Will leave no room for separatism: MR

3 August 2015 12:31 pm

While warning the unitary character of the Constitution would be compromised under the rule of Prime Minister and UNP Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe, former President and UPFA Elections Committee Chairman Mahinda Rajapaksa today pledged he would leave no room for separatism.

He addressed an event held at the Vihara Maha Devi Park Open Theatre, where a collective of 61 civil organisations called Jathika Ekamuthuwa inked an agreement with Mr. Rajapaksa based on five conditions.

The conditions included:

“Rectifying of false amendments of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution; strengthening national security; providing ‘real’ economic relief to people; Taking measures to protect Buddhist heritage, and Creating an economy based on domestic production.”

The organizations had also included a special proposal to the agreement to conduct an investigation into the Halal issue and Aluthgama incidents, which led to a rift between the Sinhala and the Muslim communities and to take action against those responsible for these issues under a Rajapaksa administration.

Mr. Rajapaksa said Prime Minister Wickremesinghe had, in UNP election manifesto, pledged to create a new country and charged Mr. Wickremesinghe would exclude Northern and Eastern Provinces in the endeavour of creating a new country.

“As he pledged, Mr. Wickremesinghe will create a new country without the North and East in it. With the proposals of the TNA for a federal state, we are certain he would accomplish creating a new country. We are concerned that we might not be able to regain the country if this happened,” he said. (Lahiru Pothmulla)