Chandrika to rebels

FEBRUARY 5: Sri Lanka President Chandrika Kumaratunga on Friday urged her would-be assassins, the Tamil Tiger rebels, to enter talks and end decades of fighting that has claimed the lives of over 55,000 people. Kumaratunga, in an address marking the country8217;s 52nd anniversary of independence from Britain, said she was inviting the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam LTTE to join a peace process. 8220;The LTTE has a vital role to play in concluding this extended sadness for the Tamil people. The LTTE must also recognise that assassinating majority Sinhala and minority Tamil leaders and innocent citizens can never resolve the problems of the Tamil people or the minorities,8221; she said.

Kumaratunga, who lost the use of one eye in a suicide bomb attack at an election rally in December, stayed away from the main public anniversary ceremony and instead addressed the nation from her tightly-guarded Temple Trees residence. She asked the parliamentary Opposition to support her but made no reference to anoffer of cooperation by the main Opposition United National Party UNP to back her radical devolution proposals. The devolution plan was first unveiled in August 1995 but has remained in limbo.