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LTTE for one-party rule in North & East
The LTTE wishes to keep Tamil political parties out of the proposed interim administration for the Northern and Eastern provinces and wants to appoint its own members. Such a move will enable the LTTE to gain full control over the administration.

Their desire to keep Tamil parties out of the interim administration was conveyed to the Tamil parties during meeting between Tamil National Alliance (TNA) MPs consisting of four main Tamil parties and LTTE chief Velupillai Prabhakaran last week.

The Sunday Times learns the LTTE is already selecting its members, including former public servants, to be appointed to the interim administration. The issue of the LTTE appointing its own members to the interim administration had been raised by one of the TNA MPs during the meeting and it had been pointed out that to the outside world it would look an LTTE administration.

However, most TNA members played down the issue saying they had decided to allow the LTTE to manage the interim administration, but would play a role only if they were invited to do so.

But, the EPDP which has two members in parliament said it was planning to stake a claim in the interim administration. The EPDP did not take part in the talks with the LTTE leader.

EPDP parliamentarian S. Siva-thasan said they had got a fair share of the vote at the last general election and would claim a place in the interim council. He said the EPDP also had questions regarding the LTTE's motives in setting up the interim council.

The establishment of an interim administrative council will be given priority at the proposed government-LTTE talks in Thailand, though the date is now being delayed till June. TULF Parliamentarian Joseph Pararajasingham told The Sunday Times that the LTTE had explained to them the importance of setting up the interim council.

"The LTTE leaders told us they want to set up the council mainly to bring normalcy to the North and East so that the people can lead a normal life. They also want to reconstruct the devastated area. We fully endorse the setting up of the council and we strongly feel that the LTTE should run the council," Mr. Pararajasingham said.

"We feel that the LTTE has been involved in the war for so many years and now it is time for the LTTE to come to mainstream politics. If the LTTE invites us to join it we will consider but we want the LTTE to run the council," he said. TELO leader N. Srikantha told The Sunday Times the TNA would fully support the idea of the LTTE running the interim administration.

He said the modalities would have to be worked out between the government and the LTTE. TULF leader M. Sivasithamparam in an interview with The Sunday Times said his party would not be staking a claim for a place in the interim administration.
SLMC leader Rauff Hakeem told The Sunday Times his party had not gone into details of the proposed interim administration during talks with the LTTE leader held over the weekend.

The Sunday Times learns that the government has been thinking of a two-year period for the proposed interim council initially. However, the exact time frame and the powers of the council will be discussed only during the talks in Thailand.

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