The President is likely to challenge the Joint Chiefs of Staff Bill as it places a fetter whereby she is required to act on the advice of the cabinet of ministers - meaning her role as the Commander-in-chief will be reduced to that of a ceremonial position.

Under the present Constitution, the Chief Executive elected by the people shall be the head of state, the executive, the government and the Commander-in-chief of the armed forces.

In the light of constitutional provisions, the bill may be deemed inconsistent with the Constitution.

The President's Office dismissed the proposed move as unacceptable and unwarranted and warned that the move would only undermine the cohabitation efforts made by both the President and the Prime Minister.

UNF policy makers should realise that the process to remove or impeach the President is a rather difficult one. Even if they decide to check her executive powers through budgetary means, it won't be that easy.

Impeachment would be a long drawn out process and it is difficult under the present political climate to muster enough support for this from other political parties represented in Parliament.

Instead the UNP should try to bolster its position by making the peace process a success and providing a better life for the people.

The second meeting of the first round of talks between the government and the LTTE started on Thursday at the Thai Rose Garden resort, some 35 km away from Bangkok. On top of the agenda is the contentious issue of the Joint Task Force, a body that will be responsible for development and resettlement work in the North and East.

At present, there are few problems with regard to the JTF since the main Muslim party, the SLMC, which derives its strength from the east, is not fully agreeable to the Norwegian draft, a copy of which was handed over to it before the talks began.

The SLMC which discussed this matter with Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, is of the view that while the JTF could function as the apex body, there should be two separate units for the Northern and Eastern provinces to plan and supervise the work.

According to the Norwegian draft, the JTF will comprise six members, three from the government and three from the LTTE while the SLMC representative will be part of the government representation. The SLMC rebels have taken exception to this and urged the SLMC leadership to press for equal representation at peace talks and in the JTF as in the case of the LTTE.

Quite contrary to this position, Mr. Hakeem remains part of the government delegation at the Thai talks. Clarifying the confusion, the government and Mr. Hakeem made statements saying that the Rose Garden meeting was the second meeting of the first round. Hence Mr. Hakeem is still part of the government delegations. He will represent the Muslim interest only at the second round of talks.

This was the view Mr. Hakeem held when NUA parliamentarian M. L. M. Hisbullah met him prior to his visit to Thailand and asked him about the Muslim representation at the peace talks.

The Norwegians are also planning to meet Mr. Hisbullah to explain the phased out structure of the peace talks. According to the structure, the first phase of negotiations will deal with restoring normalcy and the second round has been allocated to discuss the Interim Administration while the third or the final phase will centre on a final settlement.

Thus it is clear that Mr. Hakeem will only lead a Muslim delegation at the second round of talks where the "Interim Administration" will be discussed.

LTTE theoretician Anton Balasingham has specifically stated that Mr. Hakeem could only talk about issues involving Muslims if he leads a delegation of Muslims at the talks. This means the LTTE wants Mr. Hakeem to raise the Muslim issue only at the appropriate time. But reports from Thailand suggest that the recent disturbances in the east and the Muslim issue are also being taken up at the talks.

During the current talks, both the government and the LTTE are likely to make endorsements on territorial integrity, supremacy of Parliament, national legislature framework. They will also make a declaration on their commitment to respect human rights.

The two delegations will also identify priorities and programmes for the affected areas and the rest of the country, mine clearance and the return of internally displaced persons to government designated high-security zones.

To facilitate these objectives, Oslo will host a mini-donor conference at the end of this month to seek the international community's assistance. But the proposed meeting has stirred emotions in the south with some elements complaining that the south which was also hit by the 20-year war, has been left out of the process.

The Rose Garden meeting got off the ground well with the two delegations getting to know each other.

The members of the LTTE delegation were airlifted to Colombo the night before they boarded a Bangkok bound plane. They stayed at the residence of the Norwegian Ambassador and were airlifted again to Katunayake to board a Cathay Pacific flight that also took Minister G. L. Peiris to Thailand.

Prof. Peiris exchanged pleasantries with LTTE theoretician Anton Balasingham who made it point to introduce the other members of the LTTE delegation to him.

It was not only the peace talks that made headlines this week. The clash between two groups in Maligawatte over the construction of a religious school also made national and international headlines. The situation was so tense that it a prompted Prime Minister Wickremesinghe to summon a special meeting to explore the ways and means of quelling the disturbances.

New police chief T. E. Anandarajah, Defence Minister Tilak Marapana, DIG Bodhi Liyanage, Ministers M.H. Mohamed and A. H. M. Azwer along with Defence Secretary Austin Fernando and Interior Ministry Secretary M.M. Junaid attended the meeting.

At the meeting, the Premier complained that nobody brought the matter to his attention early and he came to know about the incident only after somebody of his immediate staff heard it over the radio. He was looking at the direction of the IGP when he said this. DIG Liyanage said that the situation had been brought under control and there were no casualties.

