UNP has 30 days to submit Proposals - PA

[TamilNet, Thursday, 11 June 1998, 23:59 GMT]
The Sri Lankan government will consider a referendum if the country's main opposition party, the UNP, does not submit its counter proposals to the ruling People's Alliance package for constitutional changes in a month said Sri Lanka's minister for justice and deputy minister for finance G.L Pieris today answering questions from the media at the weekly cabinet press briefing in Colombo.

He said that the PA government has given the UNP one more month to come up with its counter proposals. The minister said that the opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe had assured the Tamil parties who had met him to urge the need to have the counter proposals soon that he will expedite the process.

Ravinath Ariyasinghe, a spokesman of the Sri Lankan foreign ministry, replied in the negative when he was asked whether the Sri Lankan government will appeal in US courts against the interim injunction obtained by Tamil expatriate organisations recently. He told journalists the foreign ministry has heard of the injunction but has no intention of doing anything about it.

The government spokesmen were asked whether Sri Lankan government(SLG), in the light of allegations made by its Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar, is going to take any action against various front organisations of the Liberation Tigers raising money in western countries.

Responding to this the foreign ministry spokesman said that it is up to the western governments to act on these matters and that the SLG cannot do anything aboutthose activities.