SLFP political package, not of APRC - Tissa Vitarane

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 April 2007, 09:45 GMT]
The proposed devolution proposals to be submitted by the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) will not be of the United Peoples' Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government or of the All Party Representative Council (APRC). Devolution proposals would be submitted by SLFP, said Tissa Vitarane, Chairman of the APRC. Mr. Vitarane's comment came in the wake of reports that the SLFP, main constituent of the UPFA is to submit its political proposals to the APRC during the first week of May. APRC would formulate a political package based on recommendations submitted by all political parties, he added.

Vitarane is a senior minister in the UPFA government and also the General Secretary of the Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP), one of the constituents of the UPFA government.

Vitarane further said the next session of the APRC would not be convened until the SLFP submits its proposals.

The Sinhala nationalist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), and Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU), all monks' party have not submitted their proposals and are awaiting the release of the SLFP report, sources said.

Both parties have been urging the government to stick to its Mahinda Chinthanaya mandate received by President Mahinda Rajapakse in the 2005 presidential poll in finding a political solution to the ethnic conflict. According to Mahinda Chinthanaya, the resolution to the ethnic conflict should be based on unitary form of constitution and not on federal concept, sources said.