President, PM agree to appoint committee to

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 COLOMBO 001989

SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR SA, SA/INS; NSC FOR E. MILLARD

PLEASE ALSO PASS TOPEC

E.O. 12958: DECL: 11-18-13
TAGS: PGOV PINS CE
SUBJECT: President, PM agree to appoint committee to
deal with "national issues"

Refs: (A) Colombo/OpsCenter 11/18/03 telecon

- (B) Colombo 1984, and previous

(U) Classified by James F. Entwistle, Deputy Chief of
Mission. Reasons 1.5 (b,d).


1. (SBU) On November 18, President Kumaratunga and Prime
Minister Wickremesinghe met to discuss possible ways out
of the political morass precipitated by the President's
November 4 takeover of three key ministries and
suspension of Parliament. This was their second face-
to-face meeting since the crisis began (see Ref B).
According to a joint press statement issued after
today's meeting (see Para three for the text),the
President and PM agreed to appoint a "Committee of
Officials" to work out arrangements whereby the
President and PM could work together on "important
national issues." The "Committee of Officials"
mentioned in the joint statement appears to be related
to the "consultative" or "peace" committee discussed by
both the President and the PM in their separate recent
meetings with the Ambassador (see Ref B). The statement
also mentions that the President and the PM are slated
to meet again in two weeks. Economic Reform Minister
Milinda Moragoda told the Ambassador later in the day
that the committee will have four members: Bradman
Weerakoon and United National Party (UNP) chairman Malik
Samarawickreme will represent the PM; Mano Tittawella
and W.J.S. Karunaratne will be across the table.


2. (C) COMMENT: The two parties' agreement to appoint
a committee to work on important issues appears on the
face of it to be a positive sign, as is the announcement
that the President and the PM plan to meet again in two
weeks. It seems as if both sides are trying to ratchet
down temperatures, which is certainly good news. That
said, with Parliament scheduled to meet tomorrow
(November 19) for the first time since it was suspended
on November 4, it is possible that intra-party friction
could quickly spike again. In addition, although the
two sides may have agreed to a mechanism for discussing
their differences, they do not seem closer to actually
solving who controls what ministries and how to handle
the peace process. END COMMENT.


3. (U) The statement, which was issued in the names of
the Secretaries to the President, W.J.S. Karunaratne,
and the PM, Bradman Weerakoon, reads as follows:

BEGIN TEXT

The President and the Prime Minister met today at the
President's House and discussed in depth several issues
on which they could work together. The discussion
commenced at 11.15 am and concluded at 12.45 pm. The
President and Prime Minister were assisted by W.J.S
Karunaratne, Secretary to the President, Bradman
Weerakoon, Secretary to the Prime Minister and Mano
Tittawella, Senior Adviser to the President and Senior
Director General to the President's Office.

A Committee of Officials was appointed to work out the
details of future working arrangements under which the
President and the Prime Minister could work together on
these important national issues. It was also decided
that the President and the Prime Minister would meet
again in two weeks to move the process forward.

Secretary/ President Secretary/Prime Minister 18th

SIPDIS
November 2003

END TEXT.


4. (U) Minimize considered.

LUNSTEAD