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Huge crowds waiting outside the airport for the arrival of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe after his US visit. The Prime Minister’s motorcade took nine hours to reach Colombo with tens of thousands of supporters giving him a tumultuous welcome. Pic by Lakshman Gunathilake

Peace process with LTTE
Take it or leave it to me, says PM
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe is expected to ask the co-chairmen of the peace process with the Tiger rebels whether the peace process could proceed following the sacking of his Defence Minister when they meet today in Colombo.
The co-chairmen are the High Commissioners and Ambassadors of India, the US, Japan and Norway.

Premier Wickremesinghe is expected to tell the countries that are funding and otherwise part of what he has called the "international safety net" against the LTTE that he will find it impossible to be in charge of the peace process with the LTTE with President Kumaratunga holding the defence portfolio.

In that event, he is expected to tell them that President Kumaratunga should take charge of the peace process herself because the Defence Ministry and the peace process were inter-linked and only one leader should be in overall charge of both.

On Friday, President Kumaratunga said the peace process would remain under the supervision of Prime Minister Wickremesinghe and that the Ceasefire Agreement with the LTTE would continue to be in force despite the takeover of the Defence Ministry on Tuesday.

UNF legal experts told The Sunday Times that the recent Supreme Court verdict on the plenary powers of the President over Defence was only an opinion and no mention has been made about it being binding.

They said the UNF Government was itself armed with an opinion from the Attorney General which said that the President must consult the Prime Minister before changing the subjects and functions of a cabinet minister when there is a cohabitation government.

Meanwhile, Norwegian peace brokers Vidar Helgessen and Erik Solheim are due to arrive in Sri Lanka tomorrow on a two-day visit. The Sunday Times learns that the facilitators who were scheduled to fly to Kilinochchi are unlikely to do so due to the current political situation in the country. The visit was planned a few weeks ago to discuss the LTTE's Interim Self Governing Authority proposals submitted to the Government.

An LTTE spokesman told The Sunday Times the Government was yet to respond to the proposals. "We are closely monitoring the political crisis in the South, but we do not want to comment on anything," the spokesman said.

In a separate development the deputy Japanese Ambassador in Colombo called on President Kumaratunga for a meeting which ended with the representative reading out a prepared text to the President about the peace process.

Presidential Advisor Lakshman Kadirgamar had queried from where the statement was, but the diplomat had said he was under instructions to read out the statement and was not aware who had issued the statement on behalf of the Japanese government.

President Kumaratunga wanted a copy of the statement as she may respond, but was told that he would have to seek permission from Tokyo to release a copy of it. A minor exchange of words took place with the diplomat who had left thereafter.
The thrust of the statement was about the 4.5 billion US dollar pledge made by the donor countries in April this year during the Tokyo donor conference and the importance of continuing the peace process.

With the international community expressing grave concern over the political turmoil in Sri Lanka, President Kumaratunga is sending out special envoys to reassure world leaders of her commitment to the peace process and to explain why she did what she did.

Presidential Media Chief Janadasa Peiris said the President herself was putting off her visit to India because she wished to personally handle the crisis here. Thus she had handpicked Presidential Advisor Lakshman Kadirgamar, Chief Whip Mangala Samraweera and spokesman Harim Peiris among others for shuttle diplomacy to project her perspective of events here.

As power games were played out on the political chess board, the President lined up important engagements, including a fresh round of talks with the JVP last evening. The sources said it was a virtual one-to-one between the President and the JVP with only Mr. Samaraweera being present. But political analysts said the JVP was not too happy about the President’s invitation to the UNF to form a government of national reconciliation.

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