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| Sunday, 25 May 2003 |
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President rejects Tiger proposal COLOMBO, May 24 (Reuters) - President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga has rejected calls by the Tamil Tigers to set up an interim body 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 the 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 Kumaratunga, who is elected separately and is a rival of the government. "If anybody is mad enough to think that the government would even dream of considering it, they must be mad," she said late on Friday at a dinner with foreign media. The government has not responded to the LTTE 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) to take part in the June 9-10 aid meeting. |
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