PRESS RELEASE - 27 January 2008

To: Leaders of all political parties in Sri Lanka

We wish to at the outset introduce the Campaign for Peace & Unity in Sri Lanka (CPUSL) to you. We are an umbrella organisation of Sri Lankan associations and individuals domiciled in the UK who represent all communities of our country. Our organisation is committed to promoting a peaceful negotiated settlement to the conflict in Sri Lanka and promoting dialogue among all communities that are represented in Sri Lanka. CPUSL condemns terrorism in all its forms and manifestations and has made use of every opportunity to make known to the British public the activities of the LTTE.

In this context we have lobbied British Parliamentarians, British members of the European Parliament and other opinion makers in the UK including Foreign Office and Home Office officials to apprise them of the situation in Sri Lanka. We have also organised a seminar in the House of Commons attended by British MPs and continue to carry out these activities.

During our meetings with Members of the British Parliament they have appreciated the complex political situation in Sri Lanka and the work of the APRC. They have also understood and in most instances condemned the atrocities committed by the LTTE. However they have underlined the importance of a political solution and the need for the government to unveil proposals for devolution of power that would address the grievances of all communities but most particularly the Tamil and Muslim communities living in the north & east. They have expressed the view that the long delay in the APRC process was not encouraging the affected communities to place their hopes in an early political solution. They note that the interim recommendations presented today are a positive step but urge that the final recommendations be released early. Furthermore many of the opinion makers we met argued that the only way the current support for the LTTE among the diaspora could be weaned away and the LTTE itself could be pressurised to return to the negotiating table is with a broadly acceptable proposal that addresses the grievances.

We urge the leaders of all political parties to contribute to the APRC process or any other alternate path that would bring about an early political proposal to address the grievances of the affected communities in the north & east of Sri Lanka.

We assure you of our continuing efforts to lobby opinion makers in the UK to support the search for a lasting peaceful solution to the conflict in Sri Lanka and to condemn the violent separatist agenda of the LTTE. We urgently appeal to you to shed all political differences and view this issue as a national issue. This would make our task as a lobbying group much easier and it would also result in a wellspring of support from the entire international community towards Sri Lanka.

We the undersigned who have placed our signatures below appeal to you to address the concerns raised in our letter.

Signed,

Bodipala Wijeyesinghe
Hela Basha

Nesan Thirunesan
Eelavar Democratic Front (EROS)

Narada Wijayatilake / T L Wellappili
Association of Old Anandians in the UK

Nanda Karunanayake
D A Rajapaksa Foundation

Faiz Nizar / S M Marzook
International Sri Lanka Association of Muslims

Najah Mohamed
Sri Lanka Islamic Forum – UK (SLIF UK)

T E Gunawardhana
United Friends of Sri Lanka