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S. L. GUNASEKERA WARNS BY LEGAL OBSTACLES HE WOULD STOP ANY LTTE LED INTERIM GOVERNMENT FOR THE NORTH & THE EAST
S.L. Gunasekara
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By Walter Jayawardhana reporting from Los Angeles:
june 10, 07:20 PM: Nationalist political leader and senior lawyer S.L. Gunasekera said he would stop any anti-constitutional step of the government directly or indirectly granting an interim government to the Tamil Tigers.
President of the Sinhala Jathika Sangamaya and one of Sri Lanka’s leading constitutional lawyers, S.L. Gunasekera said that he would certainly create legal obstacles to stop such interim government from functioning if Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s government would grant an interim administrative structure to the LTTE contravening the Constitution of Sri Lanka.
Speaking from Colombo, S.L.Gunasekera said the people of Sri Lanka certainly did not give a mandate to the United National Front (UNF) government as claimed by the Tamil Tigers and other Tamil parties to grant an interim government to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam since the UNF elections manifesto never mentioned the word LTTE when it said about an interim administration for the country’s North and the East.
Gunasekera further pointed out, in a radio interview, that when Tilvin Silva, General Secretary of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna wrote to the then deputy leader of the UNP, Gamini Athukorale, inquiring into the UNP proposal he replied and said the interim administration council of the North and East would consist of administrative officers only.
The Sinhala Jathika Sangamaya President emphasized that the voters of this country were never asked their opinion about allowing a LTTE dominated interim government for the North and the East and the voters never gave such a mandate.
He said the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) would never accept an interim government if it was not run under them or they were not given the reins to control it.
He said any such structure created would contravene the constitution.
Gunasekera said judging from the other acts of the government, it was quite possible for this government to create some fraudulent and deceptive structure that looked legal on the paper but granting the de-facto power to the LTTE. Under such an arrangement the government could nominally say the parliament would be the ultimate authority but LTTE could appoint officials to work at the behest of the LTTE, which would be against the constitution, S.L. Gunasekera emphasized. Any fraudulent method also would be vehemently fought against, Gunasekera assured.
(10/06/03 go2lanka.com)