Colombo: In a new suggestion to broad-base Sri Lanka's peace process, now confined to the government and Tamil Tiger rebels, President Chandrika Kumaratunga on November 12 proposed a 'national commission for ethnic reconciliation and sustainable peace' that includes the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam), while regretting the anti-Tamil riots that broke out nearly two decades ago in the island nation.

Addressing the nation after a brief ceremony to mark the eighth anniversary of her winning the Presidency, Kumaratunga said the Commission should comprise representatives of the government, all parties in Parliament, major non-government organisations and the LTTE.

"A clear action plan must be formulated with the purpose of bringing military conflict to an end and finding a durable solution to the causes of the conflict," she said in an address that declared her intent to pursue the "re-democratisation and re-humanisation" of Sri Lanka.

Regretting the anti-Tamil riots that broke out nearly two decades ago, spawning the island nation's ethnic conflict, she said, "The clear failure of the Sri Lanka state to protect its Tamil citizens in July 1983 is a watershed event in ethnic relations."

"It was a failure, which I deeply regret," Kumaratunga said, calling the riots "a true tragedy of epic proportion."

President Kumaratunga suggested that the Commission should be immediately set up and have among its main objectives the task of identifying "core issues" in the conflict and recommending negotiated solutions.

PTI