Comments at the press conference in Thailand at the conclusion of the second round of peace talks
Published on 05 November, 2002
We have appointed a political affairs committee whose objective is to explore various models and systems of government. We need to seek the advice of international experts and resource persons on how various governments at various times have resolved ethnic conflicts – temporarily, as well as permanently.
We have to study those aspects and we have to spend quite a lot of time in exploring these aspects and making visits to different countries and consulting and interacting with scholars and we working on the core issues.
We will not be bogged down to any particular set of framework as such. So once this sub committee on rehabilitation is established, we will straightway enter into a process of engaging ourselves with core issues.
It does not mean that we are going to abandon the idea of an interim set up. If we feel that an interim set up is crucial, then we will definitely look into that framework.
We will be looking at systems and models of self government particularly confined to the theoretical discourse of self-determination – internal self-determination.
We will focus our attention on how ethnic conflicts have been resolved by accommodating the problems of national minorities in certain systems of government.
So we will be particularly looking at federal and confederal models. Further than that I do not want to discuss the matter at this stage.