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Fourth round in Thailand from January 6-9 : Government to propose new Constitution

by Ravi Ladduwahetty

The Government proposes to enact a new constitution without going for piecemeal amendments to the existing one which will be operational within a federal structure, Cabinet spokesman, Minister Prof. G.L. Peiris told the weekly cabinet news conference yesterday.

The Government will consult all political parties in this regard, he said.

The fourth round of the Government- LTTE peace talks will be in Nakhom Pathon, Thailand from January 6 to 9 where the topics to be discussed were finalised in Oslo.

One of the core areas that will be discussed will be the Human Rights and the devolution of power between the centre and the regions within the framework of a united Sri Lanka.

The main purpose of deliberating on the human rights will be that this will be laying the foundations for the donor conference in Tokyo in May 2003. Former Secretary General of Amnesty International Ian Martin will also play a key role in this exercise. He has had discussions with the Government and the LTTE, Prof. Peiris told journalists.

The Indian Foreign Secretary Kanwal Sibal has also reiterated to Prof. Peiris the firm support of the Indian Government to the peace process and confirmed that there were positive signals from the recently concluded meeting in Oslo.

Prof. Peiris also said that consideration would also be given to the rights relating to women and children who have been affected by the war and that would be a key criterion which the donor concerns would take into account in the allocation that has already been made of US $ 70 million.

The main purpose of the Oslo meeting was the consolidation of the ceasefire agreement where the forum was used to discuss matters in relation to the continuity of the ceasefire such as the sources of tension. It's important that the ceasefire was not impaired. That is something that we have achieved, Prof. Peiris said.

In addition to that, we achieved something unexpected and that was the political framework in which the issues are going to be deliberated. The LTTE has given up the idea of a separate state which was clearly reflected in Prabhakaran's Heroes' Day Message on November 23. Even LTTE Theoretician Anton Balasingham has announced that at the conclusion of the second round of talks at Nakhom Pathon, Thailand Prof. Peiris said.

While it was manifestly clear that the LTTE was not interested in a separate state, it was also obvious that the LTTE was not interested in a confederacy, which is a structure which could break away from the main structure after the holding of a referendum.

What was adopted by consensus during the discussions was the framework of a federal structure. The main elements of the proposals were: a federal structure within a united Sri Lanka without self-determination, Prof. Peiris said.

This means that the issues will have to be negotiated and settled within the framework of a federal state. This is not the first time that federalism was thought of in this country by the Tamil-speaking people of this country. The first request for a federal system came at the time of the Donoughmore Commission in 1931 from the upcountry Sinhalese. Many of the thoughts of federalism came up from Prime Minister S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike's speeches. It came up during the Bandaranaike-Chelvanayagam pact in 1958 and the Dudley Senanayake-Chelvanayagam pact in 1965 and that was the time that federalism was thought of as a solution to the problems of those times, he said.

The document which was released during the PA regime in 1995 as a basis of a negotiated settlement was also a federal structure. The comprehensive Draft Constitution that was presented to Parliament by the PA regime on August 3, 2000 also contained within it, a clear federal structure in the name of Union of Regions and this is nothing new, he said.

However, the fundamental difference is that the LTTE did not have the confidence in the PA systems and they did not come into the process. But, the LTTE is now right behind the process and has expressed its willingness to address the issues within the contours of a federated, unified state.

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