Will not allow other countries to push for ‘separatism in the guise of power devolution’, says Gotabaya Rajapaksa

The Sri Lankan President said ‘the government does not wish to be associated with the power struggles in the Indian Ocean region by the global giants’.

Sri Lanka will not allow other countries to achieve their geopolitical needs by introducing “separatism under the guise of power devolution” in the island nation, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has said. “The government does not wish to be associated with the power struggles in the Indian Ocean region by the global giants,” Mr. Rajapaksa said, adding that the sovereignty of Sri Lanka would not be betrayed, a front-page report in the state-run Daily News said on Monday. Speaking at a ‘Discussion with the Village’ event in the southern Matara district on Saturday, he appeared to be responding to India’s intervention at the United Nations Human Rights Council last week. Although India abstained from voting, it supported the international community’s call in the resolution for devolving political authority, holding of elections to provincial councils and that guarantees a measure of power devolution to the provinces.