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| Sunday, 25 January 2004 |
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Politics |  |
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Suspension of peace talks not a very happy situation - President President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga warned on Friday that the LTTE cannot be expected to remain patient for a long period, and said that the suspension of peace talks was not a 'very happy situation'. The President in an interview with Rupavahini Chairman Harim Peiris, telecast on Eye Channel, late Friday night, said that the peace process had gone some distance despite the shortcomings and that it was not 'at all satisfactory' for the Prime Minister to keep himself away from the process. "It is not a very happy situation to keep this abeyance, because the LTTE cannot be expected to be patient for a long period," she said. Commenting on the SLFP-JVP Alliance, the President reiterated that the Alliance would never be an anti peace coalition and said that it would aspire to introduce measures to restore the rights of all communities in the country. She said that the Alliance (based on the initial document) had clearly stated that the resolution of the ethnic problem in Sri Lanka or the ethnic question, has to be achieved through a negotiated political settlement, peacefully. "The JVP also accepted the SLFP's and PA's constant, consistent never changing stand for the last 12 years, which is that we are against war and we are for a negotiated settlement," she said. Meanwhile the Presidential Secretariat in a press release states: President Chandrika Kumaratunga on Friday described the SLFP- JVP alliance as the first phase of a grander alliance. Rejecting media reports that the alliance has jeopardised the peace process, she reiterated her stand that "all major political forces must get together if the country is to rid itself of this long-standing crisis". The President emphasised that the SLFP and JVP had reached a compromise especially with regard to the economy and the ethnic issue. She said "a market economy with a human face" would be the alliance's economic principle, which would revive and adopt global advances in modern technology, maximise foreign capital investment on the basis of mutual benefit with a view to opening the country to global economic progress, while caring for the poorer sections of the population, through a social safety net. President Kumaratunga said that during her entire political life she had been committed to a negotiated settlement of the conflict and added both parties in the alliance believed that 'war was not the solution' to the ethnic issue. However, she said the alliance did have some reservations on certain aspects in the manner in which Prime Minister Wickremesinghe was conducting the peace process. President Kumaratunga stated that she regrets the slowing down of the reconstruction of the North-East commenced by the PA government. She believes that development work must forge ahead despite the vicissitudes of the peace process. The President was appreciative of the recent statement made by Mr. Thamilselvan, LTTE political wing leader, expressing willingness to negotiate peace with any southern party with a people's mandate irrespective of the individuals who may hold power. |
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