Rajapaksa ally seeks abolition of Lanka provincial councils
A key nationalist ally of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa is planning legislative action for the abolition of the country’s provincial councils while opposing local elections in the Tamil-dominated north. Udaya Gammanpila the deputy secretary of JHU (Heritage Party) said his party’s policy making central committee last night decided to move a parliamentary act within the next two weeks to abolish the thirteenth amendment (13A) to the Sri Lankan constitution. “We shall move parliament within the next two weeks to abolish the thirteenth amendment,” Gammanpila said. The 13A and the provincial councils entered Sri Lanka’s statutes in 1987 as part of the India-Sri Lanka Peace Accord which envisaged devolution of powers to the island’s provinces…
Lanka used for other’s benefit-G.L
External Affairs Minister Professor G.L Peiris says Sri Lanka is being used as a stage by some countries to gain the support of the United States. Speaking at an event organized by the American Chamber of Commerce in Colombo today the Minister said that Sri Lanka was aware that most countries who voted in support of a US sponsored resolution on Sri Lanka at the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) recently did so with other intentions. He said that they voted for the resolution not because they had concerns about Sri Lanka but because they did not want to go against the US. The Minister said that most of the countries which backed the resolution…
