In their proposal for an ISGA for the northeast, the Liberation Tigers suggested the authority be given sole access rights to the adjacent seas.
Mr. Kadirgamar categorically denied that the sacking of three key ministers of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s government Tuesday and the proroguing of Parliament had anything to do with the LTTE’s proposal for setting up an Interim Self Governing Authority (ISGA) in the northeast.
He lambasted the LTTE’s proposal as a “total incursion into Sri Lanka’s sovereignty” and hence unacceptable.
Mr. Kadirgamar said that the move was made in accordance with the President’s long-standing position that the Prime Minister Ranil Wicremesinghe’s government was endangering the country’s security.
President Kumaratunga’s opponents charge that she moved at this juncture to stop Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe from restarting peace talks with the LTTE on the basis of the ISGA proposal, which, according to them, would have encouraged countries that had pledged a vast sum in aid at Tokyo donor conference earlier this year to release funds for development in Sri Lanka. They say that President Kumaratunga moved as she did to to throw the spanner in the works, to scuttle ‘positive negotiations’ on the ISGA that would have spurred the economy further, boosting the popularity of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s government.
