The Sri Lankan president’s new allies say the ceasefire with Tamil Tiger rebels threatens national security. A spokesman for the People’s Liberation Front (JVP) said his party was ready to discuss a new truce agreement on the basis of “reasonable demands”. President Chandrika Kumaratunga has repeatedly stressed her commitment to upholding the two-year ceasefire. She called April’s poll after months of deadlock with her government, accusing it of being too soft on the Tigers. JVP propaganda secretary Wimal Weerawansa told a weekly paper sympathetic to his party that his party had no intention of carrying the truce forward. The BBC’s Frances Harrison in Colombo says the rebels are unlikely to be keen to start negotiations again from scratch, having spent months bargaining over the details of the ceasefire agreement with the last government. If her alliance does win, it is not clear whether the president or her more hardline allies would decide policy. Full Story
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