"Tamil party support needed for stable govt"-UNF minister

[TamilNet, Sunday, 15 February 2004, 16:38 GMT]
Senior minister in the United National Front (UNF) government, Dr.Rajitha Senaratne, addressing a meeting in Ratnapura Sunday said that no stable government could be formed after the forthcoming general election without the northeast Tamil parliamentarians and that the United National Party (UNP) is prepared to collaborate with the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) after the forthcoming general election, political sources said.

Meanwhile, the Sinhala nationalist Sihala Urumaya (SU) has written to the President Ms Chandrika Kumaratunge and Prime Minister Mr.Ranil Wickremasinghe not to obtain the support of Tamil parliamentarians if they failed to form a stable government on their own.

"The results of the forthcoming general election will not provide majority to any major political party to form a stable government. Utilizing this opportunity Tamil political parties would come forward to extend their support. The leaders of the major political parties should reject the support of Tamil parties without any question," said the SU in a letter to the Sri Lanka's President and Prime Minister.

SU in its letter further stated that Tamil parliamentarians have been working according to the direction of Tamil Tigers. As such obtaining support of the Tamil parliamentarians would help the LTTE to achieve its aim of creating a separate state in the island and this would destabilize the country and would be a threat to Sinhala-Buddhist society. To avoid such a situation, major political parties must obtain the support of minority Sinhala political parties, SU letter stated.