Devananda Seeks Interim Councils for North East

(October, 07, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Social Welfare Minister Devananda visiting India is advocating an interim administration for the country's war-battered northeast and says he wants to play a key role in the region's governance.

Minister Douglas Devananda met Indian leaders and policy makers here during the course of a brief stay discussing ideas about an interim administration for both the northern and eastern wings of Sri Lanka.

Keeping in mind the fact that the northeast has now been divided into two provinces, Devananda is seeking an Interim Executive Council for the north and another for the east and an apex body, Joint Executive Council, for an overview of the northeast.

'A military solution can never be the answer to the (ethnic) conflict,' Devananda told IANS, on his way from the UN and Britain to Sri Lanka. 'Tamils do have political issues. There are also day-to-day problems in the northeast. There is the question of democracy. What is the practical way out?'

Devananda said he had discussed the subject with Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse, who he said had promised to consider sympathetically the request for interim councils.

Devananda, whose Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP) is bitterly opposed to the Tamil Tigers, said that if necessary he was ready to quit the cabinet and even parliament to play a key role in the proposed interim administration.

The EPDP leader, who hails from Jaffna, said it was important to have an interim body, until elections take place in the region, for day-to-day governance and to resolve the people's problems. It was also necessary for political personalities, rather than bureaucrats, to get involved in the set-up since they knew the region and its needs better.

'There has to be political leadership to the interim administration,' he said.

Devananda felt that having two interim councils for the north and the east should satisfy those who do not want a united northeast while the apex body would make happy Tamils who insist on a merged northeast.

'I have told the president that he can have elections in the northeast in six months to two years,' he said. He added that there was widespread support to his proposal regarding the interim administration.

Devananda's idea is that the interim executive councils will aid and advise the president and the region's governor in the exercise of the powers of the chief minister and the board of ministers and also issue directives to the provincial departments.

The secretariat of the existing provincial council will assist the interim executive council. There shall also be a committee of experts and professionals on subjects devolved to the provincial council to assist the interim administration.

The minister's demand comes in the wake of continuing violence in Sri Lanka's northeast, where the military says it has driven out the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) from the eastern province. The government says it is preparing to take on the LTTE in the Tiger-ruled north.

The fighting has led to massive civilian displacement and suffering. The Sri Lankan government has, however, made it clear to the international community that it does not want sermons on human rights violations related to the conduct of the war.

Devananda minced no words in condemning the LTTE. But he warned that while the government had the upper hand today militarily, 'the situation may change if the LTTE hits back in Colombo'.