Leaders of all Tamil and Muslim political parties in Sri Lanka are in Zurich to attend a 3-day conference on finding a lasting political solution..!!

Tamil, Muslim party heads in Zurich to find solution

by Franklin R. Satyapalan

Leaders of all Tamil and Muslim political parties in Sri Lanka were in Zurich yesterday to attend a three-day conference on finding a lasting political solution to Sri Lanka’s ethnic conflict.

The conference, organised by the Tamil Information Centre (TRC), commenced yesterday (19) and will conclude tomorrow.

Representatives of the TNA, TULF, EPDP, CWC, UPF, DPF, PLOTE, TELO, ACRC, SLMC, TMVP, and EPRLF (both Naba and Varatha wings) participated.

The London based Tamil Information Centre, which was an alliance of Tamil militant groups, was founded in 1984 and had its head office in India. It became dysfunctional following the Indo-Lanka Agreement in 1987 and subsequently got amalgamated to the pro LTTE Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO). After the defeat of the LTTE it had been taken over by the Tamil Diaspora, Tamil political sources said.

Many senior ex-militants and representatives of the Tamil Diaspora had also been invited to the conference to discuss the present political scenario in Sri Lanka, sources said.

Tamil Diaspora representatives were scheduled to discuss with the Tamil and Muslim political parties from Sri Lanka how they could reach common ground for a political solution and the strategies the parties needed to adopt to function as a common pressure group, sources said

When contacted, the General Secretary of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC), M. T. Hassen Ali, MP, confirmed yesterday that Party Leader Rauff Hakeem, Chairman Basheer Cegu Dawood and SLMC Director for International Affairs M. Faiz had left for Zurich.

The main worry of the minority parties was that the President had called for elections without giving thought to the report of the All Party Representative Conference (APRC) which deliberated in 128 sittings, he said.

The Tamil National Alliance is represented at the conference by its Leader R. Sampanthan, General Secretary Mavai Senathirajah and Convener Suresh Premachandran.

EPDP leader Minister Douglas Devananda, too, has left for Zurich. Mano Ganesan, MP leader of the Democratic People’s Front is already in Zurich.

The Ceylon Workers Congress was represented by its Leader Minister Arumugam Thondaman and General Secretary and Deputy Minister Mutthu Sivalingham. The Upcountry People’s Front was represented by Minister P. Chandrasekeram, TULF by V. Ananda Sangari, National Unity Alliance by Minister Ferial Ashraff, and EPRLF (Varadha Wing) by R. Sritharan. The TMVP is represented by Eastern Province Chief Minister Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan, ACTC by Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, MP, TELO by Henry Mahendran, PLOTE by Dharmalingham Siddharthan and TELO (Sri Wing) by Keeran.

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