Political consensus emerging for peace, says Devananda

Nadira Gunatilleke

COLOMBO: The All Party Representative Committee (APRC) will solve the ethnic problem successfully because all the parties truly want to find a solution, Social Service and Social Welfare Minister Douglas Devananda said yesterday.

"In the past no party had a real urge to solve the ethnic problem and that is why all former All Party Conferences failed. But the present APRC will be successful as all parties want a solution," the Minister told the Daily News.

Prabhakaran will never enter the democratic mainstream and the only way to defeat terrorism is to eliminate him, the Minister added.

"We have no faith in him. He will continue fighting and perish through his own terrorism."

"Each and every Sri Lankan should support the Government without any political or other bias to eliminate the LTTE and provide a practical and permanent solution to the problem of Tamil speaking people of Sri Lanka. This is my request to all political parties," the Minister said.

Minister Devananda said the LTTE's problems are very different from those of the Tamil community. The problems of the LTTE are related to terrorism and the problems of the Tamil speaking community are related to their political rights. The problem drags on because the LTTE does not like or want democracy.

The Minister stressed that the international community should clearly understand the problem in Sri Lanka. Unfortunately, they look at the problems as they exist in other countries.

"Some NGOs create a very inaccurate picture in the minds of the international community on Sri Lanka because they have hidden agendas.

"Due to this situation the International community has a very shaky policy on Sri Lanka," he said.