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TULF leader’s points to ponder

In a very thought-provoking observation, veteran politician and TULF leader V. Anandasangaree has said that only the present Government could find a solution to the country’s conflict. There is no doubt that the TULF leader has found President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s approach to resolving the issue, highly inspirational.

This is hardly surprising because President Rajapaksa has chosen the advisable course of consulting every significant political party and force in the country for the formulation of a solution.

The concrete proof that this process is taking hold is the All Party Conference mechanism. This will enable the emergence of a broad-based solution to the conflict. We call on the Tamil National Alliance too to be party to this process because nothing could be gained by adopting a destructive attitude to President Rajapaksa’s approach to problem-solving.

All efforts at finding a solution have foundered so far because no meaningful attempt was made by the administrations concerned to consult all significant sections of Lankan opinion. However, the Mahinda Rajapaksa administration is a government that is off the beaten track.

The administration has within its fold almost every significant strand of Southern opinion.

Therefore, the Government is best placed to arrive at that hitherto elusive Southern consensus which most governments of the past strove so hard to find.

If the Government works out a solution that meets the legitimate aspirations of the Tamil people, the UNP would also be compelled to throw its weight behind the settlement because it too is for a peaceful settlement that addresses legitimate minority aspirations.

Therefore, the Mahinda Rajapaksa administration is best positioned to resolve our long-festering conflict and we urge it to take the necessary measures to jump start the peace process.

Some thought should be given to Anandasangaree’s suggestion that a broad-based solution, backed by the world community, be put to the Tigers. The latter would find it difficult to reject out of hand such a consensual formula.

Equally thought-provoking is Anandasangaree’s upholding of the Indian model for emulation. Given India’s strong secular foundation, discrimination among citizens on religious and ethnic grounds is out of the question and this is a healthy feature which all democratic states need to adopt.

That a Sikh is today the Prime Minister of India and a Muslim its President, speaks volumes for India’s rich democratic heritage. Such accommodation, tolerance and equality is the basis of ethnic peace.

Anandasangaree’s contention that Lanka is one, united country which cannot be divided, should also be considered.

Left to themselves the communities of Sri Lanka interact amicably and care for each other. It is divisive forces such as the LTTE which have sowed the poison of division among some.

Such thoughts should remind us that the time is ripe for stepped-up people-to-people interaction among the communities. This process too could help in defeating separatism.

Lanka seeks a political solution based on human rights

Excerpts of a speech made by Mahinda Samarasinghe Minister of Disaster Management and Human rights at the inaugural session of the UN Human Rights Council held in Geneva. " Today is a historic day for all those who have worked relentlessly during the past several years to make the UN human rights machinery more responsive, accountable and able to heed the voices and sentiments of the countless numbers of the aggrieved more effectively and to act more decisively...

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Illegal arms and UN reform

"Guns do not kill people. Bullets do," and bullets are available in abundance for those who want them. So freely available is this lethal "cargo" that every human on earth at present could be easily shot twice with the bullets thus at hand.

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Palm Court: Time to think positively on reactivating peace effort

THE timely visit of President Mahinda Rajapaksa to the massacre site at Kebitigollewa not only consoled the families of 64 innocent civilians including children and women who were killed in the claymore explosion but also eased the tension in the country as the Head of State was making the directives from Kebitigollewa to strengthen the security to prevent any backlash.

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Mervyn de Silva’s 7th death anniversary falls today:  Literature, politics and criticism

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