COLOMBO, DECEMBER 23: SRI Lanka is gearing for more war in the coming months with the re-elected president, Chandrika Kumaratunga, vowing not to rest till she stamps out the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the separatist group expected to step up its military campaign to recapture Jaffna peninsula."There is going to be a distinct hardening of positions on both sides, compounded by the subjective hatred that Chandrika Kumaratunga and Velupillai Prabhakaran seem to be harbouring against each other," predicted Loganathan Ketheeshwaran of the Centre for Policy Alternatives(CPA).Kumaratunga, who flew to London last night for treatment of the eye injury she sustained in the attempt on her life, made a hard-hitting statement against the LTTE after her swearing-in ceremony on Wednesday.The Colombo Stock Exchange that reopened today after yesterday's holiday, responded by losing 17 points on the All Share Index in initial trading, but recovered to end the day at 589.37 points, which was 6.98points or 1.17 per cent below Tuesday's closing.Though Kumaratunga asked the Tamil community to use "every ounce of influence" at their disposal to bring Velupillai Prabhakaran to the negotiating table, she also urged them to "see the light" and reject the LTTE, which is being interpreted as an indication that the war will continue.Kumaratunga polled 51.12 per cent of the vote share in Tuesday's election, with the majority Sinhala community rallying behind her in anger against the LTTE after the attempt on her life.The result is a blunt rejection of Wickremesinghe's campaign platform of peace talks with the LTTE, and a mandate for Kumaratunga's broad position that the Tigers are a terrorist group that must be first reined in militarily. This mandate by itself could become an obstacle to negotiations.Deputy defence minister Anuruddha Ratawatte told this paper that "there were no good reasons" for a de-escalation of the war at this moment.Asked if he agreed that Kumaratunga's victory was amandate for war, Ratwatte shot back: "It is a mandate for peace, in whichever way. If they hit us, we cannot sit back, we must fight back. But we are prepared to negotiate with them at any time on our conditions."Meanwhile, Ranil Wickremesinghe, the loser of this election, alleged at a press conference today that it was widespread election malpractice, including stuffing of ballot boxes and voter intimidation, rather than sympathy for Kumaratunga or a rejection of his plan to talk to the LTTE that had contributed to her victory.Asked if he still stood by his position that peace talks had to commence with the LTTE, Wickremesinghe, who looked visibly tired, said : "What are the options? Where are the resources, financial or manpower, to continue the war? Chandrika's re-election has not solved any of these issues."He said that as long as the war continued, all leaders were targets. "It's not a desirable thing, but it has become part of the war in the north-east. It is now a question of how the war isgoing to be brought to an end," he said.On Kumaratunga's invitation to him to join his government, he said he had heard of her offer, but no direct approach had been made to him.His pre-election buoyancy gone, Wickremesinghe said if there were any specific, positive measures that Kumaratunga had to end the ethnic conflict, his party was ready to support them.In a vote that was sharply polarised along ethnic lines, the leader of the United National Party (UNP) received the majority of the Tamil votes. Loganathan of the CPA said this placed a moral responsibility on Wickremesinghe towards the minority community."Now that they have got such an enormous response from the Tamil people, they must cease their earlier prevarication and their dilatory tactics and respond positively to any initiatives taken by the government to end the conflict," he said.
