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No joint mechanism with LTTE: JVP
Lanka Govt had proposed this for post-tsunami rehabilitation work in North East, reports PK Balachanddran.
The Sinhala-nationalist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) has said that it will not support any joint mechanism or structure involving the LTTE, for post-tsunami rehabilitation and reconstruction work in the Tamil-speaking North East of Sri Lanka.
A spokesman of the JVP, which is a key member of Sri Lanka's ruling coalition, said that giving financial and administrative powers to an armed rebel group, would not accord with the constitution of the country.
The JVP would not accept it even if it was only a temporary arrangement, he clarified.
The government of Sri Lanka had proposed a joint mechanism comprising representatives of the government and the LTTE to handle the funds and implement post-tsunami rehabilitation schemes in the North East.
The LTTE has also created problems for the government.
The LTTE does not want Sri Lankan officials in any administrative structure that may be set up to do rehabilitation work in the Tamil-speaking North East Province.
This was stated by the LTTE's chief negotiator, Anton Balasingham, in an interview to The Sunday Leader.
Balasingham described the departments, which the government was planning to involve in rehabilitation work in the North East as "defunct bureaucracies."
While the LTTE wanted a "simple mechanism", the government wanted to bring in all the state structures, including the treasury, the various ministries, the provincial councils, a conglomeration of defunct bureaucracies, he said.
Balasingham admitted that the LTTE wanted a majority in the structure at the provincial level, but it did not want domination.
All that the LTTE wanted to ensure was that the global response to the calamity in Sri Lanka was adequately addressed, he said.
