The stance of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) vis-a-vis the negotiations on the ethnic issue will remain unchanged despite any mediation by anybody, TNA Parliamentarian Suresh Premachandran said.
Premachandran told Ceylon Today that the TNA had not shifted from its original position that there must be an understanding between the TNA and the UPFA Government first before the TNA can participate in the All Party Select Committee (APSC).
Meanwhile, Justice Minister Rauff Hakeem has written to President Mahinda Rajapaksa that he is prepared to act in the role of the mediator to restart the stalled talks between the TNA and the Government.
When Ceylon Today asked Premachandran whether his party was prepared to accept Hakeem as the proposed mediator, the Parliamentarian unequivocally said that whoever the mediator be, his party was not prepared to budge from its original stand to the effect that there should be some understanding first between the TNA and the Government before talks could begin at the APSC level.
Until and unless the government changed its stance the TNA too would not budge from its position, he stressed.
Meanwhile, Hakeem has reportedly met with TNA Leader Rajavarothian Sampanthan.
CT
