My statements are based on the views I gathered from the Tamil people of all walks of life from Jaffna, Kilinochchi, Mullaitivu, Mannar, Trincomalee, Batticaloa and Amparai districts during the last six years when I worked and traveled in the region.

At the outset I would like to give you the impression of what the Tamils really feel and think about the actions of the Sinhala leaders, past and present. 

The Tamil community was treated as a group with no rights except those that the Sinhala majority granted to them for obedience and keeping to their station in life. Any demonstrations to exert their rights individually or communally were met with violence. There were Tamil leaders who cowed down and played the game of the Sinhala leaders like some Tamils still do. 

Chelvanayagam stood up and gave courage to the people to peacefully demand and not to beg for their rights. When such Ghandian approaches were met with 20 years of violence, Tamil leader Pirapakaran came along and the new Tamils were born to fight and not to beg for the rights of the Tamils. Many Tamils grovel figuratively or literally at the feet of Sinhala leaders for favours for themselves, their friends, and kith and kin in the guise of helping the Tamil community. Since the ER and PTA such behaviour has increased in order to save lives.

Your address to the Tamil people is a continuation of the same attitude and approach of the past Sinhala leaders. But the Tamils have changed. Tamils do not want to make decisions as to how the Sinhala people should govern themselves nor do they want the Sinhala people to make such decisions with respect to Tamil affairs. It is important for you to address in words and deeds the Tamil community as equals. 

More importantly, if peace is to be achieved, you should treat the Tamil leader, Pirapakaran, as an equal. Thus you will demonstrate to the Tamil community that they are equal to the Sinhala community. Negotiation can only bear fruits if the negotiating parties and their leaders consider each other as equal.

Though the Sinhala leaders, including yourself, are finding it difficult to accept, the fact is that LTTE is carrying out the mandate that the Tamil and Muslim people in the North and East gave in 1977 to implement the Vaddukkoddai resolution. Though the Tamil and Muslim leaders of the past were weaned away from that position, the LTTE continued their promise to the people by taking up arms. The Vaddukkoddai resolution was later translated by all the Tamil parties at the Thimpu talks as the Thimpu Principles. It is for a solution based on these principles that the LTTE has been advocating and fighting a war on behalf of the Tamil people. The Tamil people do not want the LTTE to lay down their arms and join the farce, like former Tamil militants have done. 

It is the belief of the Tamil people that without the LTTE we will be back to square one, back where we were in 1956. We don't want to make our mistakes twice. The Tamil people are not going to abandon the LTTE to accept your thoughts and attempts at a solution through amendment to the constitution. Any such amendments, if it becomes a reality, will only be a temporary solution without a Tamil force to resist a majoritarian reversal of the amendments. Tamils have learned their lessons and they have earned the right for their freedom by paying the highest price.

Unfortunately, the UNP, your government, the media, moderates and many Sinhala people refuse to acknowledge the true aspirations of the Tamil people. Deceiving the Tamil people by defining the Tamil problem as a government administrative and implementation problem, and in terms that have no relevance to the causes of the problem will not win Tamil hearts and minds. 

The removal of the covenant Section 29(2) of the Soulbury Constitution by Prime Minister Bandaranayake's government, in 1972, to block any legal recourse by the Tamils and in return giving the Tamil farmers a higher price for chillies and onions did not solve the fundamental problem of our rights. 

Lifting the embargo on paper, in 1995, and in reality permitting a bottle each of gingili oil, coconut oil, kerosene and petrol, a packet of camphor, and two 'D' cell batteries to be taken to the North did not compensate the aspirations of the Tamil people. Now you wish to compensate the Tamils for the destruction you caused by giving them a market for their produce and the promise of rebuilding the damage in turn for them to withdraw their support of the LTTE who are continuing to fight for Tamil rights! I hope you and your supporters can see the incongruity of it all. Unfortunately none of your Tamil, Muslim and Sinhala advisors seem to brief you on the reality of the problem.

Your offer to build the Jaffna library, reconstruct the bombed out buildings, restore electricity and telephone, and repair 10 years of destruction and neglect of the infrastructure is not going to solve the political problem that was created and has continued since 1956. You are only promising the people the minority rights and material things and the infrastructure they had before 1983. 

The people voted for separation and took up arms when they had all of the material things that you are promising to them now. People may enjoy the respite if ever reconstruction starts in Jaffna. But that will only be temporary. Reconstruction would solve the problem if the death and destruction were caused by natural disasters, but it will not solve the problem when it is caused, and continues to be caused, by Sinhala leaders and Sinhala armed forces. Your Generals now want to stop, by force, all peaceful demonstrations in Jaffna and Batticaloa against the war. Your mother did that in April 1961 in Jaffna.

Reconstruction should follow upon the resolution of the conflict not vice versa. You mentioned to Duncan White and me when we were your guests at Temple Trees about the corruption that you inherited from UNP and the corruption that is continuing under your government. I am sure you are aware of the corruption at the RRAN since the embargo started in 1990 and continues to this day.

If the donors gave the Rs.40 billion that your consultants estimated in 1995 for reconstructing the North, I need not tell you the amount that will be lost to corruption during the award of contracts and the implementation process of reconstruction. 

The Tamil negotiators in 1995 wanted the Tamils in the NorthEast and not Colombo to make the decisions on all matters related to reconstruction. But your negotiators wanted Colombo to make those decisions. If Tamil authorities cannot make the decision on reconstruction, what are the chances of them being allowed to make decisions on their political, economic and social matters? The farce of a NorthEast Provincial council administration is not what Tamil aspiration is all about.

It is unwise for the Tamil people to accept reconstruction while the war is on, not only because only a fraction of the aid will reach them, but also the continuing war will destroy what ever was rebuilt. Tempting the Jaffna people with events that will not takeplace or are at best short-term gains insults their intelligence and assumes their gullibility. They have learned their lessons during the past fifty years of deception. Some Tamils from Jaffna who stand to gain personal power, positions, privileges and monetary gains I am sure will agree with your plans and support you. But they are not going to be of help in solving the problem.

The third point about the draft constitution to which you referred, "The two aspects if I may repeat are first the constitutional, legal and political proposals in order to guarantee firmly and on a long term basis the Tamil and minority people's rights. That has to be achieved through a new constitution legally and politically. The sincere and honest will of the government is to implement what is contained in the new constitution. My government has drafted the new constitution." 

This statement needs a genuine and frank response so that you will not be mislead by the few Tamils who support your policies.