Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
04COLOMBO73
2004-01-14 04:11:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Colombo
Cable title:  

In further roiling of cohabitation waters,

Tags:  PGOV PINS PINR PHUM KPAO CE 
pdf how-to read a cable
This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 COLOMBO 000073 

SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR SA, SA/INS, INR/NESA; NSC FOR E. MILLARD

PLEASE ALSO PASS TOPEC

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01-14-14
TAGS: PGOV PINS PINR PHUM KPAO CE
SUBJECT: In further roiling of cohabitation waters,
President Kumaratunga claims right to serve until 2006

Refs: (A) FBIS Reston Va DTG 140411Z Jan 04
- (B) SA/INS-Colombo 01/13/04 class e-mail
- (C) Colombo 69, and previous

(U) Classified by James F. Entwistle, Deputy Chief of
Mission. Reasons 1.5 (b,d).

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 COLOMBO 000073

SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR SA, SA/INS, INR/NESA; NSC FOR E. MILLARD

PLEASE ALSO PASS TOPEC

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01-14-14
TAGS: PGOV PINS PINR PHUM KPAO CE
SUBJECT: In further roiling of cohabitation waters,
President Kumaratunga claims right to serve until 2006

Refs: (A) FBIS Reston Va DTG 140411Z Jan 04
- (B) SA/INS-Colombo 01/13/04 class e-mail
- (C) Colombo 69, and previous

(U) Classified by James F. Entwistle, Deputy Chief of
Mission. Reasons 1.5 (b,d).


1. (C) SUMMARY: Late January 13, Sri Lanka's state-run
ITN television network broadcast a taped interview with
President Kumaratunga. In the interview, Kumaratunga
claimed the constitutional right to serve until late

2006. The President also defended her takeover of three
ministries in November 2003, but indicated that she
remained open to discussing the matter with the PM.
Contacts said her assertion of the right to serve until
2006 would prove controversial, as it long had been
thought she could only serve until late 2005. Clearly,
Kumaratunga's claim regarding her term has opened up
another front in the cohabitation wars. END SUMMARY.


2. (C) PRESIDENT SAYS SHE CAN SERVE UNTIL 2006: Late
January 13, the state-run ITN television network
broadcast an interview with President Chandrika
Bandaranaike Kumaratunga. The lengthy interview, which
was taped, was conducted entirely in Sinhala. The most
noteworthy item emerging from the interview was the
President's claim that she had the constitutional right
to serve until late 2006 (versus late 2005 as widely
thought). In defending this view (also see Ref C),
Kumaratunga asserted that her right to serve until 2006
stemmed from the fact that she had been sworn in a
second time for her second term as President in 2000.
(Her first swearing in took place in public in 1999.
This second ceremony in 2000 was not made public at the
time and was only recently disclosed -- see Ref C.)
Kumaratunga stated that she was initially sworn in for
her second term in 1999 only in order to "calm down the
people" and reassure them that she was fit enough to
serve as President following an attempt on her life by
the Tigers.


3. (C) (Note: As touched on in Ref C messages, this

issue is quite complex: In 1999, Kumaratunga called for
early presidential elections, which the Sri Lankan
Constitution allows. Her call for elections came one
year before the end of her first presidential term in

2000. In December 1999, after winning the election for
another six-year term, Kumaratunga was publicly sworn in
for her second term. Taking this public swearing-in as
the starting point of her second term, observers widely
assumed that Kumaratunga's term would run from 1999 to

2005. Kumaratunga's confirmation of a second swearing
in ceremony in late 2000 has now complicated the
situation. End Note.)


4. (C) OTHER ISSUES DISCUSSED IN INTERVIEW: During the
wide-ranging interview, the President also discussed the
ongoing cohabitation impasse and its impact on the peace
process. Her key points on these and other issues
included the following:

-- Cohabitation Impasse: The President defended her
November 2003 takeover of three key ministries (Defense,
Interior, Mass Communications). She indicated that she
remained willing to discuss how to resolve the issue of
who should control these ministries. In this regard,
she said discussions involving a joint committee formed
by the President and the PM "had not broken down" and
would "resume talks this week."

-- Peace Process: Kumaratunga rejected Prime Minister
Wickremesinghe's public assertions (see Ref C) that she
should take responsibility for the ceasefire accord with
the Tamil Tigers as long as she continued to control the
Defense Ministry. In unbridled language, the President
was cited as saying that this argument was "idiotic."
Without further explanation, she added that she was
ready to give the PM the powers he needed in order to
move the peace process forward.

-- Possible Parliamentary Elections: The President
indicated that she had no immediate plans to dissolve
Parliament and call national parliamentary elections.
Given the ongoing cohabitation impasse, however, she
allowed that parliamentary elections were possible. At
this point, she said her party, the People's Alliance
(PA),was getting ready for Provincial Council elections
slated to take place in April.

-- Possible alliance with radical party: Kumaratunga
said an alliance between her PA party and the radical
Janantha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) party would be
announced "soon," but she did not mention an exact
date.


5. (C) REACTION TO INTERVIEW: Reaction among Mission
contacts focused mainly on the President's assertion
that she had the right to serve until 2006. While there
was no immediate reaction by the Prime Minister or his
closest advisers to the President's claim regarding the
length of her term, their reaction is expected to be
negative. (Late January 14, in his weekly media
briefing, key Minister G.L. Peiris harshly rejected
Kumaratunga's assertion of a right to serve until 2006.)
In a hint of this, Upul Jayasuriya, a legal advisor to
the PM's United National Party (UNP),told us that he
totally rejected the President's claim and he promised
that the UNP would fight her on this matter if she
pressed further. In his opinion, the second swearing-in
could not be taken as legally valid, as there was no
precedent for two such ceremonies for one term.


6. (C) In remarks from a more neutral observer, Jehan
Perera, media director for the National Peace Council, a
local think-tank, told poloff on January 13 that he felt
the President's desire to serve until 2006 would spark a
serious political row. Admitting that the matter was
confusing, Perera said she may have "the legal right" to
serve until 2006, but not "the moral right." Kethesh
Loganathan, an analyst at the Center for Policy
Alternatives, another local think-tank, said the
question of the President's tenure in office would
create a big controversy, which would serve to further
complicate cohabitation tensions. Loganathan added that
the second swearing-in might damage Kumaratunga's image,
as people might regard it as an "underhanded move" on
the President's part.


7. (C) Another close contact, Suresh Premachandran, a
member of the pro-Tiger Tamil National Alliance, told
Mission that the President's serving another year in
office "would create problems" for the peace process.
Explaining his point, he said the President was seen by
Tamils "as uncooperative" in dealing with important
issues in the north and east, such as the resettlement
of internally displaced persons (IDPs). Premachandran
added that he felt the cohabitation struggle between the
President and PM would continue, and that another year
in office for the President would only serve to
exacerbate tensions between the two.


8. (C) COMMENT: It is not precisely clear whether the
Sri Lankan Constitution allows Kumaratunga to serve
until 2006, as she asserts. It is confusing, but some
articles in the Constitution seem to argue in favor of
her claim and some do not (most experts tentatively
believe that the law may be on her side). Also in her
favor is the fact that the Chief Justice is a close ally
and she might well win if this matter goes to the
Supreme Court. The Chief Justice does not totally
control each and every decision of the 11-member court,
however, as smaller "benches" with a different mix of
justices often rule on cases, so it is not clear what
would happen if there is a legal challenge. With
respect to politics, suffice it to say that
Kumaratunga's claim has opened up another front in the
cohabitation wars. END COMMENT.


9. (U) Minimize considered.

LUNSTEAD