UNP rejects council, urges talks on ISGA

[TamilNet, Monday, 27 September 2004, 07:30 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s main opposition this weekend declined to join President Chandrika Kumaratunga’s ruling alliance in a ‘National Advisory Council’ on the Norwegian backed peace process, instead urging the government to resume talks with the Liberation Tigers on the basis of the latter’s interim administration proposals.

The United National Party (UNP) said the way forward to end the deadlock in the peace process was to start direct negotiations, echoing the position of Sri Lanka’s largest Tamil party, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA).

The UNP turned down a request by President Kumaratunga to join a ‘National Advisory Council’, saying such a consultative body would be useful only after Colombo and the Tigers made progress towards a final deal.

“I would urge your excellency to commence talks with the LTTE,” UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe said in a letter to the President, a copy of which was released to news agencies Sunday.

The letter was in response to following an invitation extended by Kumaratunga to attend the meeting on October 4 at the Presidential Secretariat.

“When the discussions get underway and substantive issues arise, the establishment of a National Advisory Council for peace and reconciliation will be timely and productive and my party will be eager to participate vigorously in the deliberations of the proposed council at that time.”

The President had proposed the council to seek opinion from all political parties on conducting talks with the Liberation Tigers.

The UNP had Friday called on Kumaratunga to postpone the inaugural meeting of the advisory council until such time peace talks with the LTTE resume on the basis of the Interim Self Governing Authority (ISGA) proposals of the latter, reported the Sunday Leader.

The UNP decided it will not oppose the formation of the council but would participate in it provided it is established after talks resume with the LTTE.

"There is no point in putting the cart before the horse and we do not want to be a party to the President's delaying tactics, which is dangerously comprising the peace process," a senior UNP member told The Sunday Leader.

UNP spokesman G.L. Peiris told a local television station that UNP would not be a party to the council. "Our stand is that the government must sort out its internal contradictions. We will extend our support when the process recommenced and the main issues are taken up," Peiris, who was the previous government's chief peace negotiator with the LTTE , said.

Peiris saw the move as a time buying exercise by the government in view of the contradictory positions of the government's coalition partners on the revival of the peace talks.

The UNP two weeks ago had reiterated its stand that the future talks between the UPFA and the Liberation Tigers should commence on the basis of the ISGA.

Peiris said his party would support the UPFA government if it commenced peace talks based on the LTTE's ISGA. Any peace talks between the government and the LTTE should be within the framework of Oslo and Tokyo accords, he added.

Meanwhile, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) also wrote to President Kumaratunga Friday rejecting the setting up of the council.

Senior TNA representative, Joseph Pararajasingham, told reporters last week: “This [Council] is a delaying tactic and we want the government to start the peace negotiations as soon as possible."

President Kumaratunga's United People's Freedom Alliance, which is mainly a coalition between her Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP)and the Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), captured power in April when it toppled the UNP lead government after she dissolved Parliament three years ahead of scheduled elections.

However, the government has been unable to resume peace negotiations and prices of food items, cooking gas, fuel and transport costs have risen sharply.

The JVP continues to vehemently oppose negotiating with the LTTE on the basis of the ISGA and has threatened to bring down the UPFA government is this happens.

The difficulties of resolving the differences between the SLFP and the JVP compelled Kumaratunga to resign as head of the UPFA shortly after it came to power.

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