LTTE urged to bring upcountry parties together

[TamilNet, Sunday, 26 October 2003, 12:26 GMT]
“The Liberation Tigers should help bring together the Up Country People’s front (UPF) and the Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC). All the Tamil speaking people of Sri Lanka should be united”, said Mr. P. Chandrasekeran MP, Minister for Social Development, speaking to the press after meeting Mr. S. P Thamilchelvan, the head of the Tigers’ political division, for a briefing and discussion on the LTTE’s Interim Administration proposal Sunday.

The minister, a former strongman of the CWC, said that the political aspirations of the Tamil people should be explained to the Singhalese and that their support for a solution should be secured. (CWC is the largest Tamil plantation based party in Sri Lanka)

“Mr. Thamilchelvan accepted our position that the Tamil people of the upcountry should be part of a final settlement to the conflict”, Mr. Chandrasekeran told media persons outside the LTTE’s peace secretariat in Kilinochchi.

Mr. P. Radhakrishnan MP and officials of the UPF accompanied the minister.

Following his meeting with the UPF, Mr. Thamilchelvan met Mr. Mano Ganesan, the leader of the Western Province People’s Front, a party based among Tamils living in the island’s west coast, particularly in Colombo’s crowded business hub.

“We have been a party that emphasised the principles that Tamil people are a nation, that the northeast is the Tamils’ homeland and that they have the right to self determination”, said Mr. Ganesan, speaking to the press after the meeting.

He emphasised the need to explain to the Sinhala people the reasons for establishing an interim administration for the northeast.