Lankan Tamil leader asks India to take initiative

New Delhi, June 6 (UNI) A Sri Lankan Tamil leader has asked India to take the initiative to call for an international conference to explore ways to find a lasting solution to the island nation's ethnic conflict.

''This is necessary as the ongoing armed conflict has clearly demonstrated that the war is un-winnable by either side,'' Eelam National Democratic Liberation Front (ENDLF) president Gnanasekaran said in an open letter.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh should take the initiative to break the peace logjam in the island nation, he said and charged Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse with ''skilfully'' exploiting India's declared policy of non interference in the Sri Lankan crisis ''to carry on with his war designs''.

Suggesting the model of the 'Paris Peace Accord' for Cambodia, Mr Gnanasekaran said, ''as a nation closely involved in the Sri Lankan ethnic conflict, India should the initiate action to convene and chair such an international conference under the auspices of the United Nations''.

The criteria for invitation to Tamil groups for the conference should be acceptance of the Indo-Sri Lankan Peace Accord also known as the Rajiv-Jayawardane agreement. By this yardstick, the EPRLF, EROS, LTTE, PLOTE and TELO besides ENDLF would automatically qualify for an invitation as they had accepted the Accord.

Mr Gnanasekaran said the Lankan Government, representatives of the Lankan opposition and representatives of Muslims should be invited as other parties to the dialogue.

He pointed out that the peace efforts had made no headway since 1985 when India first brought the Tamil parties and groups and the Lankan government face to face for a dialogue in Thimpu in 1985. The Norwegian brokered deal of 2002 also has come unstuck with the two sides locked in an undeclared war, resulting in a humanitarian crisis with over half a million Tamils in North East Sri Lanka internally displaced.

UNI