News - UNP boycotts new drive for all-party

President Mahinda Rajapaksa has called an all-party meeting on Tuesday to work out devolution proposals but with the UNP boycotting the meeting and the JVP scoffing at it, question marks have arisen over the exercise.

On the heels of a visit by a senior Indian envoy, President Mahinda Rajapaksa's government this week will take its first step toward crafting a power-sharing plan aimed at arriving at a "home grown," political solution to Sri Lanka's ethnic conflict.

A representative of each political party taking part in the All-Party Conference has been invited together with a 15-member multi-ethnic advisory board for the inaugural meeting chaired by President Rajapaksa on Tuesday.

The meeting takes place barely a week after India's Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran paid an unannounced visit to Colombo on Monday, and strongly urged the President to make some decisive political moves to prevent the island from sliding back to war.The message Mr. Saran conveyed was that Sri Lanka needed to devise a political solution to the conflict and needed to get moving on it immediately, according to senior presidential officials and diplomats.

Mr. Saran said devolving powers to the minority was the key if Sri Lanka was to raise its head from the spectre of war. To this end, Mr. Saran offered India's constitutional expertise.

Presidential Secretary Lalith Weeratunga flew to New Delhi, days after Mr. Saran's visit, to inform the giant neighbour of the Sri Lanka government's prompt response and plan to devise a political solution, presidential sources said.

Mr. Saran told Mr. Rajapaksa that India remained committed to support Sri Lanka’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. He also said India supported Norway's peace-building efforts and the 2002 ceasefire agreement, despite its shortcomings.

The Indian envoy conveyed his country’s concern over the influx of refugees to India amid Sri Lanka's escalating violence. His visit was also aimed at conveying to Tamil Nadu that the central government had acknowledged its southern state's apprehensions.

Even after six sessions of the All-Party Conference, there has been no significant step taken toward evolving or outlining a solution.

The original 12-member advisory board has been expanded to 15, to ensure there is adequate Tamil and Muslim representation. It is believed that representatives will hold strong views supporting both devolution and centralist policies.

"The idea is to draw up a broad framework that will create more options for discussion," Government spokesman and Minister Keheliya Rambukwella.
Asked about the parameters for the talks, he said the basis would be that the country could not be divided. "We can work from that point onward, maybe to go beyond the 13th amendment and see where it failed."

He espoused the "Indian model," as the most apt and hinted that it would be the framework most closely studied, as opposed to other power-sharing models like in Canada or Sudan.

"When you have one top class model … others can be supplementary," Mr. Rambukwella said. India has a quasi-federal system. There is a strong central government which has devolved powers to the states on a large number of subjects, with the exception of external affairs and defence. The states have the right to their own system of taxing, land and elections. However, the central government has the power to dissolve state governments.

"Weather we like it or not, India's shadow hovers over Sri Lanka," Mr. Rambukwella said. “It will have its own compulsions, but India cannot direct us to give more than it has given to the states."

Mr. Rabukwella said even nationalist parties like the JVP and the JHU were favourable towards an Indian model. He was reluctant to say if the government was working towards a federal model of devolution and stressed he didn't want to get bogged-down in terminology.

"Federalism is a dirty word in the south but not when it comes to the Indian model." Mr. Rambukwella was reluctant to attach a timeline to the exercise but said after a framework was complete, the government would send a fresh invitation to the LTTE for talks. Presidential sources said Mr. Rajapaksa hoped the exercise could be completed in “months rather than years”.

The LTTE has already rejected the government's moves as an attempt to pull wool over the eyes of the international community. The main opposition UNP has said it will not be a part of Tuesday's meeting.

UNP frontliner Rajitha Senaratne said yesterday the party would not attend Tuesday’s meetings mainly because extremists like the JHU and the JVP were still having a big say. He said the UNP would stay out and watch the situation. If a solution acceptable to the Tamil people, the LTTE and the international community was worked out, then the UNP would wholeheartedly support it.

The JVP has called the proposals for devolution "frivolous and meaningless." It was not immediately clear if the JVP will participate at the deliberations even though an invitation to MP Anura Dissanayake has been dispatched.