Sri Lanka main opposition calls for genuine power sharing

Sri Lanka's main opposition United National Party (UNP) says that a solution to the country's long drawn out separatist armed conflict could only be reached through a genuine power sharing plan with the minority Tamil community.

S.B. Dissanayake, the UNP national organizer, told reporters here Thursday that his party would be extending its fullest support to Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse's peace plans.

"The problem cannot be solved within a unitary framework," Dissanayake said, referring to Rajapakse's public pronouncements that the island's unitary nature must be preserved in looking for a solution to the conflict with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels.

Dissanayake, who was released last month from jail after having spent a 14-month jail sentence for contempt of court charges, said the country's constitution had lost its unitary status with the introduction of the provincial councils system of devolution introduced in 1987.

"There has to be measures to build up confidence between the government and the LTTE. So they must bury past differences when talking peace," Dissanayake said, referring to the face-to-face talks between the Tigers and the government held in Geneva.

He said the Tamil minority should be given powers as all the conflicts all over the world had shown that sharing of power was the only answer.

The government and the Tigers are to meet for the second time in Geneva in April where the progress in the pledges made at the first round of talks in mid February could be reviewed.

More than 64,000 people were killed in Sri Lanka's separatist armed conflict as fighting escalated since the mid 1980s.

The Norwegian peace brokers are getting the two sides engaged in face-to-face talks with a view to bring about a lasting solution.

Source: Xinhua