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LTTE wants to form separate state: People's Alliance

Sri Lanka's main opposition People's Alliance on Friday voiced concerns over the growing power of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam on the ground and at the negotiating table.

The party also lashed out at the government for raising the group's stature in the eyes of the world by its decision to take the LTTE to an aid-raising conference later in November.

"We are in a situation where the LTTE is taking steps in the north and east to set up a parallel government not responsible to the central government. It will lead to a separate state," former foreign minister Lakshman Kadirgamar told reporters in Colombo.

Kadirgamar, who is also President Chandrika Kumaratunga's adviser on international affairs, said, "We think that these talks are helping the LTTE only."

He said the People's Alliance was disturbed by the impending accommodation of the LTTE on a level of parity with the government of Sri Lanka at the forthcoming pledging conference in Oslo on November 25.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and LTTE chief negotiator Anton Balasingham are due to make a joint appeal to representatives of many governments, including the United States and Britain, for funds to rebuild north and east Sri Lanka.

The People's Alliance released a long statement about its concern over the direction of the peace initiative, highlighting the lack of any provision envisaging decommissioning of arms held by the rebels and parading of its standing army, navy, law courts, police stations, and other institutions.

The continued abduction of children for compulsory military service, extortion of money in the form of 'tax', and rapid expansion of its armed forces stand at unprecedented levels today, the alliance said.

Kadirgamar said that unless corrective steps were taken immediately, Sri Lanka would reach a situation of permanent irreversibility on the ground. He appealed to the ruling United National Front to pay heed to the voice of the opposition.

The alliance also accused Norway of enlarging its own facilitation role. "It is no longer impartial. The Norwegian government seems more concerned with arranging an outcome of the talks that will be a success for the UNF and the LTTE rather than with the long-term interests of Sri Lanka and its people."

It demanded that the LTTE make a public declaration of renouncing violence and the use of threats as a condition for continuing the talks, and that the talks include decommissioning of arms as an indispensable part of the negotiation. It also demanded a thorough revision of the ceasefire agreement.

The alliance also said that the government's policy of keeping it out of decision-making until the final settlement comes up before Parliament was 'short-sighted'. "If it means that only the government and the LTTE have a right to pursue the process until the matter comes to Parliament, it is certain that the cooperation of the opposition and the rest of the country won't be there," its leaders warned.

PTI

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