Tamil parties call for swift action on national issue

COLOMBO: The leaders of three Tamil parties yesterday called for swift action to evolve a permanent solution to the conflict in the North-East.

TULF leader V. Anandasangaree, PLOTE leader D. Sidarthan and EPRLF (Pathmanabha) General Secretary T. Sritharan in a joint statement said the Government should give top priority to find a permanent solution, as desired by the Tamil people who respect democracy and are yearning for peace.

"We believe that it is only through the devolution of power that we can build up a united and prosperous Sri Lanka. "The people are so tired of the war which caused immense loss of life and massive destruction for the last 30 years," they said.

The statement said the TULF, EPRLF (Pathmanabha) and PLOTE had been working together for some time on this issue. They urged other parties to work together with them to achieve peace. It said: "The chairman of the all party representative committee appointed by the President, Prof. Tissa Vitharana had put forward certain basic proposals.

At the same time the President of the TULF V. Anandasangaree had been propagating the Indian model for a long time. The President of the PLOTE had appeared before the APRC and emphasised on a federal solution and the EPRLF (Pathmanabha) had submitted a detailed Proposal to the APRC.

The above proposals could find the basis to take forward the devolution process. In our opinion taking these as the basis for discussions will accelerate the finding a final solution. Every displaced person is keen to resettle peacefully in his/her respective place with a permanent solution found.

Radical constitutional changes should be made to devolve powers based on federalism. Even if the constitution is not termed as "Federal", the sprit of ti should be based on the Indian model which could be acceptable to all sections of the people.

Since a lot of controversies had been created in the merger of North-East, we wish to make our position clear. It is an undeniable fact that the people of North-East are the most affected, compared to the all the other part of the country.

We believe a reasonable solution could be found only within a merged North-East administration, because problems faced by the people of North-East, are more inter-related. This will also help to resettle all those who are displaced to their original places of residence, irrespective of the ethnicity or creed.

We insist, the security concerns, aspirations and the rights of the various communities should be guaranteed by constitutional provisions. There should be constitutional guarantee to enjoy equal rights by every citizen of this country.

Sri Lanka being a multi racial multi religious multi linguistic and multi cultural country all appointments and nominations to various government organisations and institutions both at the central and regional level should be made proportional to the population of each group. The same procedure should be adopted in the electoral reforms too."