Sri Lankan president tightens grip on defense powers

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, December 24, 2003

Sri Lankan president tightens grip on defense powers

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Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga has further strengthened the defense powers by shifting several institutions and subjects which came under the purview of the Interior Ministry to the Ministry of Defense she took over early November, the Presidential Secretariat said Wednesday in a statement.

President Kumaratunga has promulgated a gazette notification proclaiming the takeover on Dec. 19, said the statement.

Accordingly, the departments of prisons, immigration and emigration, registration of persons, commissioner for the registration of persons of Indian origin and the department of census and statistics will come under the Ministry of Defense.

A new ministry has been created under the portfolio of Ministry of Internal Security and it will include police, special police reserve, home guards and the national dangerous drugs control board.

Meanwhile, all subjects and functions including those relating to defense, internal security and information and telecommunications as well as departments and statutory institutions not assigned specifically to any minister will remain in charge of the president.

Kumaratunga sacked three key government ministers of defense, interior and mass communication and put them under her control on Nov. 4.

Kumaratunga has asked her arch political rival Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to continue talks with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels. However, the prime minister insistedthat he cannot proceed with the talks unless he regains control of the defense ministry.

However, Kumaratunga has turned down the request saying the defense authority is her inalienable right in accordance with the country's constitution.

A committee comprising top aides of the two feuding leaders formed after the eruption of the political crisis has so far failed to work out a compromise formula to end the political standoff between the two sides.

Kumaratunga has been forced into a cohabitation with the government since her People's Alliance lost the December 2001 parliamentary elections to the ruling United National Party.

Both sides differed on the matters relating to the Norwegian-brokered peace process which has been stalled by the LTTE rebels since April following six previous rounds of talks started in September last year.

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