The Hindu : Ranil asks LTTE to discuss 'interim council'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jun 20, 2003

International

International

Ranil asks LTTE to discuss 'interim council'

By V.S. Sambandan

COLOMBO JUNE 19. In yet another attempt to jump-start the stalled peace process, the Sri Lankan Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, today called upon the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to hold discussions on an ``interim administrative council''.

The Prime Minister said the interim administrative council would be formed ``in consultation with the Tigers'' and would ``also protect the interests of all communities,'' a Sinhala language text of his speech on television tonight said.

Laying the onus of resolving the crisis on the Tigers, Mr. Wickremesinghe said: ``to resolve the present crisis and enter into peace talks is the responsibility of the Tigers''.

``I am confident the LTTE will honour the responsibility''.

This is the first time in the recent peace process that the Government has called upon the Tigers to discuss an ``interim administrative council''.

In May, the LTTE's political wing leader, S.P. Tamilchelvan, wanted Colombo to give not ``just guarantees'' but a ``workable mechanism'' if it were to resume talks.

Today's offer by Mr. Wickremesinghe is the latest in a string of proposals Colombo had made since the LTTE unilaterally pulled out of talks on April 21. The Tigers subsequently demanded a ``politico-administrative'' interim structure, outside the island's unitary constitution, as proposed by its leadership.

On the issue of spending the monies pledged in the recent donors' conference in Tokyo, the Prime Minister said, the amount earmarked for the reconstruction of the northeast would be spent only on that region.

Neither the details of the LTTE's demand nor those of the Prime Minister's broad offer today are known yet. Initially Colombo had offered a ``provisional administrative mechanism'' for the development of the northeast, which the Tigers turned down as inadequate.

The Government had recently spelt out the idea of special commissioners and district development committees and hoped for a response from the Tigers. The LTTE's reaction is not yet known, but it was broadly along the lines of a development body, which the Tigers were not keen on accepting.

EPRLF leader cremated

Meanwhile, the body of the slain EPRLF leader, T. Subathiran, was cremated at the general cemetery in the city today. Senior leaders from several Tamil and Sinhalese parliamentary parties and the comrades of the killed leader were among those who recalled the services rendered by

Subathiran, to maintain the democratic traditions in the north and east.

The body of Subathiran, flown in from Jaffna where he was killed on Saturday by an ``unidentified sniper'', was draped in the red and yellow flag of the EPRLF of which he was a member since 1983.

While speakers at the funeral oration recalled the services by Subathiran in resisting the LTTE, a

world-wide appeal was also sent out by political parties urging the international community, the Sri Lankan President and the Prime Minister ``to take all legitimate and necessary measures to prevent the terror of the LTTE aimed at silencing the voice of reason and dignity.''

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