Sri Lankan Minister S.B. Dissanayake warned that granting land and police powers to the North and East will result in the LTTE regrouping and rallied against the 13th Amendment, on Sunday.
Speaking at a public rally in Passara, Dissanayake spoke out against implementation of the 13th Amendment and slammed the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), saying,
“We cannot allow terrorism to raise its head again. We cannot give what the TNA wants. We cannot give what the Northern Provincial Council wants. We cannot give land and police powers.”
See more from Colombo Gazette here.
His comments come after the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met with Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Saturday called for a political solution in Sri Lanka that "builds upon the 13th Amendment".
See more in our earlier post: Modi meets TNA, calls for political solution addressing Tamil aspirations (23 August 2014)
Dissanayake, Sri Lanka’s Higher Education Minister, had last week accused the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and the Northern Provincial Council (NPC) of working with “foreign forces”, stating that there was an international conspiracy being hatched against the government.
See more from the Sunday Leader here.
Also see our earlier posts:
Rajapaksa says no to devolving police powers... again (19 August 2014)
Police powers will not be given to provinces says Sri Lanka's cabinet spokesperson (02 June 2014)
Police powers will not be devolved reiterates Sri Lanka (04 June 2014)
Rajapaksa reiterates that land and police powers will not be distributed (30 July 2013)
Police powers creates risk of parallel army – Basil (18 July 2013)
Underwhelming announcement, no police powers (19 June 2013)
Ruling coalition party to campaign against PC land & police powers (30 May 2013)