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It is unfortunate our friend REVY could not write Tamil.

Indian diplomat calls for Tamil autonomy

A former Indian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka and Canada, S.J.S. Chhatwal called for Tamil autonomy in Sri Lanka in a statement made to the Canadian press Monday.

Chhatwal was quoted in The Ottawa Citizen as saying 'Any solution of this problem would involve a degree of devolution of powers to fulfill the Tamil aspirations for autonomy. Such a solution cannot be worked out in a unitary form of government, as is the case at present in Sri Lanka.'

He said that while the Sinhalese government believed that a federal setup was a weak arrangement that would result in the breakup of the country, this had not been the case in other countries, small or big. 'The constituents of a federal system give strength to the centre, as can be seen in the case of Canada,' Chhatwal said.

Chhatwal pointed out that whenever a Sinhalese majority government had come up with a solution to the conflict the opposition Sinhalese party had opposed it.

'This shows that for peace, the essential first step will be that the Sinhalese majority arrive at a consensus on what level of autonomy they?re willing to give to the Tamils,' he said, adding that the degree of autonomy given to the Tamils needed to be meaningful and viable if it was to be acceptable to them.

He further said that any such accord needed to be guaranteed by a credible third party, given the history of accords signed between the government and Tamil leaders that had not been implemented at ground level. Chhatwal said the role could no longer be played by India following the conviction of LTTE Leader Vellupillai Pirapaharan in Indian courts for the assassination of Former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, and named Norway as a possible 'guarantor.'

'What is important is that the prevailing dangerous situation in Sri Lanka be contained and de-escalated. This becomes all the more necessary because the recent talks in Geneva between the Sri Lankan government and LTTE did not last more than a day and failed without even having touched on any substantive issues,' he stated.

- The Morning Leader

there was another member who was oozing with English (i forget his handle) and i refered to him as 'the one who was born into the toilet bowl of Queen Elizabeth...
i challenged him to right something in 'good Tamil', and never heard of him since then!
lolz.

'This shows that for peace, the essential first step will be that the Sinhalese majority arrive at a consensus on what level of autonomy they?re willing to give to the Tamils,' he said, adding that the degree of autonomy given to the Tamils needed to be meaningful and viable if it was to be acceptable to them.

AGP, I have never claimed otherwise, you can see several of my posts where I have asked others to translate for me, since I can't read or write Tamil, but you know I was not born in Sri Lanka right? No excuse I grant you and it is bad that I cannot do so.

however, it's a good sign that you realize it's bad, and hope you are working on it!

But overiding that is a federal system of states, I see no mention of that here, or even a will to go that route, without that as a minimum there is no hope for a political solution, the world has told the thick headed government just as much, but as I said they won't listen.

the most they will give us is a village headman and maybe a witch doctor too...

Revy,

A federal system will eventually lead to a seperate state. So, why would GoSL agree to that?

you already have both in VP and Gaja!