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UNP on P-TOMS: Where is Sinhala representation?
The United National Party (UNP) said clear provision should be made for the representation of the Sinhalese Community in the Post Tsunami Operational Management Structure (P-TOMS) and that the present constitution of the Committees in the structure was unacceptable.

“Since the Government is not obliged to nominate a member of the Sinhalese community to the high level committee, there could well be a situation in which the Sinhalese community goes unrepresented. We think this is unacceptable,” the UNP said in a statement by party spokesman G.L. Peiris.
The problem is even more acute in respect of the composition of the Regional Committee where the principle relating to objection by a dissenting minority could lead to the exclusion of Sinhalese representation,” he said.

The UNP said there was an anomaly with regard to the composition of the Regional Committee as envisaged by section 6 of the document. Section 6 (c) makes it clear that the Chairperson of the Regional committee will be a member of the LTTE, while the Deputy Chairpersons are nominees of the government of Sri Lanka and the Muslim parties. As in previous agreements, provision should be made for representatives to be nominated by the Government of Sri Lanka but not to function as Deputy Chairmen. The latter provision entails an unacceptable relegation of the status of the government of Sri Lanka.

Prof. Peiris said the territorial areas within which the P-TOMS agreement was to operate were enveloped in some degree of doubt and this was attributable to the wording used in Section 2 of the document entitled “Scope”. He said “Section 2(b) declares that “The Tsunami Disaster Zone (the TDZ) shall be defined as an area affected by the tsunami.” This is followed immediately by Section 2 (c) with the provision that the TDZ shall include all that tsunami affected land area of Sri Lanka which is adjacent to the sea lying within a limit of 2 kilometres landwards from the mean low water line. This is an inclusive, as distinguished from an exhaustive definition. It would therefore seem that the TDZ could, in keeping with the definition embedded in this document extend beyond the limit of 2 kilometres. This requires clarification.

There is no scope accorded in the document to the principle of subsidiary which in our opinion is critical for good governance. The thinking of the UNP in respect of all aspects of delivery of tsunami relief and indeed the ramifications of the larger peace process entails a sharp focus on the responsibilities of local government authorities, operating as they do in close proximity to the needs and aspirations of the people of the affected areas. The omission in this regard prevents grass roots participation in the making and implementing of decisions. This cannot but affect adversely the practical functioning of the mechanism.

“In our view, a material omission in the document consists of the absence of any reference to the “Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement” ( also known as the Deng principles) This forms an essential part of the core principles applicable to the functions of the structures established by the document and the deletion of these principles therefore constitutes a significant deficiency”.
Prof Peiris said with the establishment of the structure contained in the P-Toms document TAFREN becomes superfluous.

“We’re not convinced that in view of the supervening changes effected by this document, there is any longer adequate justification for incurring the substantial overhead expenses of TAFREN”, he said.

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