Lankan president denies peace process at risk

President Chandrika Kumaratunga has denied that the peace process with Tamil Tiger rebels is at risk due to her takeover of three key government portfolios, in an interview broadcast yesterday by the BBC.

"I don't see how the peace process could be at risk unless I ordered the forces to go to war or something," the president said, answering the charge of her arch-rival, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, that her actions had put the Norwegian-led initiative in jeopardy.

Kumaratunga, taking advantage of Wickremesinghe being out of the country, Tuesday suspended parliament for two weeks and sacked the defence, information and interior ministers.

In a televised address to the nation on Friday, she made it clear she intended to hold on to the three key portfolios and would from now on closely monitor the peace process, believing it had endangered the nation's security.

She complained that she had not been asked to sign the accord in February last year between Wickremesinghe's government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), an omission which she said made it invalid.

Despite this, she had, as the new defence minister, ordered Sri Lanka's military to respect the truce, she said.

In the interview with the BBC's World Service Television, Kumaratunga said she had been excluded from the peace process even though her assent was required for key decisions.

"Sometimes I was not consulted but as head of government I am part of the peace process and nothing in that peace process can become law without my being part of it," Kumaratunga said. "So perhaps now one could work closer together."

Defending her takeover of defence, she said she had merely "assigned to myself defence powers which are exclusively assigned to the Sri Lanka president under the constitution".

Asked if she was optimistic about the future of the peace process, she questioned the sincerity of the Tamil Tigers, who on October 31 unveiled their first ever blueprint for a political settlement.