De-Merger of Northern and Eastern Provinces

His Excellency Mahinda Rajapaksa,

President of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka

Your Excellency,

De-Merger of Northern and Eastern Provinces

This is to draw your kind attention to the above issue on which State action has been long overdue. As you may be aware an organization called Alliance for Protection of Rights of the People in the East (APRPE) was formed March 22, 2006 with the participation of seven political parties to secure this objective.

Party representatives who attended the meeting convened by the Patriotic National Movement (PNM) and held at Savsiripaya were unanimous on the urgent need to separate the Eastern Province from the Northern Province.

The participants included representatives of the SLFP, JVP, PNM, National Congress, TMVP (Thamileela Makkal Viduthalar Pulikal) alias the Karuna Amman Group and the United Democratic Organization.

It is common knowledge that the British colonialists drew the boundaries that demarcate the present Northern and Eastern Provinces for their own administrative purposes. Historically, the East was under the Kandyan Kingdom. It was with the King of Kandy that the Dutch and the French (until the British defeated them) signed treaties or established contact to obtain administrative rights and build forts in Trincomalee. The present boundaries have absolutely no historical basis that supports the Wanni Tigers claim for a so-called Tamil traditional homeland and their right to self-determination. Let alone under a unitary Sri Lanka, the merger has NO validity even under a race-based federal system (which itself is no real answer to the national crisis).

The two provinces were ``temporarily merged against the will of the large majority of Sri Lankans in order to appease the LTTE under the Indo-Lanka Accord of 1987. Today, the North-East Provincial Council is the least effective of all the provincial councils introduced under the Accord as means to solve the crisis in the very areas that NEPC supposedly administers.

The so-called temporary merger of NEP has continued for 19 years with no sign of any referendum being held on the issue ignoring the promise that the signatories to the Accord gave to the Sri Lankan public at the time. The longer this absurd merger remains in force the greater the possibility of the Sinhalas and Muslims becoming insignificant minorities in the East and the Eastern Tamils represented by the TMVP coming under Prabhakarans jackboot.

However, it should be kept in mind that Prabhakaran and Company would oppose any N-E de-merger tooth and nail, since they would be the biggest losers if it becomes effective. The recent tragic communal riots they instigated in Trincomalee is clear proof of it. In the East Tamils comprise little over 40 percent of the population while the Muslims and Sinhalas comprise 32.28 percent and 24.92 percent respectively of that population. Out of 22 AGA Divisions, the Sinhalas comprise the overwhelming majority in Padavi-Siripura, Gomarankadawala, Kantalai, Morawewa and Seuwila in the Trincomalee District and in Wewagam Pattu North, Wewagam Pattu South, Panama Pattu, Bintenna Pattu North and Bintenna Pattu South in the Ampara District while the Tamils comprise the majority only in two AGAs Divisions in those two districts Trincomalee Town and Gravets in the Trinco District and Thirukkovil; in the Ampara District.

Thus, the Sinhalas comprise the overwhelming majority in about 60 percent of the Trincomalee District and about 78.5 percent of the Ampara District.

All these facts and figures go to prove that there is absolutely no justification in the continued merger of the Northern and Eastern Provinces.

We therefore appeal to your Excellency to take remedial measures to remove this injustice without further delay to strengthen the LTTEs bogus claim for a Tamil Homeland.