Colombo: Sri Lanka`s main ethnic Tamil
party said on Saturday it is ready to accept regional self-rule
instead of total independence, which it had previously
demanded.
The Tamil National Alliance, which backed the
now-defeated Tamil Tiger rebels, says in its platform for
April 8 parliamentary elections that it is ready to accept a
"federal structure" in the north and east provinces with key
powers including over land, law and order, and finance. The
platform was released yesterday.
Since its inception in 2001, the alliance has acted
as a proxy for the separatist Tamil Tigers until their
military defeat by government forces last year in a 25-year
civil war for an independent state for ethnic minority Tamils.
Between 80,000 and 100,000 people were killed in the
fighting. Tamils have long complained of discrimination at the
hands of the island`s majority Sinhalese, but Sri Lankan
authorities have rejected any self-rule for them, saying it
would be a prelude to secession.
The alliance has 22 members in the outgoing 225-seat
Parliament. It has previously supported the separatist goal of
the Tigers, whose organisation disintegrated after their
battlefield defeat.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa called the April
parliamentary vote after winning re-election in January, in a
presidential vote called two years ahead of schedule, in an
apparent attempt to consolidate his political dominance.
PTI
