By IANS,
New Delhi : India Thursday underlined the need for an early political solution to Sri Lanka’s ethnic issue when External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna met MPs from the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), the main Tamil grouping in that country.
The TNA said it would consider joining a proposed parliamentary committee to find a political solution if the Mahinda Rajapaksa government ends “negativity” and gives a fresh assurance that they would not be “cheated again”.
Krishna met R. Sampanthan, who heads a seven-member TNA delegation, and pressed the need for an early political solution that will enable the Tamils to lead a life of dignity and equality, said official sources.
The TNA MPs told Krishna that Tamils in Sri Lanka should be given an opportunity to lead a “dignified life” and there should be no attempt to “cheat them again”, said well-placed sources.
“If we get assurances that we will not be cheated again and that our people will not be deceived again, we are ready to walk towards the path of finding a (political) solution. The negativity has to be removed,” Sampanthan told reporters.
“If the PSC has the intention of thrashing out a solution and has an agenda for (arriving at a political solution), we are ready to consider it. But we are not ready to get cheated again,” he replied, when asked whether the TNA was ready to join the Parliamentary Select Committee.
Although Sri Lanka crushed the Tamil Tigers in May 2009, ending a quarter century of armed conflict, tensions have simmered over what the TNA says is Colombo’s refusal to provide autonomy to Tamil areas.
The TNA, once allied to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), is the biggest Tamil group in the Sri Lankan parliament.