Following the pronouncement by the government, the extremists have resorted to the defense of the Sinhala Commission report as the basis for launching a campaign against the Tamil people being granted any form of devolution. However, what is of the greatest import is that the government itself, while defending its devolution proposals has shown no indication that it intends to reach a negotiated settlement with the LTTE to end the war. The recent decision by the US State Department to ban the LTTE has further complicated the issue. The National Peace Council holds that the Tamil people and their legitimate representatives should participate in an open democratic environment in any constitutional reform exercise since it is mainly their rights and their status that is being determined. Excluding the LTTE from the constitutional reform process and by engaging in this process in a context of war where the Tamil people are hardly in a position to consider the proposals in a peaceful democratic environment will deprive the process of the legitimacy necessary to end the conflict.
Experience shows that protracted conflicts contain seemingly intractable problems.
The fact that the last round of negotiations broke down due to the withdrawal of the LTTE from the negotiations should not be used as a justification for excluding them from the political process. Examples abound internationally where negotiations have been resumed after many such failures. The present negotiations between the British government and the IRA is a case in point. We reaffirm that the whole validity of the constitutional reform process rests upon the inclusion and participation of the LTTE as a way to end the war and bring about a sustainable peace.