SARATH AMUNUGAMA SEVERELY WARNS RANIL WICKREMESINGHE TO FACE CONSEQUENCES IF HE GRANTED INTERIM GOVERNMENT TO TAMIL TIGERS
By Walter Jayawardhana reporting from Los Angeles
May 25. 11.45 PM: Sri Lanka’s main opposition party the People’s Alliance (PA) said it
was vehemently opposed to the granting of an an interim administration to
the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam to govern Northern and Eastern
provinces and warned the Prime Minister of the country, Ranil Wickremesinghe
against taking such a step that it described as contravening the
Constitution of the country.
The spokesman of the main opposition, the People’s Alliance, Dr.
Sarath Amunugama said in Colombo that he was severely warning the Prime
Minister that he had no right to challenge the Sri Lanka constitution and
the Sri Lanka parliament by agreeing to a LTTE demand to grant the rebel
group authority and legality outside the constitution of Sri Lanka .
Dr. Amunugama , without elaborating cautioned the Prime Minister, “If
he acts illegally and unconstitutionally we will have to take constitutional
remedies.”
He said the People’s Alliance totally rejected the idea of setting up
of an interim administration and if the Prime Minister conceded he was in
absolute peril. Due to the paper thin majority the Prime Minister maintained
in Sri Lanka’s parliament the governing United National Front would not be
able to pass any such amendment to the country’s republican constitution
with out the support of the Opposition On the other hand the country’s
executive President who is also the leader of the People’s Alliance could ,
sack the Prime Minister’s government , dissolve the Parliament and call for
r fresh parliamentary elections.
Amunugama said the Prime Minister did not have any right to make any
promises to the LTTE about the establishment of an interim administration
without the consent of the President
The People’s Alliance was totally against the establishment of an
interim government since it was against the supreme law of the country Dr.
Amunugama reiterated. He said the full bench of the Supreme Court sat to
decide the devolution of power under the 13th amendment of the constitution
and in a four fifth verdict said even that needed two thirds of the votes in
the parliament. It was of the opinion if the 13th amendment went further in
the devolution of power it needed such a parliamentary majority plus a
referendum of all voters of the country. He said, therefore, there was no
doubt what the LTTE was proposing the government to do was illegal..
Dr. Amunugama said it was necessary for the government to ask for the
decommissioning of all weapons , democratic treatment of all other Tamils,.
those who were compelled not to live in fear of assassinations since they
refused to support the LTTE and strict observations of human rights by the
LTTE and the cessation of violence as a political means by the Tigers before
any devolution of power was discussed with them.
He reminded that the Irish Republican Army had to give up weapons
before any devolution of power in the country and that’s how a government
with a backbone would respond . But here in Sri Lanka the LTTE was only
involved in squeezing the government as one would squeeze a slice of lime
for its last drop of juice. How could such a Fascist group be recognized as
capable of becoming the sole representative of the Tamil people and be
handed over the reins of a government in the North and East he questioned.
