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| Tuesday, 1 July 2003 |
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Politics | |
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| Security situation must be reviewed - PA by Uditha Kumarasinghe The People's Alliance on Friday warned the Government and the people of the country to be on the alert and also that the Eastern Province will be in great danger within the next two weeks. "The PA warns the Government to be alert on a possible attack in the Eastern Province, PA Media Spokesman Dr. Sarath Amunugama told the PA weekly media briefing. "The PA would like to seriously state that this Government is ill-prepared to deal with a sudden attack and even the President has clearly pointed this out. "We are very serious on this matter. Even the President has told the public that the Army is unprepared under this Government. So we urge the Government even at this late hour to review the security situation in the country particularly in the East," he said. He also said the country faces a very dangerous security situation where the MoU is being flouted openly. There is flagrant of the MoU by the LTTE walking into Police stations in the heart of Colombo and killing senior Police officials by shooting them. This is total rejection of the MoU. Commenting on the interim administration issue, Amunugama said that the PA wants the interim administration to be linked to a discussion and settlement of the core issues. "Everybody is talking about the Scottish model, the type of arrangement they made is called an enduring settlement. The interim arrangements are consequent to an enduring arrangement. This is exactly what the PA has also been saying," he said. He said that there must be a discussion of the core issues and agreement of the settlement. Then some type of interim arrangement can be made on the way making the final settlement. This has been the consistent position of all the leaders of this country upto now. President Kumaratunga and former Presidents J. R. Jayewardene and R. Premadasa also linked this to a final resolution. At present the Government is thinking of a "stand alone" interim arrangement. This is a very unsatisfactory situation. " Whatever interim arrangements were made, they must be linked to a discussion of the core issues and a final solution. It should be within the Constitution of the country," he said. Amunugama said the statement made by the LTTE Chief Negotiator Anton Balasingham on June 25 has revealed his ideas regarding the Tokyo donor conference. " Regarding not only the Tokyo conference but also all the previous negotiations, Balasingham presented a critique of the proceedings on the modalities of the past negotiating sessions and argued that the facilitators were entitled to work on an agenda to placate the international donor community thereby ignoring the urgent problems of the people." In one sentence, Balasingham has refused all the key words (guidelines, milestones and road map) used in the Tokyo declaration urging that the talks should address the crucial issues related to the hard existential realities of the ground situation, he said. |
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