Tamil parties form committee to address ethnic issues

Colombo: To address issues faced by the Tamil minority in Sri Lanka, the Tamil National Alliance, a group of five Tamil parties of the country, has appointed a committee to formulate a draft proposal.

The three-member committee is to come out with a draft incorporating a basic solution to the ethnic issues, said Bishop Rayappu Joseph, the Bishop of Mannar in the north. The Bishop on Saturday met the senior leaders of the alliance to iron out differences over the registration of TNA as a political party. However the talks ended inconclusive. TNA, which is not a registered political party, has contested elections under the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchi (ITAK). At the meeting, MA Sumanthiran, a senior ITAK legislator was appointed to draft a memorandum of understanding to be signed by the constituent parties of the TNA. The next meeting of the leaders is to happen in the northern town of Vavuniya in the first week of June. TNA, long branded as a proxy of the LTTE, started talks with President Mahinda Rajapaksa to work out a solution to the ethnic problems. However, the talks were stalled in early 2012. Rajapaksa urges the main Tamil party to enter his Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) process to work out a lasting solution to the ethnic problem. But the TNA has dismissed the PSC as a time-wasting exercise. PTI