North-East destiny must be decided by the people - PM

Ranil Wijayapala and Rajmi Manatunga

KOTTE: The supreme power of deciding the destiny of the North and East provinces, whether they should be merged or de-merged, lies with the people living there but not with the Government or an armed group, Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake told Parliament yesterday.

"Any Government, through an arbitrary decision or any armed group through its power of weapons cannot decide the destiny of the people living in the North and East.

That has to be decided by the people at a referendum," the Prime Minister asserted.

Making a special statement in Parliament on the Government's stance on the recent Supreme Court judgement invalidating the merger of the North-East provinces, the Prime Minister said no provisions are available in the present Constitution to merge two or three adjoining provinces together.

The Government respected the independence of the judiciary and in no way would interfere with its decision making process.

"Unless special provisions are enacted in Parliament there is no provision for any Government to merge two or three provinces and continue it as one administrative structure," the Prime Minister said.

He noted that Parliament had still not passed a Bill for the temporary merger of the North-East province although it is empowered to do so under clause 154 A(3) of the Constitution. Such legislature should also incorporate determinants on merging and demerging provinces.

He also pointed out that the LTTE has no moral right to insist on the Government to continue North and East as one Province without fulfilling conditions that have to be met on their part.

According to the Indo-Sri Lanka Peace Accord, renouncing violence and decommissioning of weapons were pre-conditions that had to be fulfilled on the part of the LTTE for the formation of the North-East Provincial Council under the 13th Amendment to the Constitution.

"Presenting the Indo-Lanka Accord on February 25, 1988, President J.R. Jayawardene said he was bringing in the Indian Peace Keeping Force as the LTTE continued to engage in violence without de-commissioning their weapons in line with the Accord," the Prime Minister added. But he said the North-East would be temporarily merged and the provincial councils would be established. The merger was effected on September 8, 1988.

"If the LTTE genuinely expected the betterment of the Tamil Community they would have at least taken steps to establish and preserve democratic rights."

The Prime Minister said the LTTE continuously engaged in violence by killing political opponents, conscripting children and assassinating Sinhala and Tamil political leaders who attempted to solve the North and East problem through peaceful means while the Government respected the Constitutional Amendments and ceasefire agreements. Both ceasefire agreements (1994 and 2002) have been violated by the LTTE.

"As a responsible Government, we reiterate the necessity for the LTTE to create a conducive environment by demonstrating their humanity for the people in the North and East to decide their destiny within the democratic process," the Prime Minister added.

"We appeal to all the political parties to make a concerted effort to preserve the democratic rights of the North and East people to decide their future," he said.

The Government was taking steps to create an environment conducive for the exercise of democratic rights in the North-East areas, he added.