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by Jatila Karawita

President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga described the UNP's hand in glove work with the LTTE as a dangerous trend which will create the possibility where the Tamil Tigers could send their suicide cadres to blast the Parliament.

She said that the LTTE which had exploded bombs on a regular basis in Colombo as a part of their campaign to achieve Eelam will presumably take the supreme Legislature under their control and threaten the unitary State of Sri Lanka.

President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga made these comments while addressing a massive People's Alliance election rally held at the Koggala Free Trade Zone Complex, Habaraduwa on Thursday night.

President Kumaratunga specifically stated that the United National Party had signed a surreptitious accord with the LTTE to gain power and the end result of this conspiracy is to send the LTTE suicide cadres to Parliament through the 'so-called Tamil National Alliance'.

She said UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe is trying valiantly to become the Prime Minister even if it means of betraying his own people and the country.

But she categorically mentioned that as long as she was the head of state she will not allow neither Ranil nor Prabakaran to divide this country and plunder her resources at their whims and fancies.

" Today seeing the impending hiding his party is going to get at the hustings Ranil is acting like a maniac.

He is desperately seeking power to continue from where his despicable party left off in 1994 following their traumatic 17 year rule.

He has clearly connived with the LTTE and he is gladly looking forward to hand over power in the North and East to a temporary interim council.

The people of this country do not know how this interim council is going to be set-up, and the people who will comprise it.

I request the people not to be hoodwinked by the bellicose rhetoric of Ranil Wickremesinghe and crush his sinister attempt to betray the people and the country at this polls" she stressed.

President Kumaratunga described in vivid detail the economic benefit accrued by the people since the People's Alliance took office in 1994, and queried what economic boom Ranil Wickremesinghe is going to achieve when the PA has already ensured a flourishing economic structure.

She said the UNP's election manifesto was nothing but a 'damp-squib' and said the people were wise enough not get carried away by such election gimmicks.

The President also explicitly described the situation the country was placed in during the 17 year despicable rule of the UNP and said that people owe a debt of gratitude to the PA for having ended the era of tyre-pyres, murders, abduction, rape etc.

"Today, my government has ensured that all citizens, be they Sinhala, Tamil, or Muslim can walk on the streets at the dead of night and they can go to bed without any fears or threats to their lives.

This was not the situation that prevailed then during Ranil's time. \ I do not want to go into detail but the people I am sure will never forgive Ranil and his party for what they did to the people and the country" said President Kumaratunga.

President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga reiterated her call for UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe to control his mafia styled death squads or else she will have no other alternative but to instruct her party supporters to reply in similar tones.

"I made this call at one of our rallies in Tissamahara also, and I repeat it. Please keep a tight check on your UNP death squads which have been roaming the countryside for the past fortnight. If they attack our innocent supporters physically we too will not keep silent.

If he wants to fight with the barrel of a gun we too will reply similarly, if the law fails to answer them adequately" President Kumaratunga vowed.President Kumaratunga lastly assured the people that the present development projects initiated by her administration on a large scale will be continued without interruption both in the Southern Province and the rest of the country following the completion of the general election. The Minister and PA Galle District leader Richard Pathirana also addressed the rally.

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Copyright 2001 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.
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