By
Dharisha Bastians

Northern Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran told visiting UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in Jaffna yesterday that there could be no reconciliation without addressing accountability issues relating to the final stages of the war.

Chief Minister Wigneswaran who secured a one-on-one meeting with the UN Chief separate from the Tamil National Alliance delegation, said he told Ban that there had been no perceivable, ostensible steps taken to put an accountability mechanism in place.

“We told him that reconciliation is being given more prominence than the accountability part,” Wigneswaran told Daily FT a few hours after his meeting with the Secretary General. “It’s like putting the cart before the horse,” he said, “reconciliation is a far off dream if accountability is not addressed.”

Wigneswaran explained that he had sought a separate meeting with Ban because the TNA delegation comprised of Parliamentarians who would raise different issues. The Northern Provincial Council (NPC) had separate, local and administrative issues to raise, the Chief Minister said.

“The Northern Provincial Council works within the 13th Amendment. So it is the NPC that understands the administrative problems and shortcomings of the 13A and there were matters closer to the workings of the NPC that needed to be discussed,” he told Daily FT in an interview.

“When in the North, your perceptions are framed by people in this region. I reflect the type of thinking of these areas,” elaborated Wigneswaran on his reasons for seeking a separate meeting with the UN Chief.

Courtesy:Daily FT