DATE=12/23/1999
TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT
TITLE=SRI LANKA VOTE ANALYSIS
NUMBER=5-45099
BYLINE=JIM TEEPLE
DATELINE=COLOMBO
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: In Sri Lanka, President Chandrika Kumaratunga
won reelection to a second term in office this week -
winning just over 51 percent of the vote to her
nearest rival's 43 percent. The election was
disrupted by suicide bomb blasts, blamed on Tamil
Tiger separatists, that killed more than 35 people.
Following her election victory President Kumaratunga
called for peace in Sri Lanka, but as we hear from
VOA's Jim Teeple in Colombo, Sri Lanka's president has
few immediate options other than to press ahead with
her military campaign against the Tamil Tigers.
Text: Just four days after she narrowly escaped
assassination by a suicide bomber, Chandrika
Kumaratunga was sworn in to a second five year term at
her official residence. The ceremony was hastily
announced and sparsely attended, reflecting the
security concerns which dominate the everyday life of
politicians in Sri Lanka, who are under constant
threat of assassination by Tamil Tiger suicide
bombers.
// OPT // With one eye covered in bandages - the
result of a bomb attack she survived just days earlier
-- Chandrika Kumaratunga declared she was more
determined than ever to end the bloodshed in Sri
Lanka. But she also declared that she would punish
those responsible for the bomb attacks. She called on
Sri Lanka's Tamil minority to reject the Tamil Tigers
-- who for 16 years have waged a violent struggle to
carve a separate homeland out of Tamil-dominated areas
in northern and eastern Sri Lanka. //END OPT //
Following her election victory, President Kumaratunga
faces two tasks. Her most immediate concern is to
reverse sharp military defeats her army has suffered
recently in the northern Jaffna peninsula. Following
a surprise offensive by the Tamil Tigers, which began
about six weeks ago, Sri Lanka's army has lost much of
the territory it captured from the Tigers three years
ago. On the political front, in a bid to achieve a
negotiated settlement to the war, the President must
convince Sri Lanka's parliament to approve
constitutional changes that would give greater
autonomy to Tamil-dominated areas.
Sunila Abeyesekera, directs INFORM, a leading human
rights monitoring group in Sri Lanka. She says
Chandrika Kumaratunga received a wave of sympathy from
Sri Lanka's voters following the bomb attack against
her, and she now has a rare opportunity to try and
achieve a political settlement to Sri Lanka's long-
running ethnic conflict.
// ABEYESEKERA ACTUALITY //
She is politically astute enough to see that she may
now use this to her advantage. She might say, look,
you know the LTTE (Tamil Tigers) tried to kill me, but
still I believe in going for negotiations. I think
that will give her a position of strength that she can
draw on and I certainly hope that she does.
// END ACTUALITY //
Others however are not so sure that President
Kumaratunga will have the ability or the will to end
Sri Lanka's long-running war -- or get the necessary
support in parliament to get her autonomy proposals
for Tamil areas approved.
Rohan Edrisinha, is a law professor at the University
of Colombo, who is also a director of the Center for
Policy Alternatives, a leading Colombo policy
institute. He says most Tamils voted for Chandrika
Kumaratunga's opponent in the election, Ranil
Wickremesinghe. Because of that, he says President
Kumaratunga is not likely to press ahead with any
special measures to help Sri Lanka's Tamil minority.
// EDRISINHA ACTUALITY //
The indications are so far that the Tamils voted for
Ranil Wickremesinghe. He did well in Trincomalee and
in areas where the Tamil population is concentrated in
Colombo. And that really makes them totally
marginalized because they supported the candidate that
has lost. That was probably because most Tamils found
Ranil appealing because he was talking in terms of
dealing with the LTTE (Tamil Tigers) and I think most
Tamils feel that has to be done. They sort of have a
love-hate relationship with the LTTE, but they feel
that they have to be part of the solution or part of
the whole process of negotiation.
// END ACTUALITY //
Rohan Edrishinha says Chandrika Kumaratunga is more
likely to press ahead with a military solution to Sri
Lanka's ethnic conflict.
Since the election, Sri Lanka's Defense Minister (JIM,
WE NEED THE NAME HERE) has said President
Kumaratunga's victory was a vote of confidence for a
tough stand against the Tamil Tigers. Sri Lanka's
Defense Minister Anuradha Ratwatte says he expects Sri
Lanka's president to approve measures to modernize the
country's armed forces and improve the military's
intelligence network - making it more effective in the
fight against the Tamil Tigers. (Signed)
neb/jlt/plm
23-Dec-1999 04:16 AM EDT (23-Dec-1999 0916 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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