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PRESIDENT KUMARATUNGA SAYS THAT SRI LANKA’S TERRITORIAL INTEGRITY CANNOT BE BETRAYED IN THE NAME OF PEACE
Photo
President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga provided financial assistance for the construction of 50 houses to the dependents of war heroes of the Central Province, under the “Ranaviru Kusuma” War Hero Felicitation Program at a ceremony held at President’s House, Kandy, yesterday. Here, a disabled service personnel receives financial aid from the President
(Photo by Gamini Ranasinghe)
By Walter Jayawardhana reporting from Los Angeles

November 17, 09.30 AM:President Chandrika Kumaratunga said that it was the obligation of a the Sri Lankan President under the island nation’s Constitution to protect the territorial integrity of the country and that under no circumstances could that be betrayed in the name of peace.

The President was addressing an audience at the Presidential House in Kandy to distribute scholarships to the children of the war veterans and assistance to them in housing in the Central Province under the Ranaviru Kusuma program.

President Kumaratunga said she would not give everything at every time the LTTE demanded betraying the country’s security services and she would definitely not want that kind of peace

The President said that there was a threat on her life both from the North as well as from the South.

She said deliberate lies had been spread all over the world across foreign correspondents recently against her and mentioned the BBC as one source of spreading falsehoods. She said she was not responsible for what they published attributing to her.

Meanwhile her spokesman Janadasa Peiris said in Colombo that the news items published by agencies to the effect that she was prepared to share the Ministry of Defense with the Prime Minister was absolutely baseless.

President Kumaratunga said as the President she had to look after the interests of all sections of people and jealously guard the sovereignty integrity and independence of the country. If she thought she could no longer fulfill those obligations she would quit her job in 24 hours.

(17/11/03 go2lanka.com)