Court ruling adds fuel to Sri Lanka chauvinism- Sampanthan

[TamilNet, Saturday, 16 July 2005, 19:36 GMT]
"Sri Lanka's Supreme Court's ruling on the P-TOMS is not a challenge to Tamil people but to the two main political parties, Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and United National Party (UNP). The ruling ia a boost to the chauvinist forces that insist on the continuation of the unitary constitution and would like to see the P-TOMS abrogated," said Mr.R.Sampanthan, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentary group leader addressing members of the Trincomalee branch of Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) Saturday morning in his residence, sources said.

Mr.K.Thurairatnasingham, Trincomalee district parliamentarian presided.

The Supreme Court judgement has effectively blocked the implementation of the P-TOMS. Tamil people face continued darkness and realize that international assistance to recover from tsunami is not likely to reach them, Mr.Sampanthan said.

There was some optimism as Tamil people looked forward to P-TOMS as a structure to rehabilitate and reconstruct the tsunami destroyed coastal villages in the northeast province. It has again been proved beyond doubt that Sri Lanka's unitary constitution will always be used by the chauvinists to derail any just settlement to the Tamil national question, said Mr.Sampanthan.

Despite Chief Justice's pronouncement earlier that the Court will not "unnecessarily intervene in national matters," Friday's ruling exposed the limitations of Sri Lanka's Supreme Court in handling issues of National importance. Unless Sinhala leaders seek extra-constitutional means to resolve Tamil National question, or indeed any issue that deals with fair and equitable sharing of Sri Lanka's resources with Tamil people, these attempts will end in failure, said Sampanthan.

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