Professori - UNP, SLFP or JVP - the Sinhala supremacists remote-controlled by the Yellow Brigade from 1956 on will not allow anyone to devolve even minor power to the N-E. In their convoluted thinking any minor concession to the Tamils “is a knife in the heart of the Buddhist Sinhala physche” If you even foolishly believe the 13th Amendment will be the road to peace and national unity, ask yourself why CBK, in power from
1994 (except for abt 30 months in 2002-2004) did sweet nothing in giving life to this useul tool? Now she screams she and Vijay wanted to devolve power but the JVP and the Sinhala chauvinists destroyed the effort. Good man! Don’t you remember it took the “invited” arrival of a foreign army to ensure Tamils got their long due language rights.
Your team and your clueless leader are probably creating the conditions for another army to come in to give the Tamils their plundered Homeland. Don’t blame Gareth Evans, the R2P or Rama Mani for this. You are asking for it.

War, Peace, Talks, negotiations, agreements and then going back on what had already been agreed.

This was what was happening for the last 60 years since independence.

-Going on reinventing the wheel again and again!

There were signed agreements as well as gentlemen agreements. But what happened?
We went back each time without any shame.

Constitution is supposed to be the supreme law of the country.

But Constitutional Provisions. are also treated in a similar cavalier fashion

Constitution is also after all only a piece of paper.

Why the 13th Amendment,16th Amendment and the 17th Amendment were not implemented in letter and sprit and in full?.

APRC or no APRC,
The government should implement the above constitutional provisions.

Afterall there is consensus around 13th Amendment.

TNAshould lead in implementation.This is a challenge for the TNA.How long they are going to continue with their negative polices?

Let them lead a new path.

Could you unite Tamils ,Muslims and Sinhalese living in the North East around your leadership. Do you have leadership qualities?. If you could not unite the three communities around a common programme, then there is no solution. Give up all your activities and accept majoritarian agenda!

Rajiva should other articles posted in this forum to educate himself about the ethnic conflict.

Rajiva, By going along Mahinda Chinthanaya. you also have stained your hands with innocent civilian blood which is almost like river MahaWeli in SL.

Rajiva, please think about the average hoi polloi who are suffering due to sky rocketting COL on the one hand and the Tamil Ethnic Conflict that is bleeding this island on the other hand.

People aren’t sure whether they will get home alive after work.
It was your job to keep peace and make progress in the peace talks. SCOPP is yours but you are beating war drums just to make music to the ears of your masters.
You can twisr and spin the truth.
The fact is that 13th amendment and de-merger have spelt doom to this island.
IF Kosovo Independence is recognized widely so will the Eelam.
You will solely be responsible for the break up of the island nation,because you guys are blind and deaf.

Both sides just wanted a break to lick their wounds, train their troops and build up an even larger war inventory.

Whats the point in negotiating if you are not prepared to make any meaningful compromises? I never saw any evidence of either side ever being prepared to make a compromise that showed that they were prepared to conced to the other what they demanded for themselves. The govt. always wanted all the land to be under one Head of State (Inevitably a Sinhalese one) and the LTTE wanted to secure the entire North and East for themselves without giving any regard to Sinhalese, Moslem or Eastern Tamil land rights.

What a big joke!

CFA was not an agreement, but MOU between a political party, and a terrorist organization that facilitated by a foreign government with the blessing of another foreign government!

A. Rajasinghm you’re a genius.

A careful examination is vital as to why the LTTE was reluctant to negotiate. Clearly the 13th Amendment should have been the focal point of discussion. The 13th Amendment could have been refined when one sees the classification of Heads of Powers in the Canadian Constitution which gives prompt answers to every issues raised by the writer. The allegation of a fear that devolution could lead to a division of the country is absolutely baseless. Everything depends on who is representing in the Negotiating Team. What is required in a long time dispute is a break through. Negotiation involves technique of approaching in a friendly atmosphere because peace cannot be achieved overnight. It is a question of sending feelers to respond further to proceed with a vision of turning on to a new glorious chapter. Sri Lanka government was also in a hurry and short-sighted. Sri Lankans Negotiating Team had sufficient knowledge of international law and international relations and also in other fields and have been non-combatants, but they were in a hurry and short-sighted. People of the calibre of John Kennedy, Bill Clinton, G.Parthasarathy, Henry Kissinger are some men of recent times who have proved to be good negotiators. It takes time and patience. But the LTTE was keen to destroy all opposition to it amongst Tamils. It is up to the readers to assess whether the LTTE comprised men of such calibre. Neverthless, the Government was not steady with the implementation of the 13th Amendment.

The argument that a huge problem was created when the 13th Amendment was introduced because of the merger of the Northern and the Eastern Provinces was without any foundation. It is not the question that Chief Ministers were unable to use their powers and citing the instance of Mr Jayawickrema Perera in the North-west Province. This is only to justify that the North-East Province should be de-merged and appears to be a condition for providing adequate funds and powers. What is required is to have a vision with far-reaching thoughts which would promote harmony and economic development.

It was seen that rulers were reluctant to allocate adequate funds and powers for the smooth functioning of the North-East Province when other Provinces were allocated with adequate funds and powers. It was a step motherly treatment that was afforded to the North-East Province. This particular point was not thrashed out at the talks held during the CFA. Mention should be made that the LTTE should also be blamed for conspiring with Premadasa to send the IPKF instead of allowing the EPRLF to thrash out the loopholes in the implementation of the 13th Amendment because India was a Mediator which would have effectively enforced the implementation of the 13th Amendment. In a way the LTTE too contributed itself to weaken the implementation of the 13th Amendment.

Also, during the ceasefire the LTTE assasinated all the Inteligence officers exposed in the Aturugiriya incident.

They then demanded that the Govt to act against Karuna and his men and hand them over to the LTTE.

They insisted that the Govt yielded the North and the East to the LTTE under an interim governing authority PRIOR to the commencement of any negotiations.
They assasinated Kadirgamar
They shut off water to 20,000 farmer families in Mavil Aru.
They shelled the Trincomalee Naval base from Sampur
They attacked an overan Muttur.

It was THEN that the Govt. offensives began.