{"id":3843,"date":"2012-01-25T10:15:03","date_gmt":"2012-01-25T10:15:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/colombotelegraph.com\/?p=3843"},"modified":"2012-01-25T10:15:03","modified_gmt":"2012-01-25T10:15:03","slug":"wikileaks-13-plus-is-like-us-senate-mahinda-rajapaksa-to-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wikileaks-13-plus-is-like-us-senate-mahinda-rajapaksa-to-us\/","title":{"rendered":"WikiLeaks: 13 plus is like US Senate – Mahinda Rajapaksa to US"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Colombo Telegraph –<\/p>\n

\u201cThe President said the basis of his devolution plan would be the “13th amendment plus 1” – meaning implementation of the existing constitutional provisions for provincial councils, but adding an upper house to Parliament, modeled on the U.S. Senate.\u201d the US Embassy informed Washington.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Rajapaksa said that responsibility for prosecuting and punishing serious crimes against society - he specifically mentioned murder and rape - should be handled by the Sri Lankan state.<\/p><\/div>\n

The Colombo Telegraph found the related leaked cable from the WikiLeaks database. The cable is classified as \u201cCONFIDENTIAL\u201d and recounts details of the farewell meeting US Ambassador to Colombo, Robert O. Blake has had with President Rajapaksa on May 20, 2009. The cable was written on May 26, 2009 by the Charge D\u2019Affaires James R. Moore.<\/p>\n

Charge D\u2019Affaires Moore wrote \u201cIn his farewell call on President Rajapaksa on May 20, Ambassador stressed that the reconciliation phase must include two vital components: the humanitarian side – providing the IDPs with what they need and resettling them expeditiously – and the political side – power-sharing arrangements to give Tamils assurance of a future with hope and dignity. This was the way to defeat terrorism for good. The Ambassador encouraged the GSL to think about how to engage with Tamil representatives. Ambassador said it was particularly important to reach out to the Tamil Diaspora so they would stop supporting the LTTE. The President said the basis of his devolution plan would be the “13th amendment plus 1” – meaning implementation of the existing constitutional provisions for provincial councils, but adding an upper house to Parliament, modeled on the U.S. Senate.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, the President said that the Tamil National Alliance (the largest Tamil party in Parliament) was a problem. He did not know \u2018if they were happy with it.\u2019 The President thought that giving police powers to the provinces, as the TNA and others were demanding, would cause problems. He said that responsibility for prosecuting and punishing serious crimes against society – he specifically mentioned murder and rape – should be handled by the Sri Lankan state. He noted that the incumbent Supreme Court Justice had already decentralized the court system. Ambassador asked whether one step to ensure devolution of power to the provinces would be to abolish the concurrent list of powers to be shared by the center and the provinces, instead giving the provinces primary responsibility. Rajapaksa replied that \u2018we\u2019ve been thinking about this but haven’t decided yet.\u2019 Ambassador urged the President to bring Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe on board for the constitutional changes, for which a two-thirds majority is necessary. Rajapaksa made light of the possibility of cooperation with the main opposition party, hinting that \u2018we’re thinking of holding an election soon.\u2019 (Note: the earliest President Rajapaksa could hold Presidential elections in November 2009.)\u201d Charge D\u2019Affaires James R. Moore further wrote.<\/p>\n

