Lawmakers in Sri Lanka to Debate Reforms

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka —  The Cabinet on Monday approved a set of constitutional reforms aimed at ending the country’s long-running ethnic war, government officials said.

They said a special session of Parliament is to be summoned Thursday to consider the constitutional bill.

“We were given the legal draft, and there was a general consensus,” a senior minister said after the Cabinet meeting, scotching reports that some ministers had opposed the reforms.

A debate on the bill is expected to begin when Parliament convenes for its monthly session next Tuesday.

The radical package aims to devolve powers to regions, including one administered by minority Tamils, in an attempt to offer the ethnic group a political alternative to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, or LTTE, a guerrilla group.

The government is hoping to get the support of a two-thirds majority in Parliament before putting the package to the public in a referendum. The current Parliament’s six-year term ends Aug. 24, and general elections are due after that.

Influential Buddhist monks and nationalist Sinhalese organizations are opposed to the package, calling it a sellout to the Tamils and a plan that would divide the country.

But diplomats and officials said President Chandrika Kumaratunga is determined to bring the reforms to Parliament. Kumaratunga came to power in 1994 promising peace to the war-torn nation, and she returned for a second term in December with a pledge to throw out the current constitution and give more political rights to minorities.

However, her devolution package needs the support of the opposition United National Party and smaller Tamil parties, as the government has only a slender majority in Parliament.

The UNP said last week that it would not back the proposals unless they are first discussed with the people and Buddhist clergy.

But officials said the UNP, which held a series of meetings with the government to find a consensus on the package, had asked for another meeting to discuss some issues with Kumaratunga.

The president held discussions with several mainline Tamil parties last week to drum up support for her constitution.

Analysts say the new document would probably have little value if the LTTE did not endorse it and continued waging its war against the government.

The rebel group has already rejected the devolution idea and said it is not interested in talks until it recaptures its former stronghold, the Jaffna peninsula in the north.

The LTTE has been fighting for a separate homeland for Tamils in Sri Lanka’s north and east since 1983. More than 60,000 people have died in the conflict.