TULF, PLOTE, EPRLF reject SLFP proposals

COLOMBO: Three mainstream Tamil political parties yesterday expressed disappointment with the proposals put forward by the SLFP on devolution.

The TULF, EPRLF and PLOTE said they were thoroughly disappointed with the proposals of the SLFP, as one that will not meet the aspirations of the Tamil people adding that they rejected it totally. Instead of taking the peace process forward, it has made it difficult to find a reasonable solution, the parties said in a joint statement signed by TULF President V. Anandasangaree, PLOTE President, D. Sithadthan and EPRLF General Secretary T. Sritharan.

Furthermore being the ruling party's proposal that should form the guideline to a solution it had made even the proposals of the other parties irrelevant. The statement adds: The powers to be devolved under the SLFP proposals are not even coming closer to the powers vested in the Provincial Council formed under the 13th Amendment to the Constitution it said.

Fifty years of agitation by the Tamil speaking people to win their rights, has brought them back to square one. After so much of loss of life and destruction to properties and having failed to find a solution under a unitary system, the Tamils will not accept any solution less than one under a Federal constitution, the statement concluded.