Sri Lankan president offers to share defense powers to end political impasse

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Sunday, December 21, 2003

Sri Lankan president offers to share defense powers to end political impasse

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Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga in her renewed efforts to reach a compromise with the government of her arch political rival Ranil Wickremesinghe has agreed to exercise flexibility in sharing defense powers and get the stalled peace process moving ahead, the official Sunday Observer said.

Kumaratunga was looking into the possibilities of creating a "Joint Peace Council" with a view to get the stalled Norwegian-brokered peace process back on track and moving ahead, the paper said.

It said Kumaratunga has agreed to a degree of flexibility in sharing the powers of the ministries of defence, interior and media with the prime minister or a minister nominated by him to facilitate the peace process and other activities related to it.

The power-sharing will be extended to expedite dealings with the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission, Norwegian facilitators, mattersconcerning the ceasefire agreement between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels signed between the two sides in February last year and infrastructure development in the war-battered north and east, the paper said.

However, the paper said that Kumaratunga had made an irrevocable decision not to return the three ministries to the government as she had taken them under the purview in accordance with the constitution on Nov. 4, which has plunged the country into an unprecedented political crisis ever since.

The political crisis has remained unresolved for more than one month as the government has turned down the offers of President Kumaratunga for the establishment of a government of reconstruction and reconciliation, the creation of the ministries of assisting defense and national security.

A committee comprising top aides of the president and the primeminister has so far failed to reach a compromise formula to end the political crisis.

Kumaratunga has said that the powers of the defense is her inalienable constitutional rights but Wickremesinghe insists that he must have the control of defense to push forward the Norwegian-brokered peace process.

Peace talks between the government and the LTTE rebels was stalled in April by the rebels following six previous rounds whichcommenced in September last year.

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