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A group of Bhikkus yesterday urged President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga to use her executive powers to prevent the deproscription of the LTTE and the establishment of an Interim Administration.

The Bhikkus who had passed a resolution at the National Bhikku Convention at the BMICH came to the President's House to hand over a communique to this effect to the President, a Presidential Secretariat news release said.

Addressing the Bhikkus, President Kumaratunga said she is vehemently against the lifting of the ban on the LTTE. "I am totally against this move because the LTTE has not yet given up terrorism and weapons and the demand for Eelam. It has also not joined the democratic mainstream".

The Interim Administration should be set up only after a settlement to all the problems is reached, she said.

President Kumaratunga said she cannot betray the nation in the name of peace. "War cannot find solutions to the problems of the Tamil people. I am always for a solution which can address the problems of Tamils while ensuring the rights of other communities."

She told the Bhikku delegates that several legal avenues were available to prevent the government from removing the ban on the LTTE.

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