TNA will not join APRC-Sampanthan

Main Tamil constituent of the Sri Lankan Parliament- the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) will not join the All Party Representative Committee (APRC) as it has lost its direction to find a final solution to the country’s decade old ethnic conflict.

“Although the APRC initially offered hope it has now lost its credibility. It engaged in rather constructive activity, until proposals were formulated by the multi-ethnic expert panel,” TNA Trincomalee District Parliamentarian and General Secretary TNA R. Sampanthan told The Bottom Line.

“However with the main opposition parties- the United National Party and the Jantha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) abandoning the APRC, it has got into a right royal mess,” Sampanthan said.

“Furthermore the situation worsened with the SLFP submitting its own proposals and it came out stating that the 17th Amendment needs to be implemented fully. So now it has lost credibility and does not inspire trust,” he said.

“Although it offered hope at first, everything got back 50 years when the APRC was thrust with the notion that a final solution must come under a unitary system,” he said.

“The TNA has always been willing to engage in dialogue and it has previously done so with several governments,” Sampanthan said.

“However it is up to President Mahinda Rajapaksa to invite us. He basically left the TNA out from the APRC, when he stated that he wanted to create a consensus in the south first,” he said.