A fair consideration will be paid to sort out the reasonable demands of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), the former President said.

The observation was made at a political gathering held in Naulla area in Matale.

“I’m of the view that considerable attention should be paid to address the issues faced by the Tamil community. However, I will have to ignore their demands that would divide the country.” he added.

The Tamil National Alliance (TNA), a coalition of four parties in Sri Lanka, on Saturday reiterated its adherence to the right to self determination for Tamils and the re-merger of the Northern and Eastern Provinces under federal structure.

While pointing out that Tamil-speaking Muslims would be entitled to be beneficiaries of “all power-sharing arrangements in the North-East,” the Alliance, in its manifesto released on Saturday, said “this will no way inflict any disability on any people.” 

R. Sampanthan, TNA leader, who released the coalition’s manifesto for the next month’s Parliamentary elections near a Anjaneyar temple in Maruthanamadam near Jaffna, asserted that “there is no way out.”

He made this observation, while replying to a query on the principal political formations of Sri Lanka accepting the TNA’s demands on the right to self determination and federalism.