Chandrika blasts LTTE proposals

A wide debate over the counter proposals submitted by Tamil Tigers on establishing an Interim Self-Governing Authority (ISGA) has opened in Sri Lanka with President Chandrika Kumaratunga declaring that the proposals were beyond devolution.

The Marxist JVP (People's Liberation Front) has outrightly rejected the proposals and condemned the government for agreeing to discuss the call by the Tigers to offer wide powers to them including the powers to negotiate foreign loans.

Kumaratunga making her first public comments about the counter proposals announced by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) over the weekend said that though she accepted devolution, the proposals by the guerrillas were going beyond devolution.

Addressing a public meeting, the president said that she would not go into details of the proposals until the party experts studied the proposals and made their comments.

Kumaratunga said though she believed that power-sharing was the only remedy for the ethnic conflict it should not be a separate state (Eelam), which the guerrillas had been campaigning for earlier.

However the PA's main constituent party the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) is preparing to carry out a joint campaign with the JVP on the proposals.

Meanwhile, the influential Sri Lanka Muslim Congress party said yesterday it will meet later this week to consider how to safeguard the interests of Muslims in the northeast where Tiger rebels are inching closer to controlling a regional government.

The SLMC, which opposes any plan to give sweeping powers to Tamil rebels, holds 12 seats in the 225-member federal Parliament and is one of Premier Ranil Wickremesinghe's coalition partners.

ISLMC members of parliament plan to meet tomorrow, SLMC spokesman Rauf Hafiz said yesterdday. "This will be a very crucial meeting," said Hafiz.

The JVPhasslammed the UNF government for agreeing to discuss the so-called LTTE counter proposal. "It is not an interim arrangement," JVP General Secretary Tilvin Silva told a press conference in Colombo adding that it would definitely lead to the division of the country on ethnic lines. Silva said that his party was convinced that there is no point in even discussing the LTTE proposal which does not even mention de-commissioning of their arms.

The JVP's Parliamentary group leader, Wimal Weerawansa said the government's mishandling of the peace process gave the guerrillas strength.

The Sihala Urumaya (sinhala Heritage) party condemned the proposals claiming they were not presented as counter proposals but were seeking a temporary LTTE government.

Meanwhile the Tamil political parties welcomed the proposals as a further step in the negotiation process that would lead to a resumption of talks.