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India can help speed up solution to Sri Lankan Tamil problem - Minister Douglas Devanada
Tuesday, 6 February 2007 - 3:44 PM SL Time |  | |
India, with its long links with Sri Lanka and its familiarity with and better understanding of the political and ethnic complexities in the island nation, can help speed up a final settlement of the Tamil problem, says K.N. Douglas Devananda, Colombo`s minister for social service and social welfare.
Referring to the Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa`s invitation to the Tiger rebels to resume direct peace negotiations, stalled in October, Devananda appealed to India to `strengthen his (Rajapaksa`s) hand by solidly supporting Colombo`s `sincere efforts`.` He was talking to the `Asian Tribune` at his hotel room in New Delhi soon after returning from an Independence Day reception at the Sri Lankan High Commission here. He is expected to be in the Indian capital for a few more days to continue his efforts to persuade India to play `a more pro-active` role in the Sri Lankan peace process.
Asked, how India can help, he said, `By widening its efforts` but declined to spell out what those efforts are. Pressed further, he said that India knew them best. `Those (in India) familiar with the Tamil issue know them well. What is required is will and determination.` Pressed for elaboration, the Tamil minister in Rajapaksa`s government said that he would prefer to `leave at that.`
Devananda, chief of the Eelam People`s Democratic Party (EPDP) and one of the only three Tamils in Rajapaksa`s cabinet, came to the Indian capital a few days ago mainly to attend yesterday`s seminar on the Sri Lankan Tamil issue organised by the Indian Council for International Cooperation. India`s former external affairs minister Yashwant Sinha, former foreign secretary Shashank, Janata Party leader Subramaniam Swamy, former diplomat N.N. Jha, and S.C. Chandrahasan, who heads a NGO looking after the welfare of Sri Lankan Tamil refugees in India, were among those who took part in the meeting.
He recalled that even at the seminar on `Sri Lanka Quest for Peace,` he had reminded that India which played a major role in bringing a solution to the ethnic problem in Sri Lanka before the assassination of former Prime Minister Sri Rajiv Gandhi should facilitate this peace process and help to end human sufferings in the neighbouring Island. `India can no longer be an observer for the continued violence.`
`I am sure the Indian government can help in a significant way to speed up the peace process. Our president Rajapaksa is extremely sincere in solving this problem at the earliest and in building a new Sri Lanka,` he said |
Source(s)
| Achilles | New Delhi, 05 February, (Asaintribune.com) | From R.C. Rajamani ? Political Editor Asian Tribune | Asian Tribune | |
Achilles
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6 Feb 2007 09:46:28 GMT Report for Abuse
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Question: What is LTTE?s stand on the solution? Will it give up its demand for a Tamil Eelam?
Douglas Devananda: I don?t think Prabhakaran has changed his stand for a separate Independent state of Tamil Eelam. He will not change even in the future. The LTTE simply wants to establish a fascist state in the North-East of Sri Lanka. Its strategy is to take control of the whole of the North- East using the Ceasefire Agreement, and to revert to war when the Agreement ceases to benefit it.
Question: Though there are different groups, including your own EPDP, representing the Tamils in Lanka, negotiations have been held only with LTTE?
Douglas Devananda: That?s the problem. LTTE is not the only stake holder. There are others and genuine stake-holders to the issue. All stake holders should take part in initiatives for a permanent solution to the conflict. There can not be any sole representative to any community.
Imposing the LTTE as the sole representative to establish its hegemony over the Tamil community by the facilitators and ignoring the atrocities and the injustices meted out by the LTTE to the Tamil community and to the alternate Tamil political parties have not only made the ceasefire agreement a miserable failure but is also against the principles of democratic norms. It also has caused immense hardships to the entire Tamil community including deaths disappearances and unprecedented starvation after the break down of the so called ceasefire agreement.
Question: Do you agree that LTTE is a stake-holder?
Douglas Devananda: The LTTE which claims to be the sole representative of the Tamil community has never cared about the sufferings of the Tamils. In fact, they have contributed extensively to the sufferings of the Tamils by their overt and covert actions. Even the recent starvation of the Tamils in the North and East is caused by the LTTE. The LTTE has threatened all the traders not to carry on with their business activities and even attacked the ships that carry essential items to the war torn Jaffna. And all this because one man called Prabakharan. He is a menace to mankind.
Question: Has the situation on the food supply to Jaffna improved?
Douglas Devananda: Yes in recent days the situation has improved.
Question: The Tamil problem has eluded a solution for too long. What in your opinion should be right formula?
Douglas Devananda: Yes, I have also spoken about it at the seminar. We have presented a three stage solution - that, while meeting the legitimate aspirations of the Tamil speaking people, will also have the support of all the communities in Sri Lanka.
The first stage is to implement the 13th Amendment, which was the outcome of the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord, to the constitution in full in the North-East province. North East Provincial Council can be activated by giving political leadership to the existing administrative mechanism in the region.
The second stage is to reinforce the 13th Amendment by conferring additional powers on the North and East Provincial Council to make them centres of greater authority. This can be achieved by amalgamating the subjects in the concurrent list with the Provincial Council which can be achieved within the Constitutional arrangements.
The third stage would be, with the consensus reached among all the political parties in the APRC and with the LTTE, to arrive at a lasting final political solution. If we implement the above two stages, the whole country will move towards the final solution. At this stage, the LTTE too will be forced to accept a peaceful political solution.
Here, I wish to say a few words on the bond that had existed between India and Sri Lanka for millennia. The two countries are bound by geography, history, culture, religions and languages. It was this bond that compelled India to intervene in Sri Lanka in 1983. It is this same bond that now calls upon India to play a positive role to finding a lasting solution to the ethnic problem of Sri Lanka.
India which played a major role in bringing a solution to the ethnic problem in Sri Lanka before the assassination of former Prime Minister Sri Rajiv Gandhi should facilitate this peace process and help to end human sufferings in the neighbouring Island. India can no longer be an observer for the continued violence.
Question: Did you meet any Indian leaders during your current visit. Did you express your opinion on the best way to find a solution to the Tamil issue?
Douglas Devananda : I have already met the national security adviser MK Narayanan and the foreign secretary Mr KPS Menon. I have spoken my mind to them.
Question: Are you going to meet political leaders, the prime minister and the others.
Douglas Devananda : I am here for a few days more. I will certainly tell you in good time. |
Parasuram
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6 Feb 2007 11:09:35 GMT Report for Abuse
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Our power hungry democratic Douglas is telling us the truth and only the truth.
You could not spare the life of the decent journalists, BBC Nimalarajan, Sivaram Tarakki and Jaffna daily Uthayan, because they were telling the truth that you and your EPDP thugs are the curse to the decent educated Tamil people.
May the almighty God save the human society from the inhumans. |
DVLADV
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10 Feb 2007 01:16:01 GMT Report for Abuse
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He is concerned about wealth than power. He wants to show gosl that he is their man as long as he is given a ministry that he could drill.
This is another guy who has made a fortune of Tamils misery. Did the reporter as him whether he too had any idea of buying some ships? |
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