The pro-LTTE Tamil National Alliance (TNA) on Monday rejected Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa's Independence Day call to join his campaign against the LTTE and help liberate the Tamil people from terrorism.
"If he was serious about seeking our cooperation in solving the Tamil problem, he should have, in the first place, invited us to the All Party Conference on the issue. But he had kept us out of it!" K Thurairatnasingham, TNA MP from Trincomalee told Hindustan Times.
The 22 member TNA group in the Sri Lankan parliament was the only parliamentary party not to have been invited to the APC. The reason was that it was but a proxy of the LTTE.
"If the President is really serious, he should talk to the LTTE. His Independence Day call to us was only meant to impress the international community," Thurairatnasingham said.
At the Independence Day reception on Sunday, Rajapaksa said that he wanted the TNA to join his government.
"Everybody is joining my government. Let the LTTE's proxies also come in," he said.
Recently, 33 opposition MPs had joined the government side.
