UNP proposes 'no confidence' motion

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 10 June 1998, 23:59 GMT]
The Parliamentary Committee of the main Sri Lankan opposition party, the United National Party (UNP), which met in Colombo today decided to propose a motion no-confidence against the Sri Lankan Government.

The UNP members accused the government for trying to use it's military campaign against the LTTE to gather political support for the forthcoming Provincial Council elections.

Meanwhile, the leaders of four minority parties in the Sri Lankan Parliament established a forum today with a view to starting a dialogue between the Liberation Tigers and the Sri Lankan government said political sources in Colombo.

The leader of the Ceylon Workers Congress, Mr. S. Thondaman, the general secretary of the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) Mr. R. Sampanthan, the leader of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress, M.H.M Ashraff and the leader of the Democratic People's Liberation Front (DPLF) Mr. Dharmalingam Sitharthan held discussions in Sri Lanka's Parliament complex today in connection with the preliminary arrangements for setting up the forum and deciding its agenda.

It was agreed at the meeting that the Sri Lankan government should negotiate with the Liberation Tigers for finding a solution to the ethnic conflict. The parties also decided to urge both the government and the Liberation Tigers to agree upon negotiations through the mediation of a third party, if such a need were to arise.

SLMC leader MHM Ashraff stressed the need to discuss with the other Tamil parties matters on which his party had reached an understanding with the TULF including the question of the south-eastern regional council.

Tamil political sources in Colombo said that Eelam People's Democratic Party leader Douglas Devananda was not invited for the discussion today as he is not agreeable to the concept of the south-eastern Muslim Council demanded by the SLMC.

However, they said that the CWC leader is expected to discuss with Douglas Devananda the position of the forum and the issues which were considered at today's meeting.

A Colombo based Tamil political analyst said that it is significant that the SLMC has agreed with the other main Tamil parties that there should be a dialogue with the Liberation Tigers to solve the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka.