New president offers talks to Tigers

Sri Lanka's newly elected President Mahinda Rajapakse is sworn in while his immediate family -- wife Shiranthi and a son, look on in Colombo yesterday. Rajapakse offered talks with Tamil Tiger rebels to end three decades of ethnic bloodshed.. PHOTO: AFP

Allied to hardline Marxist and Buddhist parties, Rajapakse narrowly beat main opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe in a close-run poll on Thursday. Minority Tamil voters who had been expected to oppose him stayed away after an apparent boycott by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

"I would like to reiterate my desire to engage in direct talks with the LTTE," he said. "I want to achieve an honourable peace."

As soon as the Tigers were ready to resume the stalled peace talks, the government would listen, he said, but made it clear that he wanted to redraw the 2002 ceasefire that halted two decades of fighting after the deaths of more than 64,000.

"The government is ready to review the ceasefire agreement," he said in Sinhalese, although it was not in the English printed version of the speech. "This process can start as soon as the relevant parties are ready. Human rights violations, such as child abduction and murder, that are happening despite the ceasefire must come to an end."

Before the election, the Tigers had said that any attempt to amend the ceasefire terms could cause it to collapse completely, although they said they would not restart the war. Monitors still expect the truce to hold, although redrawing the agreement may not be easy.

"It doesn't matter who is in power, the government is still bound by the ceasefire agreement," said Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission spokeswoman Helen Olafsdottir. "If you want to make any changes to it, both sides would have to agree."

Observers said the Tiger poll boycott -- which saw burning barricades block checkpoints between rebel and government territory -- had been aimed at stopping the more conciliatory Wickremesinghe gaining power and claiming a mandate from Tamil voters.

Rajapakse, prime minister under outgoing president Chandrika Kumaratunga, said the electorate had voted for a united country. Analysts say they doubt that the Tigers will ever compromise on their demand for a separate Tamil state.

"The overwhelming majority of the people said that the country should not be divided," he said.

He said he would send a new budget to parliament, rendering the previous budget announced last week as void.