UNP, SLMC members make APRC report public
July 19, 2010 03:11 pm
The final report of the All Party Representative Committee (APRC) was revealed to the media by a United National Party (UNP) Parliamentarian and a Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) member during a briefing at a hotel in Colombo this morning.
UNP Parliamentarian R. Yogarajan told the media that APRC report has been with the President for over a year since Prof. Tissa Vitharana who was heading the committee had handed it over to him. Yet, he had failed to make it public till now. Now that the war with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) was over, still the report has been shelved.
SLMC deputy leader Nizam Kariappar, distributing copies of the final report said that since the President had failed to make the report public after so long, they had decided to reveal it to the media.
The APRC was formed in 2006 with the aim of finding a political solution to the ethnic issue with the participation of all political parties with then Minister of Science and Technology Prof. Tissa Vitharana as the chairman.
The All Party Representative Committee was attended by 14 political parties. The main opposition UNP pulled out after attending some sessions while the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) refrained from participating.
The partied that attended the APRC were: Sri Lanka Freedom Party, United National Party (reformists), Jathika Hela Urumaya, Ceylon Workers Congress, Sri Lanka Muslim Congress, All Ceylon Muslim Congress, Mahajana Eksath Peramuna, National Unity Alliance, Up-country People’s Front, Communist Party of Sri Lanka, Eelam People’s Democratic Party, National Congress, Western People’s Front and the Lanka Sama Samaja Party.
