sri lanka from a unitary to a federal state

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1、SRILANKA:FROMAUNITARYTOAFEDERALSTATEPaperpresentedattheEuroRegionsSummerUniversity,InstituteofFederalism,UniversityofFribourg,Switzerland.25thAugust–12thSeptember2003byEranthiPremaratneIntroduction“…RespondingtoaproposalbytheleadershipoftheLTTE,LiberationTig

2、ersofTamilEelamthepartiesagreedtoexploreasolutionfoundedontheprincipleofinternalself-determinationinareasofhistoricalhabitationoftheTamil-speakingpeoples,basedonaFederalstructurewithinaunitedSriLanka.Thepartiesacknowledgedthatthesolutionhastobeacceptedtoallc

3、ommunities….”(ExtractfromthestatementissuedinOslobytheRoyalNorwegianGovernmentattheconclusionofthethirdsessionofpeacetalksbetweentheGOSLGovernmentofSriLankaandtheLTTEonDecember5,2002.)AfederalSriLankaeventhoughenvisagedasfarbackasthe1920s,remainedadistantrea

4、lityuntiltheabovedeclarationwasmadeinDecember2002.Untilthen16thewordfederalwasregardedabadwordandthosewhoadvocatedittraitors.Althoughthetwopartiesatthepeacetalksfailedtoproceedbeyondagreeingtoexploreafederalidea,sincethenfederalismhasbecomeawidelydiscussedto

5、picamongvariousquarters.Thoseadvocatingthefederalideadosonotonlybecauseitisconsideredtheonlyviablesolutiontothepresentconflictbutalsobecausetheyseeitasawaytoinstilldemocracy,accommodateplurality,ensureafairdistributionofresourcesandopportunities,therebypreve

6、ntingfuturetensions.Howeverfederalismseemstocarrywithitahighdegreeofemotionsamongthemajoritypopulation.TotheSinahalachauviniststhisisthefirststeptowardsthedisintegrationofthecountry.ThereforetheyputforthmanyargumentsastowhySriLankashouldremainaunitaryState.E

7、venamongtheminoritycommunitycertainextremistquarterscriticizetheLTTEhierarchyforagreeingtoafederalsolution,whichfallsfarshortofanindependentState.Drawingfromsuchdiscussionsthispaperaimstolookatthepresentfederaldebatefocusingontheavailablealternativesforafede

8、ralSriLanka.BeforedoingsothepaperwillfirstbrieflydiscussthebackgroundtotheconflicttakingintoconsiderationthedemographyofSriLankaandattemptsatdevolutionofpower.Thereafteritwillgoontoexploretherea