IF INTERIM RULE PROPOSAL NOT ACCEPTED ALL INTERNATIONAL AID TO SRI LANKA SHOULD BE STOPPED SAYS R. SAMPANTHAN
By Walter Jayawardhana reporting from Los Angeles
May 17, 05.45AM: The proxy political party of the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka told the Japanese government that if the Sri Lankan government did not accept a proposal by the separatist rebels in Sri Lanka, that had been called a blue print for a future separate state, all international aid to Sri Lanka should be stopped.
While President Chandrika Kumaratunga’s government has openly indicated that it would not accept the proposal of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to grant an interim administration as an initial step for a peace process the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), the proxy political party of the Tigers in the parliament requested the visiting Japanese government special envoy Yasusi Akashi to stop all international aid to Sri Lanka if the government refused to accept the proposal.
The LTTE and the TNA are openly insisting that the interim self-governing authority, to be run by the LTTE, should be established for the Eastern and Northern Provinces of the island nation, to proceed with the peace process.
TNA leader R. Sampanthan said that during a meeting with the Japanese Special envoy with a TNA delegation, he told Akashi that all international aid to the whole of Sri Lanka should be stopped if the Sri Lanka government rejected to accept the LTTE proposal to hand over the administration of the Eastern and Northern areas of Sri Lanka that would also give them control of two thirds of the maritime coastal belt of Sri Lanka.
During a visit to the United States addressing an audience at the Brooklyn Institute, Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar said last week, “However the interim Self Governing Authority (ISGA) proposal on the face of it will be very difficult for a sovereign government to accept. It has no reference to a parliament, claims a separate Auditor General and demands 200 mile maritime zone along two thirds of Sri Lanka’s coast It is a blue print for a future separate state.”
R. Sampanthan said that the TNA had an hour-long discussion with the visiting Japanese envoy and the government of Sri Lanka should accept the interim self governing authority of the Tamil Tigers without any delay He said the delay to accept the proposal would simply make the people to lose confidence in the peace process. He said accepting the proposal could be called the handing over the provinces to the Tamil people.
But by ‘Tamil people’, the TNA only means the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. If accepted, the proposal would eliminate multi-party politics in the areas and establish a one party rule, contrary to the constitution of Sri Lanka.
