Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-11-20-Speech-4-157"
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"en.20031120.7.4-157"2
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"Mr President, Sri Lanka is in a situation of cohabitation, with a President and a Prime Minister belonging to two rival political formations. For twenty years now, each political formation in power has sought to make peace with the Tamil Tigers and on each occasion the opposition has ruined the peace process.
Thus, when the current Prime Minister was in opposition, he ruined the President’s plan to give greater autonomy to the Tamils in the north-east of the country, where they are in the majority. Since he has been Prime Minister, he has made significant progress in the negotiations with the LTTE, with the assistance of the Norwegian mediators, finally achieving a ceasefire that lasted several months and changed the people’s lives while allowing a limited economic upturn.
For the first time since the movement came into being, the Tamil freedom fighters had just published concrete proposals for power-sharing in a region that, although run by the Tamils themselves, would continue to form part of Sri Lanka. These proposals were negotiable, but then the President took upon herself the heavy responsibility of halting this peace process, making the most of the Prime Minister’s trip to the United States and her constitutional prerogatives. She thus dissolved the parliament and recalled the Ministers for Defence, the Interior and Information in order to sack them.
That was the situation up until a few days ago. Today, the parliament has resumed its activities and the President is negotiating with her Prime Minister, which is why I feel that we must seize this opportunity. A conciliation commission has even been set up between the two arms of the executive. Our group sincerely believes that the European Parliament must send a very clear sign to the political leaders in Sri Lanka to encourage them to find a solution to the political crisis, but also, and above all, a constitutional solution that will allow for a lasting agreement with the Tamils. We also express our support for the Norwegian mediation team in its efforts to get the peace process back on track."@en1
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