Sri Lanka sets up political council for war-torn North

In a significant concession to the ethnic minorities, the Sri Lankan government on Friday set up a multi-party political council to advice on the administration of development and rehabilitation projects in the war-torn Northern Province, which includes Jaffna and the districts under the control of the Tamil Tiger rebels.

Cabinet spokesman Anura Priyadarshana Yapa said the high-powered three-man council, called the Special Task Force (STF), would be headed by the cabinet minister for social services, Douglas Devananda. It would include the minister for rehabilitation, Rishad Badiuddin, and senior presidential advisor and MP Basil Rajapaksa.

The three members belong to three different parties, and represent the three main communities in the island, namely, Tamil, Muslim and Sinhalese.

“The formation of the council has been a longstanding demand of mine for an interim council of peoples’ representatives to run the administration in the Tamil-speaking north and east Sri Lanka,” Devananda told this website’s newspaper on Saturday.

“While the Eastern Province will have an elected provincial council after the May 10 elections, the Northern Province will have a nominated but representative political council till elections are held,” he said.

Devananda and Badiuddin are both MPs representing the Northern Province. The All Party Representative Committee (APRC), set up by President Mahinda Rajapaksa to work out a new devolution package for the country, had recommended for now a representative advisory council for the war-affected northern province be given.

However, the Eelam Peoples’ Democratic Party (EPDP), which Devananda represents, hopes to make the STF more than just a body overseeing economic development and rehabilitation. A top source in the party told this website’s newspaper that it would try to get a say in the maintenance of law and order, which means controlling the police.

The EPDP official pointed out that the 13th Amendment of the Sri Lankan constitution, which President Rajapaksa has promised to implement in full, envisaged the transfer of law and order powers to the provinces.

But this has been anathema to the majority Sinhalese and successive governments in Colombo. The Sinhalese fear that if law and order is handed over to a Tamil province, Tamil separatist forces cannot be controlled.

Source: newindpress