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Revamping the monitoring role
By Santhush Fernando
Removing Norway from its role as the ceasefire monitor and setting up a restructured monitoring mission with an increased number of countries, is on the cards.

President Mahinda Rajapakse at last Thursday’s meeting with the JHU leadership has reportedly promised that the Scandinavian country will be asked to step down from its role in the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) and the number of monitoring countries increased with the inclusion of ‘moderate’ Asian countries, The Sunday Times learns.

Already efforts are underway by the Foreign and Defence Ministries and the Secretariat for Coordinating the Peace Process (SCOPP) to amend the Cease Fire Agreement and the Status of Mission Agreement (SOMA) of SLMM, President Rajapakse said.

The Sunday Times learns that Article 1 of SOMA, which stipulates, that “The RNG undertakes to coordinate, facilitate and lead the establishment of the SLMM” will be amended to provide for the inclusion of more countries and further provisions added for the removal of any country in future on grounds of partiality or incapability and for replacement with another suitable country.
Furthermore the clause “the members of the Mission will be recruited from among citizens of the Nordic countries” will also be amended to include members from Asian countries deemed neutral and moderate by the two parties.

At present only one country (Royal Norwegian Government-RNG) is at the reins of the SLMM and there are no provisions in SOMA to include any other country or to remove Norway and replace it with another country.

The status, privileges and immunities of the SLMM and functions and powers of the Sri Lanka Government’s Peace Secretariat (SCOPP) will also be reviewed.

President Rajapakse has assured the JHU that peace talks would not be held in Europe as it would hamper the European Union ban on LTTE leaders travelling to its countries and had stated that his government was in favour of Sri Lanka as the first option but would settle with Japan if not.

President Mahinda Rajapakse has also stressed the need to come to a consensus among all political parties in the South through the All Party Conference presently underway and had stated that one of its initial steps would be to jointly invite India as a Co-chair.

Leaders of 10 political parties met last Monday for the initial discussion and decided that the first round of talks of the All Party Conference will be held next Thursday.

Five nominees are to be nominated from each political party represented in Parliament. However the mandate of the All Party Conference would be to explore possibilities of maximum devolution of power within a unitary set up, The Sunday Times learns.

Presidential Secretary Lalith Weeratunga attended the discussion while JHU Leader Ven. Ellawala Medhananda Thera, Parliamentary Group Leader Ven. Athureliye Rathana Thera, President Ven. Kotapola Amarakiththi Thera and JHU Policymaker Champaka Ranawaka represented the JHU.

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