ENDLF wants PM Singh to convene an international meet on SL
By M Rama Rao in New Delhi
New Delhi, 06 June (asiantribune.com): A Sri Lankan Tamil Group has asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to take the initiative to break the peace log jam in the Island nation charging President Rajapakse with ‘skilfully’ exploiting India’s declared policy of not interference in the Sri Lankan crisis ‘to carry on with his war designs’.
Suggesting the model of ‘Paris Peace Accord’ for Cambodia, the Tamil group, Eelam National Democratic Liberation Front (ENDLF), said India must call for an international conference to explore and find a lasting solution to the Sri Lankan conflict. This, it said, is necessary as ‘the ongoing armed conflict has clearly demonstrated that the war is un-winnable by either side’. Even United States officials have gone on record to say that there cannot be a military solution to the Sri Lankan conflict.
In an open appeal to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, ENDLF President Gnanasekaran, said “as a nation closely involved in the Sri Lankan ethnic conflict, India should initiate action to convene and chair such an international conference under the auspices of the United Nations”
The criteria for invitation to Tamil groups for the conference should be acceptance of Indo-Sri Lankan Peace Accord also known as Rajiv-Jayawardane agreement. By this yardstick, EPRLF, EROS, LTTE, PLOTE and TELO besides ENDLF will automatically qualify for the invitation as they had accepted the Indo-Sri Lankan Peace Accord.
Gnanasekaran said Sri Lankan Government, representatives of the Sri Lankan opposition and representatives of the Muslims should be invited as other parties to the dialogue.
At the outset, the ENDLF leader admitted that the backgrounds to the Cambodian conflict and Sri Lankan crisis are vastly different. He pointed out that participation of the parties directly involved in the conflict, along with member nations of the Security Council, ASEAN, Australia, Canada, India, and Japan, Laos and Vietnam and former Cambodia’s colonial power France helped reach a final settlement in Cambodia.
So, his suggestion is that Britain, Japan, Norway, EU and United States may be invited to participate in the international conference with India in chair and asked to guarantee the successful implementation of a comprehensive final settlement of the Sri Lankan ethnic conflict. As was the case in Cambodia and East Timor, United Nations should be asked to implement the final peace agreement.
He wants India to give a serious try to his suggestion saying that the peace efforts have not made no head way since 1985 when India first brought the Tamil parties and groups and Sri Lankan government face to face for a dialogue in Thimpu in 1985. The Norwegian brokered deal of 2002 also has come unstuck with the two sides locked in an undeclared war resulting in a humanitarian crisis with over half a million Tamils in North East Sri Lanka internally displaced.
ENDLF leader has criticised that India’s declared policy of not interfering directly in the Sri Lankan crisis is being skillfully used by President Rajapakse to carry on with his war designs.
ENDLF President Gnanasekaran also termed as charade the All Party Representative Committee (APC) set up by President Rajapakse to arrive at a Southern consensus on devolution. “It (APC) was a clever devise to avoid international pressure on the Rajapakse government”, he said claiming that the Sri Lankan politicians will not come up with a solution that will satisfy ‘the reasonable demands’ of the Tamils for devolution.
And added that the devolution proposals recently put forward by the ruling Sri Lanka Freedom Party is ‘further proof’ that President Rajapakse is ‘not genuinely’ interested in peace talks. He recalled that Colombo had abrogated Bandaranaike-Chelvanayagam Pact and various other agreements signed with moderate Tamil leaders in the past.
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