Sri Lanka key issues solution after vote-president
By Ranga Sirilal
COLOMBO, July 6 (Reuters) - Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who won a 25-year war with Tamil Tigers long viewed as unwinnable, said a political solution to the problems that helped fan the conflict must wait for presidential elections.
The president, who had strong backing for his tough military approach from hard-line members of his ruling coalition, will have a tougher time getting them on board with a political solution if it involves significant concessions to the country's Tamil and other minorities, political analysts say.
Parties like coalition members Jathika Hela Urumaya and Janatha Nidahas Sandhanaya are among those unlikely to go along. But a fresh and broader personal electoral mandate could allow Rajapaksa -- whose popularity climbed as he brought the 25-year war with the Tigers to a close in May -- to bypass them.
"I know what to give and I know what not to give," Rajapaksa told India's newspaper The Hindu in an interview, referring to the political solution.
"I am waiting but it will be after my (re-)election. I must get the mandate. After that, the political solution comes."
Rajapaksa won a six-year term in 2005, but under Sri Lankan law could call a fresh presidential election as early as this November and a parliamentary election sooner.
The mostly Hindu ethnic Tamils, and other groups like the country's Muslims, say they are discriminated against politically and economically by the mostly Buddhist ethnic Sinhalese majority.
The Sinhalese have dominated successive governments in the South Asian country of some 20 million people since independence in 1948.
The government says it aims for a home-grown solution to issues involving the Tamils and other minorities, and has a committee examining the problem.
The government on May 18 announced the complete defeat of the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), including the death of its founder Valupillai Prabhakaran. (Editing by Jerry Norton)
COLOMBO, July 6 (Reuters) - Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who won a 25-year war with Tamil Tigers long viewed as unwinnable, said a political solution to the problems that helped fan the conflict must wait for presidential elections.
The president, who had strong backing for his tough military approach from hard-line members of his ruling coalition, will have a tougher time getting them on board with a political solution if it involves significant concessions to the country's Tamil and other minorities, political analysts say.
Parties like coalition members Jathika Hela Urumaya and Janatha Nidahas Sandhanaya are among those unlikely to go along. But a fresh and broader personal electoral mandate could allow Rajapaksa -- whose popularity climbed as he brought the 25-year war with the Tigers to a close in May -- to bypass them.
"I know what to give and I know what not to give," Rajapaksa told India's newspaper The Hindu in an interview, referring to the political solution.
"I am waiting but it will be after my (re-)election. I must get the mandate. After that, the political solution comes."
Rajapaksa won a six-year term in 2005, but under Sri Lankan law could call a fresh presidential election as early as this November and a parliamentary election sooner.
The mostly Hindu ethnic Tamils, and other groups like the country's Muslims, say they are discriminated against politically and economically by the mostly Buddhist ethnic Sinhalese majority.
The Sinhalese have dominated successive governments in the South Asian country of some 20 million people since independence in 1948.
The government says it aims for a home-grown solution to issues involving the Tamils and other minorities, and has a committee examining the problem.
The government on May 18 announced the complete defeat of the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), including the death of its founder Valupillai Prabhakaran. (Editing by Jerry Norton)
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