Rajapaksa says he will soon unveil new plan for Tamils

T V Sriram
Colombo, Jan 28 (PTI) Triumphant Sri Lankan President
Mahinda Rajapaksa Thursday declared that emergency provisions
in the country would be scrapped but not hastily and said he
would soon unveil a political plan for the estranged Tamils.
A day after his thumping victory in the Presidential
elections, 64-year-old Rajapaksa said he would come out with
his plans after a dialouge with Tamil leaders.
He said he would hold his dialogue with the Tamil leaders
after the parliamentary elections and to queries that the
Tamils had not voted for him, Rajapaksa said it was good that
people who had been deprived of voting for years had done so.
"I will come out with my solution. It is in my manifesto,
so it is planned, the way I am going to do it and I will be
doing it," the President said.
Elaborating on his promised devolution Package for the
Tamils, the Lankan President said: "It will be a political
solution based on a Sri Lankan model."
Asked if the Indian Government would back his Tamil
package, Rajapaksa said that the New Delhi had always helped
and backed the island nation and its constitution.
"What has been introduced as 13th amendment is an Indian
proposal. So it is there in the constitution. Now people think
they should get more. We must remember that any solution given
to the Tamils must be endorsed by the majority, otherwise it
won't work," Rajapaksa said.
"India has been very helpful and they know this is an
internal matter. We know that we can depend on them," Sri
Lankan President said in interviews to Indian TV channels.
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