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By Sridhar Krishnaswami
"The process is moving forward and that's what matters," he said in reply to a question on dates and time-frames at the Woodrow Wilson International Centre here. Mr. Wickremesinghe said the LTTE is waiting until some modalities are out of the way by August 2 as per the Memorandum of Understanding. ``We have no problem with that," he remarked. On the issue of support to the LTTE from Tamil Nadu, he said the support from the people in Tamil Nadu, especially along the coastal areas, was more of a moral nature; but after the assassination of the former Prime Minister of India, Rajiv Gandhi, it became more a question of vocal support as opposed to arms or money. He said that in Tamil Nadu, it was "still a dominant political issue''. The visiting Prime Minister said all parties in his country had agreed to the lifting of the ban on the LTTE as something that had to be done prior to the talks. He stressed the need to create a proper environment for the talks. At the same time, he argued that a political solution alone cannot bring about long-term peace without economic development. Mr. Wickremesinghe dwelt on the causes of the ethnic crisis, both in his formal address and during the question and answer session. "A whole community was alienated by the injustices they felt and experienced. For two decades, the mainstream political parties were unable to resolve the issues affecting the Tamils. The Tamils tried a peaceful protest, which soon degenerated into violence. With the underlying grievances being unattended, the stage was set for terrorist groups to emerge. Whatever the causes, the reality became the LTTE," he remarked. He said that the pressure for a peaceful settlement was not politics-driven but came from the people; and the reason for optimism stemmed from a number of factors, the first of which being that the stakeholders in the peace process were "all citizens'' of the country. "Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims and others are, in a sense, shareholders in this national enterprise: dividends will be declared for all except for a few merchants of death who will be the only losers. Our people's yearning for peace is deep," he said.
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