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| Sunday, 30 November 2003 |
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UNP reaction unfortunate - President President Chandrika Kumaratunga who on Friday made public her power-sharing proposal for the creation of a national consensus has said that she is very keen to have a partnership of all parties for the pursuit of peace, democracy, good governance and the development of infrastructure facilities and has described the UNP reaction as 'unfortunate'. "The President has said that it is very unfortunate that the UNF government has not agreed to implement these proposals", Janadasa Peiris, Director General of Presidential Secretariat (Media), said. The United National Party, yesterday rejected the 'partnership' offer saying that they would not approve the proposals as the mandate had been given by the people to the UNP to carry out its tasks without political obstructions. A senior UNP spokesman said that on the mandate given to the UNP by the people, it has shouldered a heavy responsibility to devise effective plans to continue with the peace process, with an emphasis on overall development of different areas of the economy. In a seven page document, the President put forward a number of proposals to the UNF government for the creation of a national consensus and collaborative spirit to achieve peace, strengthen democracy and the electoral process, strengthen good governance, and to ensure the development of infrastructure facilities. The proposals that offers a one year time frame and seeks to resolve disputes between the President and the Prime Minister, is described as a mutual agreement that 'would only serve as a starting point' and that further co-operation efforts will be made to expand such cooperation between all political parties in the national interest. The Proposals on the areas of peace, Norway's facilitation role, SLMM's monitoring role, resumption of peace talks, independent election commission, police commission, compensations for and eradication of political violence, enhancing good governance, free and fair media and infrastructure programme include: - Setting up on a Joint Peace Council (JPC) co-chaired by the President and the Prime Minister to oversee and manage the overall Peace process - JPC to be assisted by an Advisor Council on Peace comprising representatives of all political parties, clergy, professionals and other national groups. - The President to be in charge of Defence, and through the Secretary of Defence provide the necessary support facilities to the JPC. - Prime Minister to be in charge of Peace Negotiations with the LTTE. - The Prime Minister to nominate a suitable candidate as Minister assisting Defence. - Norway to continue with its facilitation role - Norway to be asked to make arrangements to resume Peace talks with the LTTE, and the present government delegation to resume one or two rounds of talks in January 2004. - To continue with the present working arrangement with the SLMM. - To take into consideration the response of the Muslims to the ISGA proposals. - Form a national peace negotiating delegation in consultation with an approval of the JPC. - Appoint an independent governing council for all State Media. |
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