LTTE must agree to terms: Kumaratunga

Responding to a question, Kumaratunga said she had not made any request to India to act as a facilitator in resolving the LTTE issue during her talks with Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and other leaders here.

“We have had many offers for facilitation or mediation from a number of countries and several international organisations. We will decide when the time comes”, she said.

Askedwhether there had been any progress on the extradition of Rajiv Gandhi’s killers including prime accused LTTE chief V Prabhakaran, Kumaratunga, assisted by Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar, merely said, “If you can catch them for us, we will immediately extradite them for you”.

Kumaratunga, who met Congress president Sonia Gandhi this morning, said the issue did not figure during their 90-minute meeting.

The Sri Lankan leader made it clear that military operations in Jaffna had not been shelved. “We have not shelved any such operation. In order to achieve sure victory, you have to engage in other action”.

On ties with India in the post-Pokhran phase, she said Sri Lanka had expressed its concern to both India and Pakistan. “We would have preferred if it had not happened”.

She, however, went on to add that India’s nuclear tests had not affected Indo-Sri Lankan relations in any way, especially after New Delhi announced a moratorium on further tests.

Charging the Sri LankanOpposition with preventing restructuring of the Constitution, she said her government proposed to bring about changes to do away with the present presidential system of governance and consider switching over to a federal parliamentary form.