Thondaman raises questions on alliance call

[TamilNet, Thursday, 29 January 2004, 13:15 GMT]
Arumugam Thondaman, Leader of Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC), responding to Minister Chandrasekaran's call to form a national alliance with NorthEast Tamil parties, said that there are fundamental questions related to the need for such alliance, local media in Jaffna reported.

During discussions with Head of LTTE's Political Wing, Mr.S.P.Thamilchelvan, Mr.Chandrasekaran mooted the idea of forming a national alliance of Tamil parties. Talking to the press after this meeting, Mr.Chandrasekaran said that Mr.Thamilchelvan asked him to work towards bringing the hill country Tamil parties together.

Mr.Chandrasekaran, sent out invitations to hill country leaders for discussions on forming an alliance of Tamil parties.

Thondaman further said in his reply to Chandrasekaran's invitation for talks, "during the last local council elections when we requested you to join the Trade Unions, Civil groups and Hill Country parties to form an Alliance of Tamils of Indian Origin, you declined our invitation.

"You have mentioned creating new history. Historical alliance has already taken place in 1976 when the late Saumiamoorthy Thondaman, S.J.V.Chelvanayakam and G.G.Ponnambalam joined hands to form the Tamils United Liberation Front (TULF).

"When the demand for a separate state was put forward by the TULF, the Ceylon Workers Congress removed itself from the alliance. CWC feared that this demand will be detrimental to hill country Tamils future.

"Further, in the last parliamentary elections we co-operated with you and offered you a candidacy in place of one of our parliamentarians. We wish to point out to you that you went your separate way after the elections were over," said Mr.Thondaman in his reply rejecting Chandrasekaran's call, media sources reported.