SLFP devolution proposals by Thursday

President Mahinda Rajapaksa announced yesterday the SLFP proposals on a political solution to the ethnic conflict would be submitted by Thursday to the All-Party Representative Committee (APRC).

Addressing professionals at a meeting held at the the Presidential Secretariat, he said his party was submitting the proposals with the aim of reaching a consensus with other political parties.

“We have to provide a political solution to the conflict while fighting terrorism,” the President said. He said previous experience had shown that the LTTE leadership would not accept any solution offered and its leader Velupillai Prabhakaran himself had declared that the ceasefire should be made use of for a military build-up.

The President recalled that despite the LTTE unleashing attacks against the security forces since December 2005 and the humiliation it caused to the government at peace talks later, the government refrained from retaliating for more than four months.

“It is only then we had to retaliate and take counter action to protect civilians,” he said. The President said the LTTE was carrying out a major international campaign to blow up stories about human rights violations with the aim of undermining the recent victories by the armed forces.

He said false allegations were being made that the forces were responsible for some of the abductions and killings. President Rajapaksa said there were other groups also conspiring against the government by accusing it of being involved in human rights abuses.