I am happy to say that the All Party Representative Committee has been meeting regularly every week and during these discussions, which have been carried out in a very friendly atmosphere, we have identified the various stakeholders who are involved in the current ethnic conflict.

Various party representatives have expressed their opinions and views with regard to the problem faced by the stakeholders from the point of view of their particular parties. These views have been expressed openly and I am happy to say that everyone has given the courtesy of a hearing to the representatives of the various parties whether they agreed with them or not. And as a result, there has been a considerable understanding developed of the different view points and why those view points have been arrived at. And through this process we have been able to identify the various issues, and problems facing the different stakeholders. Ideas and views have been expressed which will help towards working out a solution to this problem.

In this connection I would like to state that we have been examining this as an internal problem affecting all the people of Sri Lanka. Each and everyone of our parties has a responsibility to assist in trying to work out a solution. The question came up about how do we ensure that devolution is done effectively so that it benefits everybody and reaches the village. On this question, there was a visit by the Indian Minister in charge of Panchayat Affairs Hon. Mani Shankar Aiyer. Following his presentation here and his invitation to us to come and study that system in India, all the representatives of the political parties will be going as a team to India in the last week of this month.

The main aim of the APRC on this visit is to study the devolution process in India and to see how it is taken down to the Panchayat Raj level.

By studying the devolution process and mechanisms in India we hope to work out a solution to our country’s problem which can then hopefully be the basis for a solution to the national question.

The question is being asked whether we can come out with a solution in time for the talks that are scheduled to start on the 28th of this month between the LTTE and the Government.

General consensus among us is that we have to go through this process of understanding and working out a solution ourselves and this will take a little time and we are not going to be hurried to meet deadlines. We will as quickly as possible try to reach a consensus and come out with a common position which can be the basis for the talks with the LTTE and the working out of a solution. So this is how we are approaching this matter and it is our fervent hope that we will be able to make a meaningful contribution to the success of the talks between the Government and the LTTE to work out a lasting solution to this problem.