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| Sunday, 21 March 2004 |
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My country comes first - President Kumaratunga President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga in a candid interview with the Sunday Observer, said that she had made many sacrifices for the sake of the country since the people called upon her to lead them. "Having to compromise my principles have proved to be the most difficult for me personally," she said and added, "Yet, if it is to pull the country out of the mess it has been put into by the UNF, I decided I had to choose the option that would prove more successful in the national interest." The President explained that she found it much easier to work with the present generation of JVP leaders who have publicly rejected their previous policy of violence, where as Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe and some of his UNPers have still not. Responding to a question that some people were criticizing her that she had compromised with those who were responsible for her late husband Vijaya Kumaratunga's assassination, the President said: "It is quiet clearly the UNP candidates who have brought out posters to the same effect and now I am told that there are programmes and advertisements done by the UNP over some private Television Stations, employing the same thing in a most abusive manner. "I would like to suggest to all those who are capable of thinking even slightly impartially to read the report of the Presidential Commission on the assassination of Vijaya Kumaratunga. This clearly states that the murderers were connected to President Premadasa of the UNP and the JVP. We are aware that President Premadasa worked closely with the JVP in having his political opponents -even in the UNP-assassinated. The report also states that the gun used for killing Vijaya belonged to Mr. Gamini Lokuge, presently the UNP's Tourism Minister. "But for the sake of the country I have had to associate with, and work with some persons whom I do not have much respect for. For instance, I have had to work with the UNP cabinet, of which Mr. Lokuge is a member and Mr. Wickremesinghe is the Prime Minister, whilst his name too is implicated in the horrendous story of the Batalanda torture chamber. I must tell you it required massive abnegation on my part," she said. Commenting on the UPFA proposal for a Constituent Assembly President said that the UPFA shall utilize the method of a Constituent assembly in order to resolve the log-jam created by the UNP's 1978 constitution. "So properly speaking, the 1978 constitution was immorally and improperly brought in and then Mr. J.R.J, Mr. Premadasa and Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe and Co. did not stop there. They brought in 16 Amendments to the constitution in about 09 years, once again without any consultation with the people. Some sections of the constitution has bedeviled the life of the Nation for 26 years now," she said. Expressing her views on the talks between the UNF government and the LTTE and the proposals submitted by the LTTE to create an Interim Administration for the North and the East the President said: "The Peace process has its good points such as the ceasefire, which has now held for 02 years and the relaxation of tensions in the North and the East. But while one looks a little further than at the surface, there are issues for serious concern. That is that the Peace process was conducted in a completely unplanned and unprofessional manner, which led to clearly anything and everything happen in the name of Peace.This has given a situation where the LTTE is militarily very much stronger that at the beginning of the process-in numbers as well as in arms, and also politically, because they have killed a significant number of democratic politicians in the North and the East during the Peace process, whilst, the Sri Lankan Armed Forces were deliberately neglected and demoralized. As for the ISGA proposed, we have already stated that this could be the basis to begin negotiations, whilst, of course the government proposals would also have to be discussed," President said. |
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