News Today

Chandrika throws down the gauntlet at the Donor Conference

Udara Soysa (LM), Mon 16th May 08:55GMT. President Chandrika Kumaratunga assured the international community attending the Donor Conference that the majority in the government was fully behind her in supporting the joint mechanism for tsunami aid distribution. She made her statement as the conference began in Kandy this morning and added that the large majority of people were already in support of the JM. "We believe that the Joint Mechanism would help establish trust between the government and Liberation Tamil Tigers of Eelam as well as between the Tamil people and the government" she added.

She said it was significant that the LTTE had agreed to work along with the government and the Muslim community in the Joint Mechanism for Tsunami relief and reconstruction.

In what was seen as a clear and unambiguous signal to the constituent Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) she said " Governments are elected to take decisions, difficult and dangerous ones and the lives of many of us are now in extreme danger. But we need the courage to face up to challenges - challenges from terrorists from the North-east and the extremists of the South". Her reference to Southern extremists was clearly a reference to the constituent party the JVP which has threatened strong reprisals if the JM was constituted with the LTTE. The President made an appeal to "the brave and the strong" to push through her decision on the JM.

"We can go beyond power and think of what is best for the nation. What happens in the next few weeks will show what the future holds for us" she added in a clear expression of fear about the threatened reprisals of the JVP.

In what was seen as one of the most impulsive, naive and politically suicidal statements made by a head of state, the President said the JM was a measure that "merely formalized what has been existing in the north and east provinces for the past six years."

The President was also seen as openly castigating the JVP with the observation that "there are those who need a theoretical and conceptual restructuring of political minds, visions and strategies."

She expressed confidence in successfully concluding the JM.

The government is seeking an amalgamated Rs.3 billion for tsunami aid as well as for reconstruction and development strategy finance.

Sri Lanka says coordinating tsunami aid with rebels could bridge country's ethnic divide

Associated Press, Mon May 16, 2005 04:58 EDT . KANDY, Sri Lanka (AP) - Sri Lanka's plan to jointly coordinate tsunami aid with Tamil Tiger rebels in Tamil-majority areas could be a golden opportunity to resolve the country's two-decade ethnic conflict, the president told the opening of a donors conference Monday.

President Chandrika Kumaratunga said she would go forward with the plan within weeks despite opposition within her own ruling coalition, in comments aimed as much at domestic politics as the delegates of 125 governments and aid agencies gathered to address post-tsunami reconstruction.

``The government, at least the major part of it, believes that this is a good opportunity'' to bridge gaps between the Tigers and the government, Kumaratunga said. ``It will open many doors for a final solution to the ethnic problem of Sri Lanka.''

Kumaratunga said she was aware of the risks involved in signing the deal, including the possibility of her being killed by Sinhalese radicals who are opposed.

``We are fully aware that the lives of some of us are in great danger ... perhaps from within,'' said Kumaratunga, the victim of a 1999 Tiger assassination attempt, referring to hardline elements who oppose any cooperation with the Tamils.

Kumaratunga has backed a joint body, but the Marxist People's Liberation Front, her main ally in the coalition government, has threatened to withdraw if the plan goes ahead, saying it would help the rebels attain their goal of a separate Tamil state.

The front controls 39 seats in the country's 225-member Parliament, and Kumaratunga's government could collapse without its support.

Residents in Tamil-majority areas controlled by the Tigers have complained that aid has been slow to reach them since the devastating earthquake and tsunami of Dec. 26 killed more than 31,000 people in the country and affected 1 million others.

International donors have been reluctant to give any funds directly to the guerrillas, listed as terrorists by the United States, but most of them are willing to give to a joint body comprised of representatives of both the government and the rebels.

Kumaratunga indicated that the cooperation with the rebels would go forward within weeks, saying it could be ``one ray of hope'' from the tsunami disaster, helping to resolve a civil war that killed 65,000 people since 1983.

Meanwhile, the World Bank said there would be no shortage of funds to carry out reconstruction and rehabilitation.

``It now appears to be the case that funding the recovery will not be difficult,'' the bank's Vice President Praful Patel said.

The Finance Ministry says it has received commitments from foreign donors for US$1.5 billion (euro1.15 billion) over the next three to four years _ enough to rebuild coasts devastated by the tsunami.

Khalid