The Prime Minister then ordered that special forces be deployed immediately to restore normalcy.

Later in the evening, the DIG along with Minister Azwer visited the scene. On arrival Mr. Azwer found that the situation was far more grave than they were informed of by DIG Liyanage. He promptly telephoned Mr. Wickremesinghe to say more than fifty people had been injured in the clashes.

While this was happening Minister W.J.M. Lokubandara got in touch with chief incumbents of the temples in Colombo and briefed them on the situation. He told the priests that the problem started when Muslims armed with a court ruling, started building the madrasa (religious school).

Later that day, Minister Milinda Moragoda who was scheduled to leave for Bangkok talks in the wee hours on Thursday, visited the site a few hours before the departure, along with Public Utilities Minister Mohamed Maharoof, who represented the area.

The problem had a long history. It began with some Muslim residents obtaining permission from the Colombo Mayor to build a religious school in a disputed land. The move was met with opposition from the Sinhala Buddhist residents.

When tension built up, the matter was referred to the Colombo Magistrate a few months ago. Recently, the court issued a ruling, allowing the Muslim residents to go ahead with the madrasa project. When construction work began this week, a high ranking government official had allegedly directed the Gramasevaka of the area to stop the work, saying that it was an unauthorised construction.

The police had gone to the site to stop the work and this ignited sparks of riots with strong ethnic overtones.

The hostility between the two groups reached dizzy heights within a couple of hours and police were forced to impose curfew in Maligawatte and surrounding areas to control the situation. The violence was also attributed to extremist elements within both the communities. Some reports said the JVP and the Sihala Urumaya had a hand in the episode.

Meanwhile Defence Minister Tilak Marapana's chopper ride over the trouble-hit areas on Wednesday had stirred a minor controversy with some ministers saying in a lighter vein that the Defence Minister should have been on the ground instead of in the air.

At the party leaders' meeting last week, the acid attack on Kandy's Audit Superintendent was taken up for discussion. The attack obviously was carried out by a group which did not want certain irregularities exposed.

Speaker Joseph Michael Perera said that since the Auditor General's Department did not come under any ministry they find it difficult to pay compensation or relief to the victim.

The Speaker emphasized the need to redress the public servants who are victimized in the course of their duty. During the discussion that ensued, a proposal was made to bring a resolution in Parliament to address the issue.

However, it was also pointed out that if a precedent of that nature is set, then they would have to bring resolutions on case-by-case basis.

Thereafter Labour Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe proposed that a committee should be appointed to look into the matter.

Mr. Samarasinghe proposed the name of Richard Pathirana to chair it.

Mr. Pathirana though initially refusing to accept it agreed after some persuasion. Many felt he was a better choice since he could liaison with Public Administration Minister Vajira Abeywardena, his one-time political rival.

The other members of the committee are PLOTE leader D. Siddharthan and Minister A.H.M. Azwer.

The party leaders also discussed a proposal referred to the Cabinet by President Chandrika Kumaratunga to allocate an office, a vehicle and staff to Chief Opposition Whip Mangala Samaraweera.

When this matter came up for discussion, Mr. Pathirana opposed the move.

He reminded that when he held the post of the Chief Opposition Whip while Ms. Bandaranaike was the opposition leader and M.H. Mohamed was the Speaker, he was not even given a piece of paper to write.

It was because of Ms. Bandaranaike's staff that the office of the Chief Opposition Whip existed, he said.

Minister Lokubandara also had something to say.
He said that during the PA regime when he was the Chief opposition Whip he also did not enjoy any perks.

The party leaders then decided that since there was no precedence to grant such facilities to the Chief Opposition Whip, the Cabinet should be informed about it.

The party leaders also discussed the deterioration of the standard of discipline in the House and urged the Speaker to impose strict discipline in the House.

Meanwhile, the court judgement sentencing LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran for 200 years of rigorous imprisonment, which coincided with the second peace talks in Thailand, has placed the UNF government in a peculiar situation.

Mr. Prabhakaran was tried in absentia for the 1996 Central Bank bomb blast.

High Court judge Sarath Ambepitiya issued an open warrant through the CID to arrest Mr. Prabhakaran and three other accused who were tried in absentia.

In this case ten accused including Mr. Prabhakaran were indicted on 712 counts including conspiracy, aiding and abetting, intention to cause death and committing murder, destruction of state property by attacking the Central Bank and provoking violence on or around January 31, 1996.

The government is now faced with a peculiar situation where the leader of the terrorist organization with which it has already started holding a successful dialogue, is convicted.

If the CID attempts to arrest Mr. Prabhakaran, it will definitely cause the end of the UNF sponsored peace initiative.

On the other hand, if the government gets the Attorney General to withdraw the charges against Mr. Prabhakaran it is very likely to lead to a tense situation in the South. How Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe would respond to this situation is anybody's guess.

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