Chandrika asks Opposition to drop confrontation

By Nirupama Subramanian

COLOMBO, JULY 26. As Sri Lanka began putting together the pieces from the LTTE attack on its only civilian airport, the President, Mrs. Chandrika Kumaratunga, reiterated her government's commitment to a peaceful resolution of the ethnic conflict and appealed to the Opposition to join hands with her in the task of nation-building.

``Let all those who act in the name of hatred and terror in the north-east and their supporters in the south be warned: far from being weakened by fear of attack, our resolve for peace has been incalculably strengthened,'' she said in an address to the nation over state television on Wednesday.

She asked the UNP and other Opposition parties to ``put aside all political and other differences, as well as petty personal desire or power and privilege'' and join the Government in creating a new political culture.

It was not clear whether by this Mrs. Kumaratunga was hinting at a national Government, or merely asking the Opposition parties to drop their no-confidence motion against the People's Alliance (PA) Government and cooperate with it from outside.

But she accused the leader of the UNP, Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe, who has criticised the Government for its failure to prevent the attack on the airport, of forgetting that it was his party which, while in power, was responsible for the growth of the LTTE.

Pointing out that the UNP had not condemned the act of terror and the devastation caused by the LTTE on Tuesday, Mrs. Kumaratunga said the party must once and for all decide where it stood on this question.

``On the side of peace and that of our people or whether they still want to compromise with terror,'' she said. She said it was the LTTE's intention to disrupt the August 21 referendum ``with the express purpose of sabotaging the resolution of the Tamil people's problems.''

Mrs. Kumaratunga said a new Constitution that rectified the electoral system and guaranteed a stable Government was the need of the hour.

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Section  : International
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