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Elections focus on plan ending Lankan civil war |
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October 10, 2000
COLOMBO (AP) - Sri Lanka is heading into an election Tuesday that will make or break the government's ambitious plan to rewrite the constitution in an effort to end the island's 17-year civil war. President Chandrika Kumaratunga regards the election as a referendum on a proposed new constitution that would give more power to the regions, including the north and east where separatists are fighting for a Tamil homeland. The 55-year-old president, who herself carries the scars of her country's violence, hopes to win over moderate Tamils, dim the appeal of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and bring an end to the war that has claimed more than 63,000 lives and added an extra strand of instability to an already restless, newly nuclearized region. The independent watchdog Center for Monitoring Election Violence said Monday there had been 61 election-related deaths in five weeks of campaigning. "The entire election is a sham and a fraud" in Tamil majority areas, it said, because it will be difficult for people to vote. The government estimates 400,000 people live in rebel-held areas, and another 1 million have been displaced by the fighting. The government said air force bombers on Monday knocked out a major rebel gun position 15 kilometers (10 miles) southeast of Jaffna, the main city in the northern battle zone. The government said it would reduce the risk of the rebels firing artillery into the city on Tuesday. Kumaratunga called the elections after failing to push the new constitution through Parliament in August. She hopes Tuesday's vote will give her People's Alliance enough of the 225 seats to command the two-thirds majority needed to change the constitution. Tamil people are outnumbered 3-1 by the Sinhalese ethnic group, and although the Tamil rebels have never directly run for office, they have swayed most elections on this West Virginia-sized island of 18.6 million and made politics a lethal occupation. In 1994, a suicide bomber killed Gamini Dissanayake, the main opposition candidate, late in the presidential election campaign. Left without a credible opponent, Kumaratunga won by a landslide. Tamils welcomed her victory because she offered talks with the rebels. But the talks broke down in 1995, Kumaratunga pursued the war, and she has fallen out of favor with the militants. A suicide bomber targeted Kumaratunga at an election rally Dec. 18, blinding her right eye. She won another term in voting three days later. She isn't campaigning in public this time for fear of more attacks. She stays in her heavily barricaded home near the Colombo city center. The road to her house is closed to all traffic at 7 p.m. Heavily armed anti-terrorist commandoes patrol the streets of Colombo on motorcycles. Police barricades are all over the city and vehicles are regularly checked. On Wednesday the government abandoned a Norwegian-mediated peace effort and announced it would "eradicate" the Tamil Tiger leader. The next day a suicide bomber killed himself and 12 other people at an election rally for Kumaratunga's party in Medawachchiya, 120 miles northeast of Colombo. There have been several other bombings and assassination attempts during the campaign. But most public attention has been riveted to sidewalk TV sets indulging a passion for cricket inherited from the days when this was Ceylon and the British empire ruled it. The occasion is an international cricket tournament in Kenya. The other big election issue is living costs. With the defense budget now dlrs 1 billion, the government this summer has hiked the defense levy, as well as the price of cigarettes, liquor and fuel. Among the 29 parties fighting the election, the main opposition is the United National Party led by Ranil Wickremesinghe, a former prime minister, who echoes the Kumaratunga of six years ago by pledging an immediate de-escalation of fighting and talks with the Tamil Tigers. In the last presidential election, Wickremesinghe outpolled Kumaratunga in Tamil districts, and the government accused the rebels of coercing people to vote for him. Wickremesinghe in turn accused the president of attempting to tar him with rebel connections. In government-controlled areas in north and east, many contesting parties are armed to the teeth, particularly former Tamil militants who have joined mainstream politics.
On the Net: Tamil rebels: http://www.eelamweb.com
Sri Lankan government: http://www.priu.gov.lk
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