LTTE not interested in peace: Chandrika

By Nirupama Subramanian

COLOMBO, JAN. 9. In a hard-hitting speech which indicated that the chasm between her government and the LTTE was growing, not lessening, the President, Ms. Chandrika Kumaratunga, said the separatist group was not interested in finding a solution to the island's ethnic conflict.

The speech, made to the Tamil people of the north through a satellite link-up with Jaffna on Monday night, came ahead of a visit here by the Norwegian peace envoy, Mr. Erik Solheim, to work a way out of the impasse in the peace process.

The process is now stalled at the point where the Government rejected a LTTE pre-condition that a ``conducive'' atmosphere had to be created before negotiations could begin, including a unilateral ceasefire called by it last month.

Ms. Kumaratunga reiterated the Government's position that the ceasefire was possibly only a bluff to buy time to regroup. ``My government and I especially are 100 per cent sincere in our desire to end the war. I do not believe the LTTE wants to end the war,'' she said.

Compared to an earlier response in which the ceasefire was deemed as a ``consequent step'' to the satisfactory progress of negotiations, Ms. Kumaratunga said she was prepared to reciprocate the LTTE's unilateral move if the latter agreed to begin talks. ``A ceasefire without an agreement by both sides to enter into negotiations in order to end the war is only an empty promise... we say even now we are willing to effect a ceasefire, but a ceasefire without an agreement from the LTTE to enter into serious negotiations on the serious matters that affect the Tamil people is pointless.'' It was not possible to ascertain if this was a shift in position, but in the main, the speech gave no indication that this was a Government in the midst of a peace process, supposedly preparing to talk to its adversary with the assistance of a foreign facilitator.

Rather, it was a throwback to three years ago when peace talks were not even a remote possibility. Ms. Kumaratunga described the LTTE as an undemocratic organisation that killed Tamil people, and obstructed government programmes to alleviate their living conditions.

Poking the LTTE in the eye, she appealed to the Tamil people to support programmes for the rehabilitation and reconstruction of the north initiated by the Ministry headed by Mr. Douglas Devananda, leader of her coalition ally, Eelam People's Democratic Party, and the Tigers' bete noire. She also reaffirmed her intention to implement the new constitution drafted by her government in its first term, and asked the Tamil people to support her in this as it would guarantee them equal rights and opportunities.

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Section  : International
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