War to end this year - President

[TamilNet, Sunday, 01 March 1998, 23:59 GMT]
The Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunge said today that she will finish the war before the end of this year and that she will hold elections to the provincial councils in August. The Ms. Chandrika Kumaratunge also said that a political solution will be implemented before the end of this year.

She was addressing a meeting at the Presidential People's Service in the premises of the Polannaruwa Royal College this afternoon.

Polannaruwa is a large provincial town 216 miles north-east of Colombo.

The Presidential People's Service is same as the Presidential Mobile Service which was introduced by former President Ranasinghe Premadasa to take the benefits of the Executive Presidential system to the grass roots level, thereby cutting through red tape which otherwise hinders people in rural areas from having direct access to high officials in the Sri Lankan bureaucracy.

The PA, despite its merciless criticism of the Premadasa regime, recently chose to reactivate the Presidential Mobile Service under the thinly disguised banner of 'Presidential People's Service'.