Colombo, Feb 11: The Ceylon Workers' Congress (CWC), a major trade union and a political party which represents the Tamils of Indian origin in Sri Lanka, today said it would support the ruling United National Front (Unf) in the forthcoming general elections. ''We feel that the UNF should come back to continue the peace process with the LTTE to end the national ethnic crisis. We will support them during the forthcoming general election, scheduled to be held on April 2, to help achieve lasting peace and economic stability in the country,'' R Yogarajan, Deputy leader of the CWC, told reporters here. Ruling out the possibility of supporting the newly-formed alliance between President Chandrika Kumaratunga's People's Alliance (PA) and the radical Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), Yogarajan said the new alliance did not have a clear agreement on the peace process and ''are holding divergent views on the resolution of the ethnic question''. ''The UNF has functioned well during the past two years and have made steady progress in the peace process. Therefore, we feel we should support the UNF to meet the aspirations of the people,'' he said. The CWC, led by Minister Arumugan Thondaman, had three seats in the just dissolved 225-member parliament.

The CWC represents the people of Indian origin, who are the backbone of the country's labour force of the plantation industry, the main income sector of the island nation.

Last year, it helped resolve the prolonged citizenship issue of the people of Indian origin.

Rejecting the call for the formation of a grand Tamil Party alliance together with the north-east based Tamil Parties, Yogarajan said the problems of the of the north-east were different.

''The problems of the people in the north-east are a national issue, while the people of Indian origin face administrative problem. If we join an alliance of the north-east-based Tamil parties, the problems of the Indian origin people would be overshadowed as priority would be given to resolve the north-east national crisis,'' he said.

Meanwhile, N Putrasigamany, a former pa member of parliament, today joined the CWC.

Bureau Report