"Sri Lanka's President sabotaged the Peace Process" - Selvam

[TamilNet, Saturday, 27 March 2004, 16:23 GMT]
"The take over of the defense ministry by the President had been well planned to sabotage the peace talks between the UNF government and LTTE," said Mr.Selvam Adaikalanathan, former Member of Parliament and the lead candidate of the Tamil National Alliance in the Vavuniya electoral district addressing an election rally at Orr's Hill in Trincomalee Friday.

"The verdict of the Tamil people of Trincomalee in the forthcoming general election should prove that the Trincomalee district is an important segment of their traditional homeland," Mr. Adaikalanathan further said.

He added that President Ms Chandrika Kumaratunge dissolved the parliament at a time when the United National Front government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam were about to begin talks on the basis of the Interim Self-Governing Authority (ISGA) for the northeast province. The takeover of ministries by Ms.Kumaratunge was planned to sabotage this, he said.

The future peace talks would take place on two conditions with any government that comes to power in the forthcoming general election. The first condition is to recognize the LTTE as the sole representative of the Tamil people and the second is that any future negotiations should be based the ISGA which was submitted by the LTTE after comprehensive study, Mr.Selvam Adaikalanathan said.

Strengthening the TNA as a deciding factor in the country's politics is in the hands of Tamil voters. Tamils in the northeast province should cast their votes taking into consideration the sacrifice made by tens of thousands of LTTE martyrs in the two-decade-old war, Mr.Selvam Adaikalanathan said.