Colombo, June 15 (newsin.asia): The political conflict in Sri Lanka’s Tamil majority Northern Province, which escalated dangerously on Thursday, appeared to be heading for a solution at the end of the day, with Chief Minister C.V.Wigneswaran and the leadership of the Tami National Alliance (TNA) reportedly going in for a compromise.
The compromise solution worked out by intermediaries is that the Chief Minister would take back the two ministers who he had sent on a month’ leave pending a fresh inquiry into allegations against them. The two ministers would continue in their job, but will go through a fresh inquiry as desired by the Chief Minister.
The inquiry commission which had gone into charges against all four members of the Board of Ministers, had exonerated P.Sathiyaligam and B.Deniswaran while indicting the other two. But still, Chief Minister Wigneswaran wanted the exonerated ministers to be investigated further on fresh charges, and had asked them to go on a month’s leave at least. The TNA’s leadership saw this as victimization and took preliminary steps to move a No Trust Motion against the Chief Minister.
Irked by the bid to move a no trust motion, which could have been carried with 21 out of 38 council members backing it, Chief Minister Wigneswaran activated his own outfit, the Tamil People’s Council (TPC), which announced a hartal for Friday, June 16.
Alarmed by the nasty turn of events, which might wreck Tamil unity, intermediaries swung into action and worked out a compromise formula in the hope that the leaders, at daggers drawn, will accept it in the larger interest of Tamil unity.
(The featured picture at the top shows Chief Minister Wigneswaran with TNA leader R.Sampanthan)