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President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga who predicted certain defeat for the UNP at the forthcoming general election said that if the UNP wins by any fluke and tries to hand over the North and East to the LTTE by setting up an interim administration she would use her Executive powers to thwart it. It was therefore the bounden duty of the people to give a clear and strong mandate to the PA and avoid such a crisis, the President said.

The President who was addressing the people of Kekirawa and Nochchiyagama in Anuradhapura district and Kaduruwela and Medirigiriya in Polonnaruwa district from the President's House through a live satellite link said that during the last General Election UNP Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe pledged to handover the administration of the North and East to Prabhakaran temporarily for a period of 5 years without any pre-conditions.

The interim administration clause included in the UNP election manifesto this time may be something couched in a different and subtle language.

The President who also fielded many questions posed by the people of Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa said if the North and East is given over to Prabhakaran for 5 years the Tigers may even capture Colombo within 2 years.

The President said that unlike the UNP, the PA had never entered into any secret pact with the LTTE. "We have clearly stated our stand on the ethnic issue. We have said that we would never subscribe to a division of the country."

The President said the Government had extended an invitation to the LTTE for a dialogue through Norway and this invitation was still open. But it had categorically stated that the question of a separate state was not negotiable and that the government had not accepted the LTTE as the sole representative of the Tamil people.

The President said nearly seven and a half lakhs of educated Tamils had fled the country and are employed abroad due to the Communal clashes instigated by the UNP in 1983. In addition to this the LTTE is engaged in various international rackets.

Funds obtained through them are being utilised by the LTTE to purchase arms and ammunition.

Although leaders of the UNP went round the world and called upon nations to stop the sources of LTTE funding world leaders did not respond to their appeals.

But the PA government had been able to represent matters to the world and get the LTTE branded as a terrorist organisation and banned internationally.

The government had even tried to bring the LTTE to the negotiating table through the UN but the LTTE had sidestepped the issue through devious means.

The President said the people should decide whether they were to betray the country by allowing the UNP to come to power and implement its secret pact with the LTTE. The people should therefore think wisely and exercise their ballot in a manner that would safeguard the country's future and unitary status. They should reject people who are trying to divide the nation, the President said.

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