Our External Affairs Ministry source in confidence stated that following hard talks in the sidelines, the government had won a major concession from the TNA to proceed with the structured talks on the issue.
The hard talks have taken place between the TNA’s Ira Sambanthan, Mavai Senathirajah, M. Sumanthiran and Suresh Premachandran and on the government side a team headed by MP Sajin de Vass Gunawardane.
The government is said to have stood firm that TNA give up any campaign or claim on war crimes by the government in the final assault against the LTTE in April/May 2009 to engage in talks on political resolution to the conclict.
TNA was also put under pressure not to appear before the Lesson Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) to present their case on war crimes and issues involving political resolution to the conflict.
Widely claimed TNA’s position to appear before the LLRC for record purposes too was given up as a result of the pressure put on by the government.
According to our source, the government in return for TNA’s agreement has assured the TNA that they can have unrestricted and fairly open discussion on the political resolution.
The TNA was also asked not to criticise the government on any issues in a public way and a passage was created for them through the External Affairs and Defence Ministries to deal with the government amicably.
As part of the concession, the government made available to the TNA a lot of information with regard to the resettlement of people in the High Security Zones (HSZ) in the North and Sampur, political prisoners and ex LTTE combatants held in rehabilitation centres.
Responding to a query by a news reporter whether the TNA still stood for constitutional changes on federal lines and the re-merger of the Northern and Eastern Provinces, Sumanthiran replied, “We may be having our own stand, and the government its own stand. Now, we have started a dialogue. Let’s reach an amicable settlement. That’s all, I can tell you right now.”
According to news reports, India is said to have played an important role to reach this stage of talks between the government and the TNA
 The government and TNA managed news reports stated that both parties have agreed to proceed with...){kind=link}
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