Tamil parties from the north and the east have decided not to act individually or on party basis in government-initiated dialogues on constitutional formulation and matters relating to the ethnic issue.
Meeting in Colombo on 02 March under the auspices of the Tamil Lawyers Forum (TLF), they reached common ground that a federal constitution should allow for Tamils’ sovereignty and self-determination in order to find a lasting solution for them.
The Tamil parties decided to formulate a draft inclusive of basic aspects of a federal system of governance in order to reach social consensus among the Tamil and Sinhala communities.
Participants at the discussion were TNPF’s Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, secretary Selvraja Gajendran, ITAK secretary M.A. Sumanthiran, Sivagnanam Sridaran, Thurairasa Raviharan, TELO leader Selvam Addailakalanathan, secretary Govindan Karunakaran, media spokesman Suren Gurusamy and EPRL leader Suresh Premachandran.
The TLF coordinators of the event were K.S. Ratnavel, V. Puvidaran, Prof. S. Sarveshvaran, Suganthi Rajakulendra, V.S. Niranjan, G.K. Ranitha and M. Jude Dinesh.
The process initiated will be taken forward on several fronts, the TLF said.