Tamils need a just political solution - TULF Leader
COLOMBO: No political solution will be acceptable to the LTTE, other
than a kingdom for Prabhakaran, while a fair and just solution within a
United Sri Lanka is the most urgent need to defeat the poisonous
separatist agenda put forward by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam,
emphasised V. Anandasangaree said V. Anandasangaree, President of the
Tamil United Liberation Front.
Anandasangaree said that a political solution with the unitary label,
where the State is not willing to recognise the other communities as
those with legitimate grounds of power sharing will only strengthen the
LTTE’s call for separation and give oxygen to a dying organization.
The TULF leader underlined, “I have steadfastly repeated that a
political solution to our country can be based on an Indian model. The
Indian constitution does not say federal or unitary, but has managed to
hold the country together for sixty years, and indeed India is
prospering.”
Given below are excerpts from the press statement released by
Anandasangaree:
We have lost too many of our leaders, our youths and ordinary people
from all communities to a conflict for which we all have to share some
blame.
If we can achieve peace and a political solution, and even if I may
not be able to enjoy that peace, I will nevertheless be grateful that
the youth and children of this country will grow up in a different Sri
Lanka where the nightmare of terror, violence and war will be behind
them and a dawn for a generation of Muslims, Sinhalese and Tamils to
live together and rebuild our country for the prosperity of all our
peoples.
I visited the Eastern Province recently to understand the predicament
of the people and I was saddened by the suffering of the people affected
by the war over the years.
The displaced and our children are living in abject poverty. I saw
the work of the government in rehabilitating the affected people, but it
will take years before normality returns. The people in the East need
our support so that they can return to normal life, be able to live
without fear and the communities can coexist with harmony.
The Eastern Province reflects the richness of our diversity, where
the Muslim, Sinhalese and Tamil people are living side by side, but that
diversity needs to be nurtured so that they care for each other as
brothers and sisters and will not be intimidated or threatened by each
other.
The people of the East no doubt, need economic reconstruction in
their Province. However, they need a political solution that is fair to
the Muslims, Sinhalese and Tamils, where all people will feel as equals
and not feel like a minority or majority in order to be successful in
reconstructing the East.
In my many travels as with my recent visit to Europe, I have always
expressed my confidence that the people of Sri Lanka can find a
political solution within a united Sri Lanka.
I have often debated with the Tamils in the Diaspora as I have done
within this country, that separatism is unacceptable. I always had
confidence that we as Tamils, Muslims and Sinhalese can find a solution
within a united Sri Lanka.
The LTTE of course continues to feed the Tamil people the poison of
ethnic exclusion and separatism. The LTTE tells the Tamil people, that
the Sinhalese will not give them anything, neither devolution nor power
sharing nor peace. The LTTE today is weak, militarily and politically.
What they fear most is their complete political defeat, when they can
not feed their political poison to the Tamils in the Diaspora and inside
Sri Lanka. No political solution will be acceptable to the LTTE, other
than a kingdom for Prabhakaran.
However, a political solution acceptable to the Tamil people where
they can live with dignity and feel secure and assured of their place as
an equal community side by side with the Muslim community and the
Sinhalese community will ensure the political defeat of the LTTE and its
bankrupt politics.
A fair and just political solution will convince the Tamil people not
only in this country but around the world that there is no need for the
tyranny and terror of the LTTE.
I have supported the APRC process and I have the highest regard for
the work of Prof. Tissa Vitharana who has been attempting to create a
consensus that can address the aspirations of all the peoples of Sri
Lanka.
However, I am seriously concerned about the recent reports in the
media that the proposals coming out of APRC could have the “unitary”
label.
The country needs to be fair by the Tamil and Muslim people, and
after all these decades of conflict, deaths, destruction, suffering and
debates about constitutionalism, the “unitary” state will not be
acceptable to the Tamil and Muslim people.
A political solution at the moment can achieve two things.
One, it can be a political defeat for the LTTE.Two, it can give the
Tamil people and the Muslim people the confidence of living together
with the Sinhalese community and rebuilding our country.
A “unitary solution will be a political defeat for those such as
myself that have been challenging the Tamil community to forget
separatism and come into the path of a united Sri Lanka. A unitary
solution will shatter the confidence of the Tamil people and the sense
of fairness they expect from the Sri Lankan State.
Any solution under a unitary constitution will be a half-baked one.
It will give room for further agitation in the future fuelled by the
remnants of the LTTEI may not live to see the day that any political
solution is implemented, but I hope the leaders of this country, the
leaders of all the political parties understand my humble plea. We need
a political solution urgently, but it has to be fair and just.
A unitary proposal will kill the hopes of those who have placed so
much faith in the APRC. A political solution that is just and fair on
the other hand will unite all the communities and will bring a new dawn
for peace.” |