"There are 225 members in Parliament, and even the main Opposition UNF and other parties have vowed to support the Government's peace initiatives. So what if some 39 MPs are not supporting the Government, even though they are part of the Alliance. The Government will have the majority when it comes to the peace process," CWC member and Community Development Minister Muthu Sivalingam told a news conference yesterday.
He reiterated that the CWC joined the Government on the assurance that the UPFA would resume peace talks based on the ISGA.
"During the discussions between the CWC and the Government, we emphasized that we would support it only if talks were based on the ISGA," he said.
He also said it was not their concern that the JVP was against the ISGA. "We believe President Chandrika Kumaratunga has the ability to lure the JVP into agreeing to talks based on the ISGA," he said. However he said it was a matter that should be settled between the President and the JVP.
CWC Vice President R. Yogarajan said in the event the JVP continued to object to talks based on the ISGA, one would have to wait and see how the JVPers would react if the Government shrugged the JVP protests and began talks on the ISGA.
The CWC member also emphasized that this was the first time the country's two main political parties had come together in support of the peace process. Deputy Minister S. Sellasamy was also present at the news conference.
(http://www.dailymirror.lk/2004/09/16/front/04.asp)
