United States to placate TNA? Written by S. Selvakumar Sunday, 12 February 2012 03:02 The Tamil National Alliance is likely to change its earlier firm stand that it would participate in the proposed Parliamentary Select Committee(PSC) only after holding discussions with the government on matters to be taken up at the PSC on finding a solution to the ethnic problem. This change of mind could be influenced by the visit of two US dignitaries scheduled to arrive in the country today, according to political observers.US Under Secretary of State for Civilian Security, Democracy and Human Rights Mario Otero and Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Robert O Blake were expected to arrive in Colombo today and the duo’s first official assignment would be a meeting with a high delegation of the TNA headed by its leader MP R. Sampanthan.
Meanwhile, authoritative governmental sources expressed displeasure of the duo’s inaugural meeting being with the TNA whereas it should have been with state officials of the host country.
Asked to comment on this, TNA spokesman and parliamentarian, Suresh Premachandran told The Nation that it should be the norm since the TNA was the aggrieved party and the US delegation was quite right in their intention to meet them first. “They should be first apprised of our grievances that should be conveyed to the government and not vice versa,” Premachandran said.
Asked on their adamant stand of not willing to join the PSC all this duration, Premachandran shot back, “Why should we? Time and again, we have asked the government to discuss and reach a formal agreement before taking up the matter at the proposed PSC. But see what happened? The government avoided meeting us for talks on the scheduled dates January 17, 18 and 19 and invited us to join the PSC. Is there any rationale in such behaviour? We are the representatives of the victims,” Premachandran reasoned out.
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