COLOMBO: The Sri Lankan government has postponed for the third time holding of referendum in the eastern province to decide whether it should remain under one administrative unit with Northern Province.
Announcing this at the weekly post cabinet news conference here foreign minister Ranjan Wijeratne said the referendum has been shifted from the last week of January to June.
The referendum was initially scheduled to be held within six months of the temporary merger of the two provinces under the Indo Lanka accord. It has already been postponed twice.
The minister said Sri Lankan government was now considering a counter draft submitted by India on the proposed friendship treaty between the two countries.
Asked to comment on the statement of his Indian counterpart that the proposed treaty might be signed before the total deduction of the IPKF from the Island, the minister said his government would not prefer to do it in “haste”.
He said one of the reasons for the complications of the July 1989 peace accord between the two countries was that it was signed in haste.
He said his government would like to go into the details of all aspects of the proposed treaty, consult all political parties and “put up before the people,” before it could be signed.
Article extracted from this publication >> January 26, 1990
