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Rajapaksa awaits all-party report

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Saturday said that he expected the All-Party Representative Committee (APRC) Chairman and Minister Tissa Vitharana to submit an interim report on a political solution to the ethnic conflict, by January 23.

In an informal talk with a small group of journalists at the Presidential Palace on the occasion of a Thai Pongal reception he hosted, Mr. Rajapaksa said he had summoned leaders of political parties and APRC members on January 9 to discuss an acceptable solution to the ethnic conflict. The decision came days after the government gave Norway the mandatory 14-day notice for withdrawal from the Cease Fire Agreement (CFA) with the LTTE.

Mr. Rajapaksa said that after studying the interim report of the committee he would place it before the Cabinet. “You can’t expect me to accept the APRC recommendations in toto. What if they seek my resignation?” the President said in a lighter vein.

The APRC was constituted by Mr. Rajapaksa in mid-2006 to advise on a solution to the conflict. However, the status of the APRC was diminished after the principal opposition party, UNP walked out of it in protest against the decision of the President to induct dissident Parliamentarians from the party into the Cabinet. The JVP has also walked out of the committee and wants the President to dissolve it. The pro-LTTE Tamil National Alliance (TNA) was not invited to be a part of the committee.

In another development, the military claimed that successive LTTE attacks were thwarted at the borders of Kilinochchi and Mullaittivu, as troops advanced further, “consolidating the positions in Wanni and north”. The military claimed that 32 LTTE cadres were killed and many injured in the clashes.

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