CFA which continues to be in force.