Sri Lanka’s Tamil rebels doubt use of talks between president and opposition leader
October 26, 2005By KRISHAN FRANCIS
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) - Sri Lanka’s Tamil rebels on Wednesday dismissed as pointless recent talks between the island’s outgoing president and her arch opponent on a solution to the island’s long-running ethnic conflict.
President Chandrika Kumaratunga met her decades-long rival, opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe, on Monday and agreed on the importance of working together to make peace with the rebels.
But a spokesman for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam rebels said on Wednesday that any promises from the president were unlikely to stick because she was near the end of her rule. Kumaratunga is barred by the constitution from seeking a third term in the Nov. 17 election.
“This is not a discussion between the two candidates. We have an outgoing president talking to one of the candidates,” Tamil Tiger spokesman Daya Master told The Associated Press by phone. “She was in power for 10 years, but did nothing.”
The meeting came as the presidential candidate from Kumaratunga’s party, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse, campaigned on a promise to revise a peace agreement with the Tamil Tigers and reject their demand for outright self-rule if he is elected.
His plans are directly opposed to those of Kumaratunga, who, like Wickremesinghe, has pushed for power-sharing with the rebels under a proposed federal government.
Tamil Tiger rebels have fought the government since 1983 for a separate state for the country’s ethnic minority Tamils, who accuse the majority Sinhalese of discrimination. About 65,000 people have been killed in the conflict.
Wickremesinghe signed a Norway-brokered cease-fire with the rebels when he was prime minister in 2002, but subsequent peace talks broke down in 2003 amid rebel demands for wide autonomy in the north and east.
Kumaratunga ousted Wickremesinghe in 2004, accusing him of being too soft on the guerrillas and of jeopardizing national security
A pro-rebel newspaper said the meeting between the two came too late to make any contribution to peace.
“Peace could have been achieved a decade ago had these leaders had a genuine desire to solve this conflict through a common agenda,” said the Uthayan, a newspaper published in the northern Tamil-majority city of Jaffna.
10/26/05 04:29 EDT
