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Sri Lankan FM says power sharing process in final
stage
TOKYO, Dec 11, 2007 (AFP) -
Sri Lanka’s efforts to draft a plan to share power with minority
Tamils are now in the final stage, the country’s foreign minister
said Tuesday.
The Sri Lankan government has set up a panel to draft a new constitution
in a bid to end a separatist conflict which has claimed over 60,000
lives since 1972.
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse had originally wanted to
offer a political package to Tamils earlier this year, but it has
been held up due to squabbling within his ruling coalition.
“I’m happy to announce that the process has now entered
the final stage,” Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama
told a press conference during a visit to Tokyo, adding that an
announcement was expected “shortly”.
Japan, Sri Lanka’s largest aid donor, and other key backers
have pressed for power-sharing as a means to end Asia’s longest-running
guerrilla war.
Bogollagama also brushed aside criticisim about Sri Lanka’s
human rights record.
“Sri Lanka has the best systems in relations to fundamental
rights of people and the rights of access to the judicial system
in the event of violations. And we have a freedom of media. We can
criticise the president, everybody,” he said.
Britain’s top envoy to Sri Lanka Monday asked the government
to improve its human rights record and politically end the island’s
drawn out Tamil separatist conflict or risk international sanctions.
Sri Lanka has repeatedly resisted calls for United Nations monitoring
of human rights amidst allegations that over 1,000 people had been
killed or disappeared at the hands of government forces fighting
Tamil rebels this year.
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