Below we give the relevant part of the cable;<\/p>\n

VZCZCXRO2659\nOO RUEHBI\nDE RUEHLM #0563\/01 1461138\nZNY CCCCC ZZH\nO 261138Z MAY 09\nFM AMEMBASSY COLOMBO\nTO RUEHC\/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 0031\nINFO RUEHTH\/AMEMBASSY ATHENS PRIORITY 0287\nRUEHIL\/AMEMBASSY ISLAMABAD PRIORITY 8708\nRUEHKT\/AMEMBASSY KATHMANDU PRIORITY 6942\nRUEHLO\/AMEMBASSY LONDON PRIORITY 5001\nRUEHNE\/AMEMBASSY NEW DELHI PRIORITY 3074\nRUEHNY\/AMEMBASSY OSLO PRIORITY 4960\nRUEHKO\/AMEMBASSY TOKYO PRIORITY 4066\nRUEHCG\/AMCONSUL CHENNAI PRIORITY 9331\nRUEHBI\/AMCONSUL MUMBAI PRIORITY 6637\nRUEHON\/AMCONSUL TORONTO PRIORITY 1167\nRHHMUNA\/HQ USPACOM HONOLULU HI PRIORITY\nRUEHGV\/USMISSION GENEVA PRIORITY 3551\nRHEFDIA\/DIA WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY\nRHEHAAA\/NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY\nRUEHBS\/USEU BRUSSELS PRIORITY\nC O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 04 COLOMBO 000563\n\nSIPDIS\n\nDEPARTMENT FOR SCA\/INSB\n\nE.O. 12958: DECL: 05\/21\/2019\nTAGS: PGOV<\/a> PHUM<\/a> PREL<\/a> MOPS<\/a> CE<\/a>\nSUBJECT: SRI LANKA: IN FAREWELL, AMBASSADOR PRESSES HARD ON\nHUMANITARIAN ACCESS AND POLITICAL SOLUTION\n\nClassified By: CHARGE D'AFFAIRES JAMES R. MOORE.  REASONS: 1.4 (B, D)\n\u00b6<\/a>8.  (SBU) In his farewell call on President Rajapaksa on May\n20, Ambassador stressed that the reconciliation phase must\ninclude two vital components: the humanitarian side -\nproviding the IDPs with what they need and resettling them\nexpeditiously - and the political side - power-sharing\narrangements to give Tamils assurance of a future with hope\nand dignity.  This was the way to defeat terrorism for good.\nThe Ambassador encouraged the GSL to think about how to\nengage with Tamil representatives.   Ambassador said it was\nparticularly important to reach out to the Tamil Diaspora so\nthey would stop supporting the LTTE. The President said the\nbasis of his devolution plan would be the \"13th amendment\nplus 1\" - meaning implementation of the existing\nconstitutional provisions for provincial councils, but adding\nan upper house to Parliament, modeled on the U.S. Senate.\n\n\u00b6<\/a>9.  (C) However, the President said that the Tamil National\nAlliance (the largest Tamil party in Parliament) was a\nproblem.  He did not know \"if they were happy with it.\"  The\nPresident thought that giving police powers to the provinces,\nas the TNA and others were demanding, would cause problems.\nHe said that responsibility for prosecuting and punishing\nserious crimes against society - he specifically mentioned\nmurder and rape - should be handled by the Sri Lankan state.\nHe noted that the incumbent Supreme Court Justice had already\ndecentralized the court system.  Ambassador asked whether one\nstep to ensure devolution of power to the provinces would be\nto abolish the concurrent list of powers to be shared by the\n\nCOLOMBO 00000563  003 OF 004\n\ncenter and the provinces, instead giving the provinces\nprimary responsibility.  Rajapaksa replied that \"we,ve been\nthinking about this but haven't decided yet.\"  Ambassador\nurged the President to bring Opposition Leader Ranil\nWickremesinghe on board for the constitutional changes, for\nwhich a two-thirds majority is necessary.  Rajapaksa made\nlight of the possibility of cooperation with the main\nopposition party, hinting that \"we're thinking of holding an\nelection soon.\" (Note:  the earliest President Rajapaksa\ncould hold Presidential elections in November 2009.)\nMOORE<\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":3852,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[53,1,63,26,27],"tags":[1827,1139,1828,1829,1161,1134,1298,1158,1650,6983],"class_list":["post-3843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-global-politics","category-news","category-politics-2","category-war-crimes","category-wikileaks","tag-13th-amendment-plus","tag-democracy","tag-devolution-of-power","tag-ethnic-issue-sri-lanka","tag-foreign-affairs","tag-human-rights","tag-sri-lankans-in-wikileaks","tag-tna","tag-transitional-justice-and-reconciliation","tag-war-crimes"],"yoast_head":"\nWikiLeaks: 13 plus is like US Senate - Mahinda Rajapaksa to US - Colombo Telegraph<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wikileaks-13-plus-is-like-us-senate-mahinda-rajapaksa-to-us\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"WikiLeaks: 13 plus is like US Senate - 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