“I am committed to negotiated
solution” – President Rajapaksa to Ambassador Boucher
[Thursday,
June 1, 2006 - 11.30 GMT]
 President Mahinda
Rajapaksa told Ambassador Richard A Boucher, US for South and Central
Asia that he was committed to a negotiated solution to the ethnic crisis
in Sri Lanka, and would call on the All Party Conference that meets
tomorrow (June 2) to work out suitable proposals for devolution of power
to achieve this end.
Ambassador Boucher
was told by the President that he would ask the All Party Conference to
have a fresh outlook into this matter, and arrive at consensus on
proposals that could be placed before the LTTE for negotiation. He
stressed that the failure of earlier proposals to solve this crisis was
because they did not have the agreement of the LTTE, and it would not be
practicable to impose any unilateral solution, without agreement with
the LTTE.
President Rajapaksa
explained the need to seek a Sri Lankan solution, and not be confined to
the solutions in other countries, although he did not rule out the
possibility of some of those solutions being suitable in the Sri Lankan
context.
The President further
explained to Ambassador Boucher that the LTTE too should look at the
present opportunity to arrive at a negotiated settlement and come for
discussions, while also understanding that acts of violence such as
massacres of civilians, attacks on children, Human Rights violations and
the tactics of terror cannot achieve the desired results for the Tamil.
Referring to the
pattern of violence in the country, President Rajapaksa told Ambassador
there was a pattern of provocation and attempts to put the blame on the
government for acts which it would never do. He also said the LTTE was
seeking to provoke reprisals from other sections of the Sri Lankan
population. He referred to the assassination of TNA parliamentarian
Joseph Pararajasingham at Christmas Midnight Service inside a church;
the attack at Trincomalee just before the traditional Sinhala & Tamil
New Year and Good Friday; the and the attempt to attack a ship carrying
over 700 unarmed troops and ceasefire monitors on the eve of the Vesak
festival, the most important day in the Buddhist calendar, which marked
2550th anniversary of the Buddha’s birth.
Referring to possible
allegations of government complicity in acts of violence such as the
attack on the Udayan newspaper, the President questioned as to why the
government should carry out any such acts which would only hurt itself,
with this attack taking place. He noted that this attack took place when
a large number of foreign journalists were in Colombo to mark World
Press Freedom Day.
PRINT
THIS STORY
Contact Information: Send mail to gosl@presidentsl.org with questions or comments about this web site.
Last Updated
Date: June 1, 2006 -11.30 GMT |
