Talk only to LTTE -Anandasangaree tells Sri Lanka President
[TamilNet, Saturday, 31 January 2004, 14:57 GMT]
Mr. V. Anandasangaree, the President of the Tamil United Liberation Front met President Chandrika Kumaratunga Friday evening and impressed upon her that the Sri Lankan government should talk only to the Liberation Tigers and not simultaneously with any other Tamil group, according to a press note issued by the controversial Jaffna MP Saturday. “My view that ‘what is acceptable to the LTTE will be acceptable to the Tamils also’ seems to have impressed the President who had seen the reasonableness in my suggestions”, Mr. Anandasangaree said.
TULF branches in the northeast have called for Mr. Anandasangaree’s resignation since last year on the grounds that he has been acting contrary to the political interests of the Tamils in the northeast. The TULF President said he had pointed out to the President that the defence cooperation with India would be looked upon with suspicion and had suggested that it be postponed. She had agreed to consider his suggestion, according to Mr. Anandasangaree. “To my request not to dispense with the services of the Norwegians in the peace process, the President agreed and further said she had no intention to do so”, he said. The TULF President states that he had urged the President to give her fullest co-operation to restart the peace process. He says that he requested her to release Tamil political prisoners on Sri Lanka’s Independence Day. Mr. Anandasangaree said he had raised the issue of the Sri Lankan armed forces’ high security zones in the north. He had told the President that the people displaced by these zones should be allowed to resettle in their homes. The President had responded that she would call for reports regarding each garrison to study the matter, according to the TULF President. The meeting took place at the President’s House in Colombo from 6.30 p.m. to 8 p.m. Friday.
|