Sri Lanka President warns main coalition partner

[TamilNet, Sunday, 13 February 2005, 16:07 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s President Chandrika Kumaratunga Sunday warned her main coalition partner that it can leave her government if it continues to obstruct her politically. In a hard hitting speech at the opening of a Multi Purpose Co-operative Society in Attanagalla, her home electorate in Sri Lanka’s western province, she warned the Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP): "If they want to leave, let them leave. I cannot rule like this. They threaten to leave the government even over paltry issues. They are more interested in getting rid of me than doing away with Pirapaharan".

"When I try to work on a solution (to the ethnic conflict), they say no. no. They say this word is wrong. That letter is not right. They tell us to add this word or add that letter. It is farcical", President Kumaratunga said.

"I have to take strong action regardless of who they are. Give me your support. I want to settle this country’s problem before I go home", she said.

She lambasted "some coalition partners" in her government for obstructing her efforts to find a political settlement to the island’s ethnic conflict.

With thirty nine MPs, the JVP holds the key to her coalition government. If the JVP goes, Kumaratunga has to either form a national government with the opposition, run a shaky minority government or go for fresh elections.