Sri Lankan nationalists doubt legality of the 13th amendment

The 13th amendment to the Sri Lankan constitution, which incorporates devolution plan for the Tamils in the country's north and east, needs to be probed by Parliament to examine its legality, a nationalist pressure group has said.

"The 13th amendment was never a demand by either the Sinhalese, Tamils or Muslims. Even at this late stage the amendment needs to be rejected," Elle Gunawansa, a pro-government Buddhist monk who leads the National Organisations Collective, said.

The amendment was adopted in 1987 as a result of the Indo-Lanka accord between then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi and ex-president JR Jayawardene.

The JVP and the rest of the opposition led a vicious campaign against the amendment and the system of provincial councils that came with it. However, the provincial councils later came to be accepted by the very forces who opposed it.

The Tamil parties have been pressing for the conferring of full powers to the councils despite the LTTE's violent opposition to the system.

Omare Kassapa, another monk, said the provinces should never be given police and land powers. "We know the president's thinking on this. He is opposed to these powers being given."

Gunadasa Amarasekera, a leading activist of the movement, said "the 13th amendment was illegal. If any more action is to be taken on it, such action needed to be subject to public approval."

The amendment needs to be probed by Parliament to examine its legality, leaders of the pressure group said.

The debate on the amendment has been revived in the country since the visit of a high-power Indian delegation last month.

The government had informed Indian National Security adviser Shivshankar Menon that police and land powers coul not be vested in the provincial councils and that Rajapaksa intends to formulate a solution to the problems of the Tamil minority through a Parliamentary select committee process, officials here said.