Rajapakse named new Sri Lankan PM

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, April 06, 2004

Rajapakse named new Sri Lankan PM

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Sri Lanka's president on Monday appointed veteran politician Mahinda Rajapakse as prime minister. Tamil Tiger rebels threatened to start fighting again unless their autonomy demands are met, casting doubt on the shaky cease-fire that halted a two-decade civil war.

Rajapakse, 58, who will take the oath of office on Tuesday to become this country's 13th prime minister since winning independence from Britain in 1948. The island off the southwest coast of India was then known as Ceylon.

The incoming prime minister had led President Chandrika Kumaratunga's party in Parliament when it was in the opposition.

"Rajapakse is a moderate person. He is one of the few liberals within the party," said Jehan Perera, a political analyst at the National Peace Council, an independent research institute.

"He is very approachable to a wide spectrum of the people," Perera said.

Kumaratunga's alliance emerged just eight seats short of an absolute majority in Parliament in Friday's snap elections.

An official at the presidential secretariat said Kumaratunga's United Peoples Freedom Alliance, which secured 105 seats in the 225-member Parliament, was holding talks with smaller parties and considered a ruling coalition a certainty.

Under Sri Lanka's constitution, the president has the power to administer the oath of office to a prime minister, but the latter must prove a majority in the Parliament, which is scheduled to convene April 22.

Outgoing Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe had initiated the most recent attempts to make peace with the Tamil Tiger rebels, who fought a long, bloody war for a separate state for Sri Lanka's minority ethnic Tamils. They claim they are discriminated against by majority Sinhalese.

Wickremesinghe's peace plan was a major factor in a bitter feud with Kumaratunga, who has taken a tough stance toward the rebels and accused Wickremesinghe of giving them too many concessions.

Source: CD/Agencies

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