Rajapakse invites UNP as Norway, India meet Wickremesinghe

[TamilNet, Sunday, 27 August 2006, 06:43 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapakse on Friday invited the main opposition United National Party (UNP) to join his government, press reports said Sunday. In a letter to the UNP leadership, President Rajapakse had called on the opposition to join his Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) led government so as to resolve the ‘crisis’ in Sri Lanka, The Sunday Leader broadsheet said. Days after two up-country Tamil parties joined the government, President Rajapakse is also courting the main Muslim party, the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC), the paper added.

The President’s letter had been sent Friday to UNP Deputy Leader Karu Jayasuriya in the absence of UNP Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe who was away in Norway, The Sunday Leader and Sunday Times newspapers said.

Wickremesinghe was in Oslo holding talks on the crisis in Sri Lanka with Norway's International Development Minister Erik Solheim and other officials, the Leader said.

India's Secretary for External Affairs Shyam Saran was also in Oslo for talks on the Sri Lankan crisis, the Sunday Leader added.

The President’s invitation to the UNP also comes in the wake of international pressure to address the humanitarian crisis in the Northeast and for the SLFP and UNP to work together to develop a southern consensus, the Sunday Leader said.

International concern has been mounting over the plight of 160,000 people, mainly Tamils, displaced by months of violence which was included indiscriminate shelling and bombing by the Sri Lankan armed forces of Tamil-Tiger held areas.

The Sunday Leader has learnt that Sri Lanka’s Human Rights Ministry has failed to address the urgent humanitarian needs of the displaced as urged by the international community due to restrictions on movements [of aid and aid workers] imposed by the Defence Ministry.

In Oslo, India’s Saran had discussed the humanitarian crisis in Sri Lanka, its fallout in India and the need to ensure a speedy cessation of hostilities with Solheim and Norwegian Foreign Minister J. Gahr Store, the paper said.

A top EU source in Brussels also told The Sunday Leader the Sri Lankan government faces the prospect of sanctions unless the humanitarian crisis is not addressed as a matter of utmost urgency.

The Sunday Leader learns Wickremesinghe, on being contacted by Jayasuriya about President Rajapakse’s offer told the UNP deputy leader they would discuss the offer upon his (Wickremsinghe’s) return to the country on Sunday (today).

The UNP, informed sources told the newspaper, will consider the President's offer if an agreement can be reached on a common agenda to resolve the national issues. That would include a solution to the ethnic issue based on the Tokyo Declaration and an agreed policy for the economy, the sources said.

The pro-UNP Sunday Leader is known to be closely aware of UNP thinking and internal politics.

Meanwhile, Presidential Advisor Basil Rajapakse (Mahinda’s brother) met SLMC Leader Rauf Hakeem Friday evening and invited his party also to join the government, the paper said.

Hakeem told Rajapakse he will consult his party and reply shortly, it added.

President Mahinda Rajapakse’s appeal to the UNP comes amid press reports of the SLFP’s difficulty in acceding to some of the demands of the ultra-nationalist Janatha Vimukthi Perumana (JVP).

The contentious demands on the JVP’s list include the abrogation of the Ceasefire Agreement (CFA) with the Liberation Tigers, the rejection of Norwegian facilitation and de-merger of the Northeast.

The Sunday Leader quoted political analysts as saying the President's offer to the UNP “could be an attempt to subdue the JVP and get it to climb down on its hardline demands under the threat of isolation [than a genuine offer to the UNP].”

The JVP, which has anti-free market economic policies had set out twenty conditions for it to join the SLFP-led government.

The Sunday Times reported this week that the JVP’s entry into the SLFP-led government was discussed again last Wednesday at a meeting in which the Marxist party’s 20 demands were taken up.

“Of the 20 demands made by the JVP, ten were already being heeded, with ten outstanding. Of that ten, the Government was in the process of fulfilling six, and only four were considered contentious,” the paper said.

The latter include the abrogation of the February 2002 Ceasefire Agreement (CFA), the ending of Norway’s role as facilitator and de-merger of the Northeast.

The JVP politburo has decided to place the SLFP’s responses for a final decision before the party’s Central Committee, the Sunday Times reported.

Meanwhile, the Sunday Times also reported that the hardline monks’ party, the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU), which supports the government, was angered by another move of President Rajapaksa – inviting the Ceylon Workers’ Congress (CWC) and the Upcountry People’s Front (UPF) into his Government.

On Friday the President swore in CWC leader Arumugam Thondaman as a cabinet minister and gave two deputy ministers posts to his party MPs. UPF leader P Chandrasekeran was also sworn in as a cabinet minister and one of his MPs as a deputy.

The Sunday Leader quoted analysts as pointing out that the President's offer to the UNP was made after clinching separate deals with the CWC and UPF so that the bargaining power of the main opposition party will be diminished.

Interestingly, the Sunday Leader also said if the UNP agrees to join the government, President Mahinda Rajapakse “has decided the JVP will not be allowed to constitute the main opposition in Parliament.”

The Sunday Leader said, without elaborating, “the President is looking at an arrangement where one of the principal parties can continue to function as the opposition while some members serve in the government as ministers.”