UNP rejects federal solution to Tamil issue

Deputy Foreign Minister Ajith P. Perera 

The United National Party (UNP) yesterday rejected a proposed federal solution to address issues faced by Tamils in the country and reiterated that it stood for a united Sri Lanka.

Deputy Foreign Minister Ajith P. Perera said that the UNP would not allow a situation to arise where the Sinhalese, Tamils and Muslims were unable to live in unity in one country. The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) had, in its election manifesto released this week, proposed that power sharing arrangements continue to be established as it existed earlier in a unit of a merged Northern and Eastern Province based on a federal structure.

The manifesto also noted that Tamil-speaking Muslims who historically inhabited the area should be beneficiaries of all power-sharing arrangements in the Northeast.

Perera said that the policy of the UNP and the United National Front for Good Governance was to devolve powers to the provinces in consultation with all concerned and within a united and undivided Sri Lanka.

 “We will not agree to a federal solution,” Perera insisted.

The Deputy Foreign Minister also said that the UNP had no agreement with the TNA and that it never had one even at the earlier election.

Perera said that the UNP was confident of winning the 17 August parliamentary election which it was contesting together with its partners from the United National Front for Good Governance. (Colombo Gazette)