MANNARAMA BISHOP ON LTTE (98 Nov 25)
The Bishop of Mannarama Rayappu Josepf referring to a letter handed over by the LTTE Mr. Mandela, the President of South Africa has said that the LTTE is ready to give up a separate state but demands "a solution based on the Thimpu principles".The Bishop has told this, addressing a delegation of PA and UNP Pradeshiya Sabha members from Matara.
Most of the Catholic and Christian Tamil priests have been supporters of the LTTE and it is not known why the Bishop of Mannarama wanted to speak on a letter from the LTTE to Mr. Mandela and say that they are prepared to give up a separate state at this juncture. It is very well known that the LTTE is attempting to establish their headquarters in South Africa and that the Foreign minister Mr. Kadirgamer for the last few weeks has been trying to convince Mr. Mandela and his government not to allow the LTTE to run an office in South Africa.
In any case there are nothing called Thimpu Principles. The Tamil racist parties put forward certain non negotiable conditions for the Thimpu talks. These conditions are non negotiable , which means that the government has to agree to them even before the negotiations commence. The conditions amount to accepting Eelam in the Eastern and the Northern provinces. If the government agrees to these conditions then an Eelam can be declared overnight if the Provincial council desires to do so and the government has no option but to recognise Eelam such declared.
All that we have to tell the Bishop is that the Sinhala people cannot be fooled.