• Sumanthiran says issues to be resolved by 4 Feb. remain unresolved
• Wigneswaran disappointed over lack of progress
• Mano Ganesan boycotts meeting

Following their participation at the all-party conference held at the Presidential Secretariat yesterday (26), Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Spokesman and Opposition MP President’s Counsel M.A. Sumanthiran said that issues that President Ranil Wickremesinghe promised would be resolved before 4 February are yet to be resolved, and Tamil Makkal Thesiya Kuttani (TMTK) Leader and Opposition MP C.V. Wigneswaran said that he is not satisfied with the progress so far, while Tamil Progressive Alliance (TPA) Leader and Samagi Jana Balawegaya Opposition MP Mano Ganesan boycotted the conference altogether.

Addressing the media, Sumanthiran said: “We expressed our dissatisfaction. However, he said that all these issues will be resolved in the future. He said that since the 13th Amendment is included in the Constitution, it would be implemented. He elaborated on the release of land.”

Sumanthiran claimed that all the relevant reports are available and that issues could therefore be resolved within a day.

Wigneswaran said that President Wickremesinghe had notified the conference participants that a report with regard to the issues discussed will be submitted to Parliament in early February. He said that the full implementation of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution was discussed, but that there was no indication of a merger of the North and East. 

He further noted: “I also submitted a document saying how our rights have already been usurped from us by the Central Government. Those which were usurped from us must be handed back to us and therefore, I gave a document to Wickremesinghe for him to go through. We are not quite satisfied with regard to the progress made so far.”

He also said that it had been mentioned by President Wickremesinghe that the commission, headed by Supreme Court Judge Justice A.H.M.D. Nawaz, to inquire into and propose recommendations based on the findings of previous commissions and committees concerning alleged human rights violations committed during the civil war, would go through all reports in the past including the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission report.

Meanwhile, the Tamil Progressive Alliance (TPA) did not attend the all-party conference. TPA Leader MP Mano Ganesan stated: “We have been repeatedly demanding President Wickremesinghe to conduct talks with us and all the hill-country Tamil political parties on the political aspirations of the hill-country Tamil community in his stated attempt to find solutions to the national question. We have specifically told him to nominate a high-powered committee chaired by him for this subject. However, apart from certain remarks made from public stages, President Wickremesinghe has not done anything official in this regard.”