President says will work with dedication to ensure Mahinda's victory

President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga asserted yesterday that she would work with dedication to ensure the victory of the SLFP candidate at the forthcoming Presidential Election, notwithstanding distorted news and falsehoods published by the so-called independent private media institutions directly supporting the UNP candidate.

President Kumaratunga in a special interview before her departure to the UN yesterday, said she devoted one sentence of her hour long speech to commend the CFA and its author Ranil Wickremesinghe at the 54th anniversary ceremony of the SLFP but certain sections of the media had interpreted it in a manner favourable to the UNP Presidential candidate.

President Kumaratunga said she spoke at length heaping praise on Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse but those sections of the media had conveniently omitted it to portray a non-existent crisis within the SLFP.

The President said her praising the CFA was nothing new for she had consistently maintained that it was a good thing which prevented a recurrence of war. But what she was against were some of its clauses which go against the national interest.

She had always maintained that these clauses should be amended through discussion with the LTTE and the CFA should be strengthened and enhanced. Her policy regarding the CFA had always been consistent.

Question: When the UNF was in power former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe signed the CFA with LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran. At that time you issued a statement about the CFA incorporating your criticisms. But at the 54th anniversary celebrations of the SLFP at the Colombo Race Course grounds on September 6, you praised the CFA as a good thing.

The media made use of this to publish various reports. Some of them asked whether this statement signified an internal crisis in the SLFP. What is your stand on these media reports and the CFA ?

Answer: In all my speeches and interviews I have emphasised that Sri Lanka is in need of a ceasefire agreement.

I have consistently stated that the CFA is a good thing but some of the terms and conditions of the CFA signed by Ranil Wickremesinghe were not good and that efforts should be made to change them.

When Ranil Wickremesinghe was Prime Minister I was the Executive President and I said the manner in which it was signed without the approval of the Executive President was wrong.

When the late J. R. Jayewardene was President he had given Prime Minister R. Premadasa only powers similar to that of an office assistant. It was not done by me. Going by that standard approval should have been obtained from the Executive. I only criticised the manner in which the CFA was signed and some of its terms and conditions which were not conducive. But I always said that the CFA was a good thing.

I did not go criticising from place to place because that is not my custom. I levelled my criticisms in a formal letter addressed to Mr. Wickremesinghe as Prime Minister and released it to the media.

In that letter, I emphasised that the CFA is good. I said I too have signed a thing like this. I said even though you told me that you are going to do a thing like this you never informed me about its terms and conditions and the date on which it was to be signed. I also told him that the CFA would receive my full support but it should have been discussed with me before signing.

I also told him that certain sections of the agreement would be very dangerous. But I never said that the CFA was wrong. At the 54th anniversary of the SLFP, I spoke about the services rendered by me as the President for 11 years. Wickremesinghe was also one of my Prime Ministers during that period.

He was appointed by me. If I wanted I could have refrained from appointing him as Prime Minister although the UNP had won the General Election because the Constitution has given me such powers.

In my speech I gave prominence to the work done by Governments led by the SLFP for nine years out of that 11 years. I was only submitting a report about my services to the sessions before I relinquished office.

That was a duty owed to an annual convention. During my long speech which lasted over one hour, I only made one sentence referring to peace. I said Wickremesinghe signed a CFA which is good but there are certain shortcomings in it. This is what I wrote in my letter too.

The problem is that certain so-called independent private media institutions supporting Wickremesinghe spotlighted my statement on the CFA and said I have not stated so before and tried to sabotage it earlier.

Today there was no war on the basis of the CFA. But there had been certain violations of the CFA during the period of its operation. For instance, Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar was gunned down. Several other innocent people have been abducted or killed by the LTTE. While criticising those acts we have to state that there has not been an actual war.

We have to look at it in a balanced way. This is all what I said. But they are using it to say that I praised Wickremesinghe because of the Presidential Election and that I did not speak anything good of our Presidential Candidate. But actually I spoke at length praising Prime Minister Rajapakse.

The other problem is a defence correspondent of a Sunday newspaper who thinks he knows all about defence matters. He publishes tit bits gathered from here and there, but half of it is untrue. He says I am not consistent in my policies about the CFA. But I have always maintained that the CFA is a good thing. If not a war would have started in this country again.

None of us want war. Even the JVP says it does not want war. I have not changed my stance any time. I have always said the CFA is good but some of its terms are unhealthy and others are very weak. When we came back to power after two and a half years of the operation of the CFA we tried to change it. The LTTE too said it was prepared to discuss the CFA.

But they did not come to the discussion table. After the assassination of Foreign Minister Kadirgamar we again highlighted the need to discuss and amend the CFA but the LTTE is dodging it making the venue an issue. When we discuss the CFA we hope to strengthen its weak points and see whether new clauses could be added or existing clauses amended to prevent violations. We are still striving to do this and have not given up hope.

Wickremesinghe has stabilised the existing CFA for two and a half years and the LTTE is now unwilling to change it. It was wrong to have agreed to those conditions at the beginning.

Question: The SLFP has nominated Prime Minister Rajapakse as its Presidential Candidate.

Some people say that certain media reports are unfavourable for his publicity campaign. In which way do you hope to contribute towards his victory? Answer: Sections of the media owned by UNP families directly supporting Wickremesinghe's candidature as well as those owned by his family may use distorted news. We cannot do anything about it. They may even publish more falsehoods in future.

But we have put forward a candidate from our party.

As long as I remain in our party as its president or as an ordinary member I will not do anything harmful to our party. I will work with dedication to ensure the victory of our candidate.