Word: kumaratunga
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...political crisis sweeping Sri Lanka, personal animosity has triumphed over good governance?and could even jeopardize the fragile peace. President Chandrika Kumaratunga's moves last week to sack three senior ministers, suspend Parliament and impose a state of emergency?all while her Prime Minister was overseas?represented, even her party members admit, a naked power grab rather than an attempt to protect "national security" as she claimed. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's return to Colombo three days later and his triumphant procession to the cheers of tens of thousands were, his supporters agree, premature victory celebrations. To the north...
...immediate responsibility for this crisis falls squarely on President Kumaratunga. "She took these decisions alone... to take power into her own hands," says Mahinda Rajapakse, vice president of Kumaratunga's People's Alliance party. A Colombo-based diplomat says international observers were "flabbergasted" by the timing of Kumaratunga's moves. Just three days earlier, the LTTE had injected new life into a peace process that had been moribund since talks were broken off in April by submitting a comprehensive set of demands to Colombo. While uncompromising, the LTTE proposals were only a starting point for negotiations, the diplomat stresses. Moreover...
...Intensifying the unpredictability were the President's starkly contradictory actions. Kumaratunga declared a state of emergency, then declined to sign the order two days later. Nevertheless, she then ordered a nationwide deployment of the army, which subsequently denied receiving any such command. Announcing that the President was assuming control of the peace negotiations?which have been led by Wickremesinghe and are being brokered by the Norwegian government?her spokesman said the cease-fire with the LTTE "will stand." Kumaratunga then declared the cessation "invalid" but said, "My commitment to peace is total." Most worryingly, in two addresses to the nation...
...former cabinet members went on trial at a U.N. tribunal in Tanzania. The four, who are accused of masterminding the 1994 inter-ethnic violence that resulted in the killing of about 800,000 people, denied nine charges of genocide and crimes against humanity. Sudden Crisis SRI LANKA President Chandrika Kumaratunga sparked a political crisis by abruptly sacking three ministers, suspending Parliament and imposing a state of emergency - which she lifted two days later - while Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was on a trip to Washington, D.C. Kumaratunga denied she was trying to grab power for its own sake, accusing Wickremesinghe...
...prosperity to continue, though, the peace must hold. On Oct. 24, President Chandrika Kumaratunga, Wickremesinghe's main political rival, convened a giant rally in Colombo to charge that the government was preparing to hand over the north and east to the LTTE by acceding to all its demands. In addition to offending the Tamil population?which is mostly Hindu?by holding the rally on the Hindu sacred day of Deepavali, Kumaratunga is considering an alliance with an ultra-nationalist Sinhalese group in the next elections. Those elections could be held at any time: constitutionally, the President has almost arbitrary power...