Reiterating its commitment to continuing the talks aimed at arriving at an amicable political solution for the Tamils in Sri Lanka, the Tamil National Alliance has urged the government “to honour the mutual agreement reached and not to place new impediments to achieving an acceptable political solution that is desired by all the peoples of Sri Lanka”.
TNA leader R. Sampanthan said on Saturday in Colombo after the talks resumed in November and as per modalities agreed upon and confirmed in the minutes, it was “agreed that the bilateral talks between the government delegation and the TNA would continue and the consensus arrived at would be placed before the proposed Select Committee of Parliament. The TNA reiterates that its nomination to the PSC must await substantial consensus being reached at the bilateral talks, as was agreed.”
Outlining the manner in which the talks proceeded after resumption on November 16, he said parties identified the issues to be discussed and agreed upon evolving a political solution. The parties agreed on the specific order in which these issues were to be discussed and for this purpose, scheduled four meetings — on December 1, 6, 14, and 15. A timetable setting out these dates and issues was also circulated.
At the first of these meetings held on December 1, Minister of External Affairs G.L. Peiris indicated that without the TNA nominating its representatives to constitute the proposed Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC), the bilateral talks could not progress as previously agreed, said Mr. Sampanthan.
When the TNA reminded the government of the commitment already made, it requested time to deliberate and consequently a new meeting was scheduled for December 3
Since the government-TNA talks began on January 10 this year, about 10 meetings have been held.
On August 4, the TNA walked out of the meeting, saying that no meaningful and purposeful dialogue could commence as the government had not responded to the TNA's comprehensive proposals and that no purpose would be served by fixing a further date for talks unless and until the government made its response available.
