Editorial comment in the news bulletin - July 2004 of the LTTE Peace Secretariat
CFA between the Government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE is 30 months old now. Suffice to say, it has well exceeded the various time limits envisaged in it to bring about normalcy in the lives of the people living in the military occupied NorthEast. Normalcy, the most important among the dividends of peace, has not dawned on the people who are now, pathetically though, called Internally Displaced Persons, still languishing in refugee camps, welfare centers and with relatives and friends.
Six rounds of peace Talks and the establishment of the various sub-committees notwithstanding, the immediate humanitarian needs relating to resettlement, rehabilitation and reconstruction still remain unfulfilled. The government coming out with proposals mostly in a unilateral manner and setting up mechanism to implement them has almost become a routine bureaucratic exercise, producing no tangible result. Lack of political will and sincerity of purpose on the part of the ruling elite still continue as the most obstinate impediment in meeting the needs of the people.
Conscious of the urgency of humanitarian needs and respecting the mandate given by the Tamil People in the NorthEast, exercising their franchise in the last general election, the LTTE formulated the proposals for an Interim Self Governing Authority (ISGA) and expressed unambiguously their readiness to recommence negotiations on the basis of the proposal.
For the recommencement of peace talks therefore, the onus is on the government to fulfill its obligations relating to the CFA and then LTTE is in readiness to re-commence negotiations firstly on the basis of the ISGA proposals, for they focus mainly on the delivery of peace dividends without which the Tamil people cannot become stakeholders in the peace process.
E-version of the news bulletin - July 2004 of the LTTE Peace Secretariat issued monthly can be accessed through the following link.  PDF version
13 August 2004
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Europe which has a total population of 800 million is made up of 45 language based nation states. South Asia which has a total population of one billion, (1000 million) is comprised of four states. Who is preventing and therefore benefiting by limiting new nation-states in South Asia?
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