The Secretariat for Coordinating the Peace Process welcomes the following update regarding the deliberations of the All Party Representatives' Committee (APRC), issued by its Chairman Prof Tissa Vitarana. As explained earlier in its briefing documents, SCOPP notes the tremendous efforts put in by the Chairman and members of the APRC to discuss issues at length and achieve consensus in a spirit of trust, cooperation and mutual respect.

PRESENT STATUS OF APRC

Following the understanding reached at the discussions of the Government Party Leaders held under the Chairmanship of the President, and thereafter the Prime Minister, the APRC has been meeting every week in a cordial manner. Subject areas, which had not been discussed previously, are now being covered and a common position is being worked out.

At the moment agreement has been reached on most of the areas.   Discussion is going on at the moment on the devolution of powers and is focused on the National List, Provincial List and the Local Government List.   I am happy to say that with the cooperation of the representatives of the SLFP, JHU, MEP, EPDP, SLMC, CMC, NUA, National Congress, CWC, UPF, CP, WPF and the LSSP steady progress is being made and we hope to finalize the common document as early as possible.