Sri Lanka: Tamil struggle will continue even if LTTE is defeated: Sampanthan

Thursday, 22 November 2007

The TNA in parliament on Tuesday accused the Mahinda Rajapakse government of not tabling any proposals to solve the ethnic problem and justify the war. Speaking on the first day of the committee stage debate of the Budget, TNA Leader R. Sampanthan said the Tamil people wanted self-rule in the areas of historical habitation of the Tamil speaking people in the North and East.

“But President Mahinda Rajapaksa was not honest in his approach to bring a political solution satisfying the aspiration of Tamils about self governance”, Mr. Sampanthan added.

The MP said that in 1983 the Defence expenditure was Rs. 1.7 billion, which has now risen to Rs. 166 billion.

He emphatically said that even if the government military can defeat the LTTE, the Tamil struggle would continue.

Referring to 1981 census that showed that 73 percent of Tamils lived in the North and East of the country, the TNA MP said that it was ‘worrying’ that President himself said now 54 percent of Tamils live outside the North-East.

Criticising government for huge allocation for defence sector, Mr. Sampanthan said that according to country’s GDP Defence expenditure ratio, Sri Lanka’s defence expenditure relatively higher than Sudan, Sierra Leone and Myanmar.

He said Sri Lanka is the most militarized state in South Asia with 8,000 forces personnel per 1 million civilians.

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R Sundaralingham said:

Rajapaksa is a is a big liar.As a matter of fact he has no intention of solving the ethnic problem.He has been saying for the last two years that an honourable political solution will be found.He has done nothing to take the peace process forward.He utters peace for internationl consumption.He talks about a political solution to hoodwink the donor countries.These donor countries believe him because they are decent countries who do not look at anything with suspicion. He appointed a committee two years ago to report to him with a set of devolution proposals that will satisfy the aspirations of the tamil people. This committee in my opinion was another of Rajapksas tricks to buy time to find a military solution to the tamil aspirations. This committee has become defunct and provided no answers to tamil demands for self rule. If only India had acted in sri lanka like Turkey in cyprus we wouldn't have this problem today. In my opinion a devolution package to satisfy the Tamils aspirations will never be offered by the sinhala government. Therefore Tamils have to explore every option to achieve self rule.

2007-11-22 21:49:51

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