Only the media said federalism – UNP

Only the media said that the UNP is emphasizing federalism, said the Colombo district UNP Parliamentarian Ravi Karunanayake in a press conference held at the opposition leader’s office yesterday.

The UNP never emphasized federalism to resolve the ethnic conflict in the past and it wont in the future too. But the media have made such propagandas. We stress for solution with power devolution. In the peace negotiations held in Oslo during the UNP regime talks took place regarding federalism. But we never said that we are prepared to solve the crisis by federalism. The LTTE made the proposal and we agreed for discussion in this regard.

Amendment to the ceasefire agreement entered into, between the LTTE and the GOSL in 2002 is necessary, as the situation has changed now. The UNP is ready to face this if a situation arose that the ethnic conflict could be solved by war. The All Party Conference is unable to find a solution for the last 13 months, therefore we stress for a power devolution that could be accepted by all communities.