In contrast to his electoral rival Gen Sarath Fonseka, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has said that he will never re-merge the Tamil-speaking Northern and Eastern provinces to form a single Tamil-speaking province.
Rajapaksa told Buddha Dhamma schoolteachers, poets and handicraftsmen here on Tuesday that he would never merge the two Tamil-speaking provinces “under his administration,” the state-owned Daily News reported on Wednesday.
“Certain elements in the opposition are changing their tune when they go to the North with the sole objective of winning the election. The Opposition is engaged in a kind of politics based on false promises. I cannot give false promises because of an election. I am committed to building the country and ensuring its unity and integrity,” Rajapaksa said.
FORMER CJ REVISES STAND: Sarath N Silva, the retired Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, who had annulled the merger of the two provinces on legal grounds in 2006, is now saying that they could be merged.
The merger of the two provinces was brought about under the India-Sri Lanka Accord of 1987 at the instance of the Tamils.
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