APRC final draft to President on Jan. 23

Government to go ahead with implementation of political solution:

Ranil Wijayapala

The final draft for a political solution agreed upon by the All Party Representative Committee (APRC) is due to be handed over to President Mahinda Rajapaksa on January 23.

This follows a request made by the President yesterday from the APRC Chairman, Minister Prof Tissa Vitharana, the Presidential Secretariat said last night.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa intends to go ahead with the process of implementing a political solution after enlightening the Cabinet and other political parties once he received the final draft of proposals from the APRC Chairman on January 23.

The Presidential Secretariat said that the President made this request yesterday at a special meeting held at Temple Trees with the participation of APRC members, party leaders representing the Government and party leaders not represented in Parliament.

The meeting was convened yesterday by the President to discuss matters relating to the provision of an acceptable solution to the ethnic conflict in the country.

According to the Secretariat, the President has pointed out that though political parties are having diverse opinions on the political solution to the ethnic conflict they should be determined to decide on a set of proposals which can be implemented practically.

According to the Presidential Secretariat, the APRC members brought the issues discussed at the APRC at length to the notice of the President and party leaders at this meeting.

The APRC which was formed to evolve a political solution under the leadership of President Mahinda Rajapaksa had met 57 times to agree upon a final draft with political parties forwarding diverse proposals to the APRC.

Minister of Science and Technology and Chairman of the APRC Prof. Tissa Vitharana said a few days back that almost all the major issues had been finalised, barring a couple of proposals which were being deliberated in order to put the final touches.

Prof.Vitharana hinted that the current discussions centred on the role of the central Government with matters pertaining to the provincial level already being finalised.

The process of evolving a political solution has been seen as a challenge before the Government with the abrogation of the Ceasefire Agreement with the LTTE, to defeat the LTTE militarily and to address the just grievances of the Tamil community through a political solution.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa, Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayaka, Ministers Maitripala Sirisena, Nimal Siripala de Silva, D.M. Jayaratne, Rohitha Bogollagama, Dullas Alahapperuma and MP Basil Rajapaksa participated at the meeting representing the Government.

APRC Chairman, Minister Prof. Tissa vitharana, and party representative Karu Jayasuriya, Douglas Devananda, D.E.W. Gunasekera, Dinesh Gunawardena, Rizad Badiudeen, P. Rathakrishnan, R. Yogaraj, Abdul Kalam, Champika Ranawaka, Ferial Ashraff, A.H.M. Athaullah, Ranjith Navaratne, Raja Collure and P.M. Podiappuhamy participated at this meeting.