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The Government is maintaining absolute silence regarding the judgement on Prabhakaran, PA Media Spokesman Dr.Sarath Amunugama told the PA weekly media briefing yesterday.

Amunugama said Prabhakaran has been sentenced to 200 years in jail. This is a record, because nobody has been sentenced to such a long period in prison by the Sri Lankan judiciary.

" We want to know what the Government is going to do about this. The Minister of Justice has not reacted. The Constitutional Affairs Minister currently in Bangkok has said this will not affect the peace process. This is very funny."

PA MP Nimal Siripala de Silva said the Government must announce its position, because a court of law has given a judgement and it is upto the Government to take action.

He said the Opposition is keen to know the action contemplated by the Government. We hope the Government and the Prime Minister will uphold the Constitution and ensure that the rule of law prevails.

"We don't see much progress in the peace process, except for photo sessions. We don't see much seriousness in peace talks. The public has not been educated on the views exchanged at peace talks," he said.

De Silva said if the Government should take up core issues with the LTTE. The Government should educate the public on the outcome of the discussions.

He said: "Even Anton Balasingham has stated that this Government is not stable enough to go into the core issues. The latest position of the LTTE is that this Government is not stable. Therefore they are postponing the core issues."

"With regard to the judgement, probably if they want time they will appeal to the Supreme Court. This is not a final judgement, because there is a right of appeal from the judgement of the Court of Appeal. But no appeal has been logged so far, there is a particular time period for that," the MP added.

"Therefore it is not correct time for us to make any other comments at this stage. But the Government should take appropriate action in this regard. There is not only a legal factor but also a moral factor. Those are the issues which have to be sought out," he said.

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