<b>Handbag Dispute Intensifies</b>

T. Sabaratnam

Colombo July 27: The handbag dispute intensified yesterday, with President Chandrika Kumaratunga maintaining her charge that, she was accused of carrying a bomb in her handbag to kill the Prime Minister, which the Minister concerned and another denied.

Kumaratunga who inaugurated the National Consultation on Ethnic Reconciliation yesterday morning, at the Presidential Secretariat said, she is now being charged as a suicide bomber, carrying bombs to kill her own Prime Minister and her Cabinet.

She said, she narrowly escaped death, when an LTTE suicide bomber exploded herself one and a half year ago and knows the gravity of the accusation leveled against her. Yet, she said, she had been spearheading the campaign to bring peace to the country, so that the younger generations would be spared of the horrors of war they had undergone the past 19 years.

She said, "I have given maximum support without any restrictions or conditions. I have taken it upon myself to advice the Prime Minister. I hope that the future generations would not experience the horrors of the last 19 years. I hope that we could look forward to a brighter future."

Commerce Minister Ravi Karunanayake, who returned yesterday morning from Pakistan, denied the President’s accusation and maintained that, he only spoke about her carrying videoing and recording devises in her black handbag.

“She had given a twist to win the sympathy of the people and to get out of my charge,” he told reporters at the airport. He was given a massive and noisy reception by his supporters.

Another senior minister, S. B. Dissanayake held a press conference yesterday, to deny the President’s version of the events of July 17 cabinet meeting.

“I was present at the meeting. I heard all what Mr. Ravi Karunanayake said. He submitted documents about the import of a spy handbag from London, at a cost of one million rupees and said the handbag she carried resembled the one that was imported. The President had the opportunity to disprove the allegation by just showing her handbag to the Prime Minister. But, she remained silent,” he said.

The National Consultation on Ethnic Reconciliation, which the President inaugurated, was viewed by political analysts and Tamil leaders, as a subtle attempt to wreck the peace process. She told the participants that, the current Norway brokered peace search would fail and said she would speak to the Prime Minister, when he returns from the United States, about the future role of the LTTE’s Police Force, which run the areas under their control.

She maintained that, it was her effort that, initiated the peace process and only she would be successful in bringing peace to the country.

Her brother, Anura Bandaranaike, who was appointed last week as her advisor on national reconciliation, played a prominent part in yesterday’s consultations. He is also playing a vital role in the developing political confrontation between the Government and the President. He had helped to forge a close link between the President Kumaratunga’s Sri Lanka Freedom Party and the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna. He is also leading the campaign to defend her sister, whom he says is being harassed by some ministers at the cabinet meetings.

Anura Bandaranaike, on Tuesday handed a petition to the Bribery Commission requesting him to investigate the import of 500 tons of rice by the Cooperative Wholesale Establishment, which is in Ravi Karunanayake's charge. He alleged corruption.

Lands Minister Rajitha Senaratne, also, presented a complaint to the Bribery Commissioner, against President Kumaratunga and the former Bribery Commissioner, about the manner in which the complaints of corruption against a former minister Mangala Samaraweera was handled. He requested the present Commissioner to investigate.

President’s House sources said that the Government –President confrontation would intensify, when the Prime Minister returns. They said, Chandrika Kumaratunga would insist on sacking Ravi Karunanayake from the cabinet, which the Prime Minister would resist. That would snowball into and cause more friction between the executive and the legislature.