The US has asked LTTE supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran to give up demand for a separate Tamil state saying the community wanted a solution to the over two-decade-old ethnic conflict within a “united” Sri Lanka.“.I think it would be very useful for Prabhakaran to give up this idea of seeking an independent Tamil state and agreeing to negotiate with a united Sri Lanka,” US ambassador to Sri Lanka Robert Blake said.Blake said from his discussions with Tamil people in Sri Lanka, he thinks “95 per cent of them support a solution within a framework of a united Sri Lanka. “They (the Tamil people) are not seeking an independent Tamil Eelam which Prabhakaran is seeking,” Blake told the Sunday Observer newspaper. Blake said giving up the idea of a separate state, would give Prabhakaran “lots of credibility to respond to lots of skepticism here in the South (Sri Lanka) that the LTTE would never negotiate with the government.”In reply to another question, Blake said US believes that the answer to the conflict lies with a power sharing concept which can respond to the aspirations of Sinhalese, Tamils and Muslims. He welcomed the “positive” developments in Eastern Sri Lanka. On the elections in the region, Blake said it is important to allow the local inhabitants to represent their views.
