Main opposition of Sri Lanka calls for the government to be clear on a political solution

Sri Lanka's main opposition United National Party (UNP) says the government needed to arrive at a clear stance with regard to the political solution to the ethnic issue and present it to parliament for discussion. UNP General Secretary Tissa Attanayake told a press conference today that
the government did not seem interested in fully implementing the 13th Amendment to the Constitution. Therefore, he said, land and police powers would never be devolved by the government although there is provision for it in the Constitution. Attanayake observed that in such a scenario, the government should come up with an alternative system of devolving power. According to the UNP Secretary, the government is not keen on finding a political solution to the ethnic issue. Attanayake pointed out that the proposed parliamentary select committee (PSC) to find a political solution to the ethnic issue would be a futile exercise since it would also suffer the same fate as the All Party Representative Committee (APRC). The opposition party has not yet named their representatives to the PSC. The government has said earlier that it is willing to discuss the police and land power issue with the Tamil National Alliance and reach a compromise on the extent of land and police powers that could be devolved to the provinces. Several constituent parties of ruling United People's Freedom Alliance, including the Muslim parties and an upcountry Tamil party have expressed opposition to devolving absolute police and land powers to the Tamil-dominated areas in the north and east according to the 13th Amendment to the Constitution.