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“Presidential election is irrelevant to the Tamil people”

“Presidential election of Sri Lanka is totally irrelevant to the Tamil people at this juncture when they are frustrated with the unproductive Cease Fire Agreement and the denial of post-tsunami humanitarian aid in an equitable manner” said Mr.S.P.Tamilselvan, Head of the LTTE Political Wing in an interview with the media after meeting with Tamil National Alliance Legislators yesterday, 10 November 2005 at Kioinochchi.

Excerpts:

We met with the TNA legislators today and had a lengthy discussion on the current political situation. It was unanimously decided that the Tamil people make their own decision about participation in the election. Generally, the trend appears to be one of apathy towards the election for obvious reasons. Governments to which both the major contestants in the presidential election belong to, have been in power at one time or other during the cease fire period of three and a half years and their record of performance vis-à-vis progress in the peace process have been abject failure.

The Tamil people have historical lessons about every election that was held in this country and this presidential election is no exception in that respect. Ironically enough, both the parties are competing with each other in putting the hard line attitude before the electorate and whoever wins is therefore immaterial to the Tamil people. The outgoing president’s eleven year term could be described as the darketst period for the Tamil people. She began on a peace platform and duplicitly let loose a war on the Tamil people, calling it a ‘war for peace’, the peace tag for international consumption. It is during her regime that the Tamil people faced the most inhuman displacement overnight of more than 500,000 people, disappearance of over 600 youths who ended up in mass graves. It is her presidency that was responsible for the dissolution of parliament at a time the then government was preparing to take up the ISGA proposals for discussion as mandated by the Tamil people.

When it comes to the dellivery of peace dividend normalcy in terms of the CFA, the UNF government had its share of omissions and its leader, the UNP contestant for presidency now has hurt the feelings of the Tamil people by confining his visit to Jaffna only to the military complex in the High Security Zone and focussing his attention on prioritising military interests in the same way the SLFP candidate did. So, the Tamil people don’t see any difference between the two and it is the story of the devil and the deep sea. Responsible members of the UNP have now admitted that their government worked to create a division in the LTTE. Our position is that there is no division in the organization and it is only a disciplinary action against Karuna’s wrong doings that led to Karuna running away and working with the government military now.

In this complex situation, we don’t see a necessity to advise the Tamil people on the elections. They are preoccupied with their day–to-day life struggle in a post-war and post-tsunami situation and chanage of presidency in Colombo, judging from what the contenders promise to deliver, is totally irrelevant to them. On the question of international observers, if they visit areas that are not under military occupation, we would provide them all the support, if that is needed in any way. They can very well see for themselves the Tamil peoples’ enthusiasm or otherwise. Commenting on the media reports that Norway is planning to move away from the leadership position of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission, Mr.Tamilselvan said that it is only ‘media speculation’ and wishful thinking of extremist elements that are interested in the disruption of the peace process and continuity of the CFA. Reading the pulse of the people through the latest Tamil Uprisings, we feel that the Tamil people are so frustrated and lost faith in the Sri Lankan polity and therefore the presidential election would only be a non-event for them.”

11 November 2005

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