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Multi-ethnic panel to advise Rajapakse

B. Muralidhar Reddy

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka on Wednesday announced a 12-member multi-ethnic committee to advise President, Mahinda Rajapakse on power sharing in the Tamil dominated north and east in its efforts to address the ethnic strife in the island nation.

The announcement came a day after India called for "special efforts" to halt the spiralling violence and revive political dialogue on devolution of powers in the country.

Policy Planning Minister Keheliya Rambukwella told a news conference here that the new committee would study models from all over the world including India and Canada. "What the President wants is that the new committee should study devolution models all over the world and look at the successes and form something that is best suited for us," Mr. Rambukwella said.

The latest committee is an initiative outside the ongoing All Party Conference (APC) convened by Mr. Rajapakse to work out a consensus on political measures required to redress the grievances of various minority ethnic groups. "Indian model" is the buzz word in Sri Lanka though Mr. Rajapakse has been talking on the need for a "Sri Lanka model."

The APC has so far not made much headway due to reluctance of the main Opposition party, United National Party (UNP) to nominate its representative. Mr. Rajapakse is trying to persuade the UNP to join the initiative and in recent days asked even the LTTE to come up with proposals on devolution of powers.

19th anniversary

On the 19th anniversary of Black Tiger suicide bomber squad "celebrations" on Wednesday, the LTTE said the Black Tigers are an "indispensable arsenal in our Tamil freedom struggle" and would play a decisive role in future. The TamilNet reported that Black Tigers day was observed in the Muttur east in the Trincomalee district and Vaharai division in the Batticaloa district on a large scale.

Separately, the Sri Lanka military said the LTTE with callous disregard for school going children was instigating them to attack Security Forces in Jaffna. It said a hand grenade was thrown at Security Forces in the town near a school. "The soldiers could not retaliate due to the grenade being thrown from inside the school while classes were being held", it said.

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