International
TNA expects peace talks soon
By Nirupama Subramanian
COLOMBO, DEC. 8. The Tamil National Alliance (TNA), which contested the election on a pro-LTTE platform, and won 15 seats in north-eastern Sri Lanka, said today it expected the new Government to begin peace talks with the LTTE in a few weeks.
``This is what the UNP promised. We expect the Sinhala nation to do the right thing by the Tamil nation after 53 years of Independence,'' said Mr. R. Sampanthan, general secretary of the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF), the main constituent of the TNA.
The UNP promised peace talks with the LTTE preceded by a ceasefire and the lifting of the economic embargo in rebel-held areas.
The TNA won 12 seats in the three districts of Jaffna, Vanni and Batticaloa, which it won, and one seat each in Trincomalee and Ampara. It routed the pro-Kumaratunga Government Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP), which managed only two seats in Jaffna.
The People's Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE), which did not win any seats in the last election, managed one seat this time from Vavuniya.
The TNA emerged as the fourth largest political grouping in Parliament, just one seat behind the 16 won by the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna.
Though it was expected that the TNA might play kingmaker, the UNP-led United National Front, which is four seats short of a simple majority in Parliament, is likely to forge an alliance with the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) to make up the numbers required to form the government.
This might leave the TNA with little or no influence on the new government. But Mr. Sampanthan denied the party was looking for a leverage, and said it was the duty of the UNP to commence peace talks with the LTTE with international third party assistance.
``We expect the peace talks to begin within a few weeks,'' he said, underlining that the LTTE should be the only party to the negotiations.
``There should be no parallel talks with any other party,'' Mr. Sampanthan emphasised, voicing the TNA line that the LTTE would be the sole representative of the Tamil people at the negotiating table.
The senior TULF leader, who won in Trincomalee district with the largest number of preferential votes polled by any of the TNA candidates in the north-east, said he was confident that the LTTE would come forward for negotiations.
``The LTTE has expressed its willingness to come for peace talks. We have no reason to be diffident on that count,'' he said.
The LTTE, which is widely expected to lay down the line for the new Tamil parliamentarians elected under the TNA banner, has not yet commented on the UNP victory.
But the LTTE's top representative in London, Mr. Anton Balasingham, said a few days before the election, that even if the UNP won the election, there was little possibility of peace talks because Parliament would be in constant conflict with the President, Ms. Chandrika Kumaratunga.
Before peace talks could begin, Mr. Sampanthan said the TNA wanted an immediate stoppage of the war, an end to the agony and misery of the Tamil people, the lifting of the embargo on essential goods in LTTE-held areas, a removal of restrictions on travel and residence of Tamils and a removal of the ban on the LTTE.
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