TNA's Southern campaign critical to peace- paper

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 September 2004, 09:29 GMT]
"The failure of the Tamil leadership during the last half a century to join forces with the progressive forces in the South has been one of the reasons why earlier attempts at a solution were not successful," said an editorial in Thinakkural, welcoming the formation of awareness and advocacy committees by the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) to conduct a campaign in the South of Sri Lanka on the importance of ISGA, and the aspirations of Tamils.

"We had pointed out in these columns that the old Tamil leadership had woefully failed to interact with the progressive forces in the south. Even the present TNA leadership has not departed from the approach adopted by the old leadership, and does not fully utilize the Parliament to air the aspirations of the Tamils," said the editorial.

Addressing the people of the South, the paper said, "It is imperative that the southern polity grasps the significance inherent in the realization by the LTTE that it is essential to explain Tamil aspirations amongst the rank-and-file Sinhalese in order to take forward the peace process."

LTTE Head of Political Wing S.P.Thamilchelvam and the Tamil National Alliance during a meeting 30 August decided to appoint three Committees to explain the aspirations of the Tamils to people in all parts of Sri Lanka and internationally.

One of the action Committees will target its campaign in the South among civil society groups and others to explain the just aspirations of the Tamils to counter the misleading propaganda launched by the JVP, the JHU and the Sinhala Buddhist nationalist hardliners.