September 3, 2002	Tuesday	Jamadi-us-Saani24,1423

COLOMBO, Sept 2: Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga on Monday vowed to overturn moves by her co-habitation government to concede a key rebel demand and lift a ban on them before crucial peace talks in Thailand.

President Kumaratunga assured hundreds of Buddhists monks that she will prevent the government of her arch rival, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe de-proscribing the Tiger rebels, her office said in a two-page statement.

The rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) had said they will enter peace talks brokered by Norway only after the 1998 ban on them was lifted. The talks are scheduled to open in Thailand on September 16.

“There are legal avenues available to stop the government lifting the ban on the LTTE ,” Kumaratunga’s office said quoting her during a meeting with hard-line nationalistic Buddhist monks. She did not elaborate on how she would do it.

Kumaratunga stressed that she was “strongly opposed” to de-banning the Tiger guerrillas.

“I am strongly opposed to the lifting of the ban on an LTTE which has not given up its terrorism, not given up its demand for a separate state and not entered the democratic mainstream.

“There should be an interim administration (for the embattled north-east) only after all issues have been discussed and a settlement reached.

“The Prime Minister has neither informed me nor the country on how he is going to negotiate with the LTTE,” Kumaratunga told the Buddhist monks who earlier in the day held a meeting denouncing peace broker Norway.

The monks also demanded that the ban on the Tigers should not be lifted and urged Kumaratunga to take the defence portfolio and stop her cohabitation government in its attempts to deal with the Tiger rebels.

Kumaratunga was quoted as saying that she supported peace moves and recognised that minority Tamils had “reasonable grievances” but she was “not willing to betray everything.”—AFP