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President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga replying to the letter of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe of 17th September states he (the Premier)cannot seek refuge in "fabricated shortcomings of previous governments to write away your sacred duties by the country'.

The President said: "I am amused at your objection to what you call my purported "public discussion of security issues through the media". As on some previous occasions, I am once more surprised at your selective insomnia regarding important matters of State.

You have surely not forgotten so soon that it was your Media Spokesman, Mr. G. L. Peiris, who first raised this issue in public at one of his weekly Media Conferences.

Since the beginning of May 2002, for sixteen long months, I kept warning, instructing and trying my best to persuade you and the Minister of Defence of the impending dangers to the Sovereignty of the State and the Security of the Nation at meetings I had with you, as well as, at National Security Council meetings attended by the Minister of Defence, Commanders of the forces etc.

The only response I had were statements from you verbally and sometimes in writing to the effect that you did not have to be told by me and so on.

The Minister of Defence, for his part, is on record for the statements at three National Security Council meetings that "one should turn a blind eye" to the LTTE bringing in arms and ammunition to the country and matters such as child conscription, when I raised these issues very formally.

The President states

It is incorrect to say that I have had National Security Council Meetings without informing the Minister of Defence or his Secretary. Both of them have been informed of all National Security Council Meetings. You too were informed of them at the outset, but as you excused yourself from several very important meetings of the National Security Council, it was thought that you did not wish to attend these.

2. The next substantive issue you have raised in page 2 of your letter is to tell me that I should not raise the issue of the Trincomalee Naval Base, because I had failed to ensure security of the State, when I held the post of Minister of Defence. Even if your contention were true, how does it absolve you of the duties and responsibilities which I have permitted you as Prime Minister to fulfil.

I truly fail to comprehend the logic of your statement. If as you say I have "messed up" the Defence of the State during my tenure of office as Minister of Defence, you seem to contend that you are therefore bestowed the right to "mess up" further.

Your own highly personalised version of recent historical events, wholly belie actual facts. You talk of the loss of "the whole of the Vanni" after Jayasikuru.

While on the subject of history, I am truly shocked by your total amnesia about the factual situation which pertained in Jaffna, after the black July of 1983, presided over by the previous UNP Government. Not only the Vanni, but the entire Northern Province was lost to the LTTE, many years before I took over the Premiership from you in 1994, during the period when Messrs. Premadasa, Wijetunga and you, were Premiers of the UNP Government. In near two decades of war initiated by your UNP Government in 1983, the only period where the Armed Forces successfully conducted massive victories was during the stewardship of the People's Alliance Leadership from 1994 to 2001. The bravery of our forces and the commitment of the political and military leadership gave us clear victories in the war, whilst we loss some battles, the President states in her letter.

3. May I also mention, that during the entire seventeen year term of the UNP Government, from 1977 to 1994, there was no concept at all of a negotiated settlement to the ethnic conflict and the war. Your policy was only one of war and the most horrendous violation of the fundamental rights of the Tamil people, as the only possible solution to the ethnic question of Sri Lanka.

The Vision, Strategy and Action Plan for Peace through a negotiated settlement, was put into operation for the first time by the People's Alliance Government, within nine days of arriving in power in August 1994.

May you be reminded that it was also the PA Government, that had the courage and the statesmanship to undertake for the first time since independence, the long abandoned task of Nation Building through a well planned policy covering the economic, social and constitutional spheres to facilitate the resolution of the ethnic problem.

4. You state that "by 1995 I had withdrawn all the troop detachments" in the Trincomalee district, with the implication that this was the cause for the LTTE's present strength in the area.

If this was so, how is it that for seven long years, the LTTE had not set up any camps in the said area and did so only after you took over the reigns of the Peace Process? You talk of an armed attack on the Katunayake Air Base in July 2001, once again amnesia seems to be working overtime. Do you not remember thirteen major attacks in a period of 12 months in the years 1986/87 on government institutions, in and around Colombo including the Katunayake Air Base during the Government of President J. R. Jayewardene of which you were a Cabinet Minister. As compared with this, during intense military operations between the Government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE from mid 1995 to end 2001, a full period of six years, there were six LTTE attacks in and around Colombo.

Your earlier presentation of the military activity of the government of Sri Lanka from 1995 to 2001 is a complete insult to the bravery and efficiency of our armed forces. But of course I should not be surprised, given the manner in which you and some of your Ministers conduct themselves to demoralise the Commanders of the Forces and their men and women."

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