In a statement opening a Tamil People's Council meeting earlier this month in Jaffna, Northern Provincial Council Chief Minister, C.V. Wigneswaran, raised issues of accountability and a North-East merger.

The Chief Minister emphasised that a North-East merger would be key to the interests of Tamil people in those areas. Otherwise he said there was a "danger of minority communities losing their identities in the long run," which the majority community appeared to want. He added that any process to erase the identities and culture of those communities is genocide. He noted that Muslim Tamil-speaking peoples could have an autonomous unit within a merged North-East province.

Generally on the political solution he said, "if we don't have proper resolution of political problems between Tamils and Sinhalese, we won't have the necessary conditions for a reconciliatory country." However, he raised concerns that the Sri Lankan government is trying to use the constitutional process to brush aside accountability and that should not be permitted. He called on civil society and politicians to raise the fact that the Sri Lankan government must conform to what is expected of them by the international community and bring justice to those affected by the war.

Following the Chief Minister's statement the TPC went on to conduct their closed-door meeting.