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Chandrika proposes panel for ethnic reconciliation

By V.S. Sambandan

COLOMBO. NOV. 12. The Sri Lankan President, Chandrika Kumaratunga, today proposed the setting up of a National Commission for Ethnic Reconciliation and Sustainable Peace, with the participation of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to resolve the decades-long ethnic conflict.

The President also wanted the country to move on to a new electoral system, abolish the executive presidency and provide for greater devolution of powers, based on the draft constitution prepared by her administration.

At a function to mark eight years of her Presidency, Ms. Kumaratunga said the objectives of the proposed committee would be to identify the core issues of the conflict and recommend negotiated solutions. In addition, the panel would also make recommendations to ensure the "safety and security of the Muslim and Sinhala communities in the north and the east.''

Ms. Kumaratunga wanted minority rights to be "further guaranteed'' with ``wide devolution of political and administrative powers to the regions on the basis of the Constitutional Drafts of 1997 and 2000.''

Outlining her vision for ethnic reconciliation and sustainable peace, Ms. Kumaratunga said "the fact that the LTTE does not appear to insist on the interim council is a good development.'' The setting up of an interim council, she said, "should only be considered after settlement of the core

issues have been negotiated and the LTTE agreed to lay down arms and enter the democratic political mainstream.''

On the handling of the peace process by the ruling United National Party (UNP), she said, "I am glad that the new UNP Government has taken action to carry forward through a negotiated settlement, the peace process commenced by me eight years ago.'' The measures adopted last year "to reduce tension between the antagonists, seem to progress satisfactorily,'' she said.

Ms. Kumaratunga was also happy that the Government had "taken serious note'' of her insistence "on the necessity to engage in a dialogue with the LTTE on the core issues.'' This, she said, had "resulted in the setting up of a committee to commence discussions on these matters.''

he President wanted human rights issues to be ``placed high on the agenda'' of the ongoing talks between the Government and the Tigers. "It must include the problems of child conscription, extortion, the guarantee of the rights of the Muslim and Sinhala people of the North and East and the guarantee of political plurality,'' she said.

Yet another issue that Ms. Kumaratunga wanted to be taken up was the award of compensation to victims of human rights violations, "whoever may have been the perpetrators of the atrocities.'' A Presidential Commission of Inquiry has dealt with the victims of the 1983 massacres but we have to now focus our attention on subsequent incidents of violence.

The 1983 anti-Tamil riots, Ms. Kumaratunga said, was a "clear failure of the Sri Lankan state to protect its Tamil citizens.''

Terming it "the watershed event in ethnic relations and a true national tragedy of epic proportions,'' the President said, "it is a failure, which I deeply regret.''

Dwelling at length on the reforms required, Ms. Kumaratunga said she was keen to abolish the executive presidency and bring in a new electoral system. "The excessive powers accorded to the

President could prove to be extremely dangerous, even fatal, to democracy and freedom, if a person with authoritarian leanings accedes to the post of President,'' she said. Linking its abolition to the democratisation and rationalisation of the electoral system, Ms. Kumaratunga proposed a system that would be a mix of "the first past the post" model and the existing proportional representation system.

The new system, which was being worked out for the past few years ``should be operative from the next general elections,'' she said.

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