The Hindu : No deal with LTTE without people's consent: Ranil

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, May 14, 2002

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No deal with LTTE without people's consent: Ranil

By Nirupama Subramanian

COLOMBO May 13. Seeking to allay Sinhalese fears over a proposed LTTE-run "interim administration" in northeast Sri Lanka, the Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, has said that his Government would first seek Parliament's approval for it.

Mr. Wickremesinghe, who was addressing Buddhist monks in the southern town of Matara during the weekend, said he could not enter into a deal with the LTTE by himself and that it would first have to go through Parliament and have to be ratified by the people.

He made these remarks a day after a protest by hundreds of Buddhist monks in the capital against the proposed interim administration on the grounds that it would lead to division of the country. The President, Chandrika Kumaratunga, has also opposed the setting-up of an interim council without first reaching a permanent solution to the conflict. Her Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), the main constituent of the People's Alliance coalition, and the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, have been agitating against the proposal.

Mr. Wickremesinghe said that no deal had been struck with the LTTE on the proposal and that it would be discussed only at the peace talks to be held in Bangkok. He reiterated that there was no move by the Government to accept the LTTE demand for a Tamil homeland. "We are only prepared to accept a one homeland concept for everybody in this country," he said.

Stressing that the efforts taken by his Government represented the last chance for peace, he said that the LTTE had finally been brought into the framework of a peace process and that it was crucial to keep it there.

Mr. Wickremesinghe, who leaves on a private visit to India on June 8, is expected to meet the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, and the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa, to brief them about the peace process ahead of the talks, which might be held later that month.

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