| Submit your comments on this article |
| Southeast Asia |
| 'Home rule' for Tigers is rejected |
| 2003-05-25 |
| COLOMBO: Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kuma-ratunga has rejected calls by the Tamil Tigers to set up an interim administration to inject life into a stalled peace bid and said the government was unprofessional in dealing with the rebels. A bid to end two decades of ethnic war is in limbo after the rebels said last month they had suspended peace talks and would not attend a donor conference next month where aid will be pledged to rebuild the island. The Tigers have also taken a hardline stance by suggesting an interim administration be set up in areas they control as a way around the impasse, something that would be illegal under Sri Lanka's constitution. "I have not heard of any self-respecting sovereign government anywhere in the world agreeing to act outside of its own constitution at the request of anyone," said Kumara-tunga, who is elected separately and is a rival of the government. "If anybody thinks that the government would even dream of considering it, they must be mad," she said at a dinner meeting with foreign media. The government of Prime Minister Ranil Wickreme-singhe has not responded to the rebel request for an interim administration, but along with Norway — which brokered a February 2002 ceasefire — and Japan has been urging the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which is headed by V Prabhakaran, to take part in the June 9-10 aid meeting. Japan has said the conference would still go ahead. It had been expected to raise $3 billion (BD1.13bn) over three years. Kumaratunga said Wickremesinghe's mishandling of the peace process had caused the setback. "I do not think you can go into a discussion with a highly organised, ruthless, one-minded organisation like the LTTE saying 'well, we'll take what comes'," she said. "Perhaps it is that unpreparedness, the lack of professional handling of this issue that has led to this, and I hope it will not lead to anything further." But Kumaratunga said constitutional changes to accommodate the rebels could be made "if they are willing to give up terrorism... willing to give up their call for a separate state and go in for a democratic, negotiated settlement." Kumaratunga - who has vast powers - dismissed suggestions she was ready to sack the government, saying that would happen only if the sovereignty of the country was threatened."I will only act if I feel the wide national interest of the country is affected," she said. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |