Sri Lankan Government Ignores Threat to Sack PM

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, January 17, 2003

Sri Lankan Government Ignores Threat to Sack PM

Sri Lanka's cohabitation government yesterday brushed aside a threat by President Chandrika Kumaratunga to sack the prime minister and asserted it has the clear majority needed to rule the country.

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Sri Lanka's cohabitation government yesterday brushed aside a threat by President Chandrika Kumaratunga to sack the prime minister and asserted it has the clear majority needed to rule the country.

Spokesman G.L. Peiris said the government did not want to get into a debate with Kumaratunga, who on Tuesday announced she would sack Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe if he "continues to jeopardize national security."

"The president has said many things and our intention is not to get into a public debate," Peiris told reporters. "This is a democracy and anyone is free to say anything."

Peiris, who is also the government's chief negotiator with the Tamil rebels and the constitutional affairs minister in cabinet, said the prime minister enjoyed a majority in parliament and to remove him would be undemocratic.

Wickremesinghe has a slender two-seat majority in the 225-member assembly.

Official sources said the government did not want to raise the stakes in a confrontation with Kumaratunga amid fears the political crisis could affect the ongoing Norwegian-backed peace negotiations with Tamil rebels.

The rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) have said they consider the crisis between bitter rivals Wickremesinghe and Kumaratunga the main obstacle to the peace process.

A spokesman for the prime minister's office said the staff has studied the lengthy live phone-in programme during which Kumaratunga made her remarks and said they believed it was not worth responding to.

"She appears to have spoken as the leader of her party rather than as head of state. She appeared on the programme with five of her party's senior members who don't see eye to eye on several issues," the spokesman said.

"Attacking the government could be part of her strategy to divert attention from problems faced by her party."

Kumaratunga's party officially opposes the prime minister's handling of the peace process, but some opposition members support the peace drive.

Peiris said several members of Kumaratunga's People's Alliance Party were taking part in an overseas tour to study federal constitutions that could form the basis for a settlement to the conflict in the country.

Kumaratunga, who was directly elected in 1999, has unfettered constitutional powers to sack the government and call snap elections.

Wickremesinghe's one-year-old government can in theory remain in office until December 2007 when its six-year term ends, but Kumaratunga, whose own six years are up in December 2005, can cut short the life of parliament.

The president's latest outburst was directly linked to Norway's attempts to broker peace in Sri Lanka, where more than 60,000 people have died in three decades of ethnic bloodshed.

Kumaratunga charged the prime minister was agreeing to every demand made by the LTTE and said Wickremesinghe was moving towards breaking up the country and giving a separate state to the Tigers.

The government did not respond to Kumaratunga's virtual charge-sheet against Wickremesinghe. She accused him of lifting a 1998 ban on the Tigers and entering into a truce without her approval, and allowing the rebels to import sophisticated radio equipment.

"I can sack the prime minister by issuing just one letter," Kumaratunga said. "He and his entire cabinet will have to go if I do that and I know the entire world will support my decision.

"I will not sack him for personal gain. But I will do it in the national interest."

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