Tigers instrumental for closing A-9 - Minister Devananda

COLOMBO: The need of the hour for the LTTE is to cooperate with the Government in every respect and honour the conditions laid down by it, and allowing hassle free use of the A9 if it is opened, EPDP leader Minister Douglas Devananda said yesterday.

Failure to do so will be another indelible ugly scar in the history of LTTE and the pre-condition laid down by the LTTE delegation has been done with the ulterior motive of fetching in monetary advantages to their own gang rather than to the well-being of the people, Devananda said.

"On the other hand the standing of the government genuinely reflects its concern for the general public but at the same time aiming deprivation of the Tigers' of their longing for financial build up at the expense of the people," he said.

Devananda said: "Talks between the Government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE, should necessarily be taken forward to a successful completion for dawning of honourable peace in this land of ours. This has been the sincere hope and wish of every well meaning person who wish this country well.

This is the wish of the International Community too, similarly it's the wish of the government and the EPDP as well. Yet the Sri Lankan Government and we, the EPDP have no faith whatsoever in the LTTE.

However, like many previous rounds of talks, the Geneva talks held today too have miserably failed, which smacks of a craftily manoeuvred strategy by the LTTE. The LTTE who have been instrumental for closing the A9, demanded that it be reopened at the talks, thereby setting a pre-condition for future talks.

According to the Tigers the Governments disagreement to reopen the A9 was the cause for indecisive discontinuance of the talks. This negative and evil designed course of action is ample proof that the LTTE is not least concerned about peace that is long sought-after for the well-being of the Tamil speaking people of this country.

We are all aware that the Government opened the A9 route in the past for the common good of the people of Jaffna and for those in the rest of the island at large. The initiative though was of relief to the general public, the real beneficiaries were the Tigers, who cashed on the opportunity with recourse to unconscionable levies and other forms of extortions for enriching their coffers.

Harassments to road commuters happened to be a common feature of theirs in collecting these illegal impositions. In spite of these immense obstructers, people still travelled to and from Jaffna. The A9 also served the purpose of transporting medicine and other essential requirements of the people of Jaffna.

Tiger Leadership launching attacks, flaunted that he would take full control of the entire peninsula within a period, as short as 4 days, this caused the eruption of the ongoing war which never has been to the liking of the Tamil people. Under such a volatile war climate the Government was forced to close the A9 for retaliatory measures for defence.

It is to be conceded that the closure of the A9 has caused severe hardships to people from all walks of life, but the effect, the A9 closure has, on the terror group is thousand folds more than what is experienced by the people - being deprived of millions and millions of rupees plundered from innocent civilians, so, who really has caused this plight to the Northerners?. This question now needs to be socked in between the eyes of Prabhakaran for evading to accept responsibility for the "crisis" created.

It is nothing but the power greediness of the LTTE for taking control of the peninsula to their hands and thereafter disseminating their power in the entire North for collection of arbitrary illegal levies from the residents which no doubt would surpass those from the A9, has caused the emergence of this catastrophic situation.

The LTTE at the Geneva deliberations laid down the pre-condition that they would not participate in the future talks if the A9 was not opened.

The Government in response to this statement has explicitly proclaimed its standing, that if the Tigers' wanted the A9 opened they should forthwith stop all forms of Terrorism, Intimidations, Attacks on the people, Undertake to allow free movement of goods and people and give the assurance that they would not impose illegal levies that would tantamount to extortion and plundering.

We, the EPDP leave before the International Community and the entire Sri Lankan citizenry to decide whose standing is right ? Whether, it's the standing of the Sri Lankan Government or that of the Tigers' for untying this Gordian knot.

Transport and supply of essential items are only day to day problems that the people are confronted with. The armed struggle that has been resorted to by the Tigers, as they claim, has been for winning the political rights of the people, the cropping up of day to day problems, is a resultant of the war waged.

As such the Tiger delegation should have tabled political solutions aimed at putting an end to the ongoing war which would automatically wipe out the day to day problems of the people.

Without treading a path arriving at a political solution to the national issue and getting involved in finding out solutions to the day to day problems is something similar to chopping leaves and branches of a tree and leaving it with its roots and stem.

We, the EPDP urge the LTTE to act sensibly, honourably and responsibly to bring solace to all the people in this country."