PLOTE, EPDP dissatisfied with PA-UNP plan

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 12 July 2000, 15:23 GMT]
The People's Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE) and the Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP) that met representatives of the Sri Lankan government Wednesday said that they could not accept the referendum to determine the continuation of the northeastern province as one unit and the powers relating to state land in the constitutional reform proposals agreed upon by the People's Alliance and the United National Party. The President was not present at the meeting Sri Lankan government sources said.

The PLOTE and EPDP told the government that aspects of the nature of the state as proposed in the PA-UNP agreement were not satisfactory. They however welcomed the fact that the term 'unitary' had been dropped with regard to the structure of the state.

The government delegation had pointed out to the EPDP and the PLOTE that the aspects of the PA-UNP agreement they were critical of had been proposed by the UNP.

The PLOTE and EPDP leader had therefore suggested that there should be tripartite talks between the government, UNP and the Tamil parties to obviate such problems.

Sources said that the absence of the President at today's meeting was viewed by sources close to the EPDP and PLOTE leaders as not being favourable to the standing and role of the two groups in the current processes to end the war and find an acceptable solution to the Tamil question.

Dharmalingam Sidarthan, the leader of the PLOTE, and Douglas Devanada, the leader of the EPDP took part in the discussions with the government delegation which comprised Prof. G.L Pieris Minister for Justice and Constitutional Affairs, Indika Gunawardena, Minister for Urban Development, Housing and Construction and Batti Weerakoon Minister for Science and Technology.