POLITICS-SRI LANKA: Injured Kumaratunga Pitches For Re-election

By Feizal Samath Reprint | | Print |

Feizal Samath

COLOMBO, Dec 20 1999 (IPS) - A hospitalised Sri Lankan President, Chandrika Kumaratunga, has vowed to crush the Tamil separatist rebels if she wins Tuesday’s election, but the weekend attempt on her life is unlikely to turn into a sympathy wave.

An injured Kumaratunga spoke to the nation on radio, Sunday, saying the presidential poll election would go ahead as scheduled and calling on the people to wipe out “terrorism”.

“The time has come for all Sinhalese, Tamil, Muslim and other people of Sri Lanka to set aside their differences and join hands in a massive effort to take forward the process of wiping out terrorism and re-establishing peace and democracy,” she said.

Kumaratunga has suffered injuries on her face and right eye in the attack at her final election meeting, Saturday night, by a suspected Tamil rebel suicide bomber who died killing at least 25 other people.

An injured president was rushed to a private hospital in Colombo, where she has been staying under heavy security against any further assassination attempts.

The assassination bid on the president was followed by a bomb explosion at the venue of the opposition, United National Party (UNP), rally on the outskirts of Colombo, killing at least nine people including a former major-general who was a party member.

The twin bomb attacks are alleged to be the handiwork of the Tamil Tiger rebels, who never own up responsibility, but have struck in the past to kill Sri Lankan leaders, including Gamini Dissanayake, the UNP’s candidate in the last presidential race.

Dissanayake was assassinated at an election meeting in 1994. Three years earlier, former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi was killed at an election meeting in India’s southern Tamil State by a Tiger suicide bomber.

The Tigers, fighting for a separate state they call ‘Eelam’ in the north and west for the island’s minority Tamils they claim to represent, are suspected to have masterminded the assassination of Sri Lankan president Ranasinghe Premadasa in May 1993.

Neelan Tiruchelvam, moderate Tamil leader and constitutional expert and rights activist was killed in an alleged Tiger attack in July this year. The Tigers have eliminated many Tamil leaders they considered a threat.

At least 75,000 people, both combatants and civilians, have been killed in the civil war in Sri Lanka, which started in 1983. Kumaratunga had come to power in 1994 promising to restore peace.

Before the assassination bid, most political analysts, diplomats and civic groups were unanimous that Kumaratunga and her main rival, Ranil Wickremasinghe of the UNP, were running neck-and-neck race, ahead of the other 11 contenders in the race.

Wickremasinghe’s promise to restart negotiations with the Tigers, who have said they are ready to talk peace, was expected to work in his favour at the poll. Kumaratunga has suffered a series of serious reverses, including battle-field losses against the Tigers.

“Will there be a sympathy vote? I don’t think so since it is too late in the campaign for any side to take political mileage of the blast. Remember the UNP rally was also hit,” observed Harry Goonatillake, a retired air force commander and now political commentator, Sunday.

He said there could be some sections, maybe in the villages, who might be swayed by the assassination bid, but that would not have an overall impact on the poll as voters have already made up their minds.

All Sunday, state television showed dozens of religious ceremonies and prayer meetings organised by ruling People’s Alliance politicians but an outpouring of public sympathy was less obvious.

Expressing a minority view, Jehan Perera, media director of the National Peace Alliance (NAP) and a political analyst, said: “I think there would be a swing in Chandrika’s favour since there is a growing feeling of sympathy towards her now.”

The editor of a state-run newspaper thought a sympathy vote could give Kumaratunga the much-needed majority at the poll. “She could get up to 55 percent now,” he said. The winner must obtain 50 percent plus one vote under Sri Lanka’s preferential voting system. The last three elections, in 1982, 1989 and 1994, have produced outright winners.

The run-up to elections has been marked by violence, including five murders. On Dec. 17, a group of film and television artistes held a protest in Colombo against attacks, particularly on women,

by ruling party campaigners. Most of the violence has been been against the UNP.

The opposition party could equally bid to cash in on the sympathy wave, said a top law professor who did not want to be identified. “I don’t think the sympathy factor would play an influential role. Furthermore the UNP will also claim that their meeting too was attacked by the rebels.”

Government spokesman and Media Minister Mangala Samaraweera also played down the sympathy factor at a news conference on Sunday, asserting that Kumaratunga was always expected to win.

The president is seeking a second six-year term in power to implement constitutional reforms designed to change the presidential system of government and end the ethnic conflict.