No land or power for Tamils: Sri Lanka

on Monday, June 13, 2011
No land or power for Tamils: Sri Lanka



Yielding to pressure from his allies, Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa has told the visiting Indian delegation that his government would not be able to concede land and police powers to provincial councils in accordance with an India-initiated plan aimed at resolving the Tamil conflict, a media report said, warning that this could get the two countries on 'a collision course'.

After conferring with the leaders of the constituent parties in the ruling United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA), where the allies had expressed strong objections to the provisions of the 13th amendment to the Constitution, which is derived from the Indo-Lanka Accord of 1987, President Rajapaksa told the Indian team comprising NSA Shivshankar Menon, foreign secretary Nirupama Rao and defence secretary Pradeep Kumar that it would not be possible for him to hand over control over land and police to the provincial councils.

At a time when India expected Colombo to improve on the 13th amendment — a promise made by Sri Lankan foreign minister G.L. Peiris to his Indian counterpart S.M. Krishna during his recent visit to India — this assertion from the President could bring the two neighbours on a “collision course,” said Sunday Times.

It is clear that the President is under pressure from his allies not to yield the land and police powers to provincial councils for fear that such devolution could ‘excessively empower’ the Tamils in the north and east.

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