Nambiar delivers HSZ report to Lanka's PM

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 May 2003, 02:23 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Mr.Ranil Wickremesinghe told parliament Thursday during the special debate in Sri Lanka parliament that the report submitted by a former Indian army official, Satish Nambiar, on high security zones in the northeast has been forwarded to the Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunge, parliamentary sources said.

Mr. Wickremesinghe added he could not divulge the contents of the report in parliament for national security reasons. He said the Nambiar report would be available to the leader of the opposition and the President of the Editors Guild of Sri Lanka.

The report would be made available to parliamentarians in his office at Temple Trees, Mr. Wickremesinghe said.

The leader of the Opposition Mr.Mahinda Rajapakse participating in the debate said the government should sign a defence agreement with India to safeguard the territorial integrity of the country. He demanded the resignation of the UNF government as it has failed to achieve peace.

Mr.Mahinda Rajapakse requested the UNF government to take immediate steps to replace the present members of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission with a new set of monitors. He accused the present SLMM monitors of heavily biased towards the LTTE, parliamentary sources said.

Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian Mr.R.Sampanthan said that the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the country cannot be safeguarded with military might. The previous government was unable to reopen the A9 highway through military operation. He reminded the opposition that the A9 highway to Jaffna was reopened only when peace returned.

He said Tamils and Muslims in the northeast could solve their grievances and problems satisfactorily.

Minister of Highways and the leader of the rebel group of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) Mr.A.L.M. Athaullah said northeast province should be de-merged to provide security to Muslims in the east.

SLMC leader and Minister Mr.Rauff Hakim said the rights of Muslims could be safeguarded even under the merged northeast province.