B. Muralidhar Reddy
COLOMBO: Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has described the “proposals” submitted to him by the All Party Representative Committee (APRC) on measures for the full implementation of the provisions of the Constitution for a political solution to the ethnic question as an “auspicious and important initial step.”
Receiving the proposals from APRC Chairman Thissa Vitharana on Wednesday, Mr. Rajapaksa said the government and the political parties that supported it undertook the responsibility to fully implement the proposals. He said they all had a responsibility to ensure the rights of all people to enjoy freedom without fear irrespective of race, religious, political and other differences.
He called on all parties to shed narrow differences and come together with due consideration for the people, to provide a suitable political solution to the political issue, while looking at a different solution to the problem of terrorism.
In a speech made at the presentation ceremony, Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) president V. Anandasangaree said his party and its allies were extending support for the implementation of the 13th Amendment in full, as a first step before a final solution is recommended by the APRC. The TULF leader said his party and its allies had joined the “historic assembly that could be described as the Constituent Assembly” as a first step to bring peace to the bleeding nation and to its people. “We have joined this assembly today to show our solidarity on behalf of the Tamil people, for the re-birth of a nation where we the Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims, Malays, Burgers and members of all the other small groups live as equals in all respects, in a society where one is in no way superior or inferior to the other.”
The main opposition United National Party (UNP) said only it could offer pragmatic solutions. The 13th Amendment, the District Council Bills and the Provincial Council Bills were its measures to solve the problem. Neither the JVP nor the SLFP had ever brought forth any solution. Rather, they have only sabotaged its attempts, said a spokesperson of the party. He alleged that when the Indian Peace keeping Force (IPKF) came in 1987 and the 13th amendment was introduced, the SLFP and the JVP staged massive protests against them.
“If the IPKF has continued in Sri Lanka for a further month, even Prabakaran would have been captured. And, mind you this was all done at Indian government expense without the war becoming a burden on Sri Lanka’s finances,” he said.
The Sri Lanka Democratic Forum (SLDF) in a statement rejected the APRC’s announcement on the Amendment as the interim arrangement. It charged that the President and the ruling party had singularly failed to show even a semblance of leadership.
Forest damaged: LTTEA day after the military claimed to have bombed an LTTE location frequented by its leader Velupillai Prabakaran, the Tigers on Thursday accused the Air Force of carrying out three sorties — spread over 20 hours — over Ambalahamam forest area in Kilinochchi and destroying a vast extent of forest in the extensive bombing. In a statement on its website, the LTTE said 10 hectares had been damaged as the Air Force dropped more than 16 bombs.
Separately, the military claimed that at least 22 LTTE cadres and a solder were killed in the Jaffna and Wanni defences.
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