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TNA stays away from all-party meet

COLOMBO: The pro-LTTE Tamil National Alliance (TNA) stayed away from an all-party meeting convened by Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Thursday.

Hours before the meeting, in a letter addressed to Mr. Rajapaksa, the TNA said priority must be given to resolution of the humanitarian crisis before it assumed catastrophic proportions and that any political discussion must follow such resolution.

Sources in the government maintained that by not taking part in the meeting convened by the President, the TNA had missed an opportunity to put forth its viewpoint on the prevailing situation in the north and the ethnic conflict.

“The President extended the invitation in good faith. The negative attitude of the TNA would not deter the President from continuing his efforts to generate consensus on a political solution to the ethnic conflict,” said a senior official.

The TNA letter said: “Since you have hitherto consistently followed a policy of ignoring the TNA in regard to all political issues in the north-east, we are glad that you now wish to engage in discussions with us, recognising, even though belatedly, that we represent the Tamil people”.

“We will extend our cooperation to any credible political process that seeks to evolve an adequate, acceptable and durable political solution to the Tamil question. We would strongly urge that you take necessary steps to address forthwith the grave humanitarian crisis pertaining to the displaced Tamil civilian population,” it added.

The invitation to the TNA is the first after the abrogation of the Norwegian-brokered 2002 Cease Fire Agreement (CFA) in January 2008 and imposition of a ban on the Tigers in January this year.

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