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UN investigation key to resolve Tamil question: Suresh Premachandran

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 February 2015, 22:47 GMT]
“Be it Ranil Wickramasinghe, Chandrika Kumaratunga, the new president Maithiripala Sirisena, or whoever it may be [in the South], they don't have a basic idea of how to resolve the Tamil national question, because they are always talking about a unitary constitution,” said Tamil National Alliance Spokesman Suresh Premachandran in an exclusive interview to TamilNet this week. In order to change the existing SL Constitution from unitary into a united form of government, one needs international leverage. That leverage is only possible through proceeding with international pressure in tandem with the regime change in tandem. Therefore, the much-anticipated OISL report should not be postponed, Mr Premachandran told TamilNet.

“Within the unitary constitution, you cannot resolve the Tamil national question,” Mr Premachandran said.

In the interview, the EPRLF leader has also admitted that he was not aware how the decision to back Maithiripala Sirisena was taken by a few in the “TNA leadership”.

He was also alluding that TNA's support to new regime should have been based on an explicit agreement before the elections with the Tamil demands to resolve the national question as well as the day-to-day problems based by the Tamils in the North-East.

Even though, Suresh Premachandran has been criticised for not being prepared to openly challenge the Colombo-centric elite of the ITAK, he has contradicted the Sampanthan polity on crucial issues.