US embassy cable - 03COLOMBO588

C O N F I D E N T I A L COLOMBO 000588 
 
SIPDIS 
 
OFFICIAL INFORMAL 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR SA/INS 
 
E.O.  12958:  DECL: 04-07-13 
TAGS: CE, MV, AGMT, Political Parties 
SUBJECT:  OFFICIAL INFORMAL NUMBER 54  (04-07-03) 
Classified by Ambassador Wills, Reasons 1.5 (b, d) 
 
CONTENTS:  MEETING THE PRESIDENT -- AND HER BROTHER 
-          LOCAL REACTION RE IRAQ 
 
MEETING THE PRESIDENT -- AND HER BROTHER 
---------------------------------------- 
1.  (C) Please see Colombo 587, which reviews the 
Ambassador's April 5 meeting with President Kumaratunga. 
(Note:  By the way, CBK is slated to be in Chennai and 
New Delhi for four days.  She has meetings with top GoI 
and opposition figures, including Sonia Gandhi and 
Jayalalitha.) 
 
2.  (C) The Ambassador also met with Anura Bandaranaike, 
her brother and a senior PA MP, on April 7.  Bandaranaike 
was in a relatively jovial mood and was more cogent than 
his sis.  Re cohabitation, he thought it was working to 
some extent, but that a lot of tension remained between 
the president and the PM (no argument from us in that 
point!).  He really did not see any possibility of the 
two sides' (PA and UNP) working together given all of the 
stresses.  As we have reported, Bandaranaike was strongly 
in favor of the PA's working out a deal with the JVP. 
Like other PA'ers we have met, he thought the party could 
easily subsume the JVP, just as it had other left wing 
parties in the past.  He admitted that the road to a 
formal PA/JVP alliance seemed to be getting a bit 
difficult, as the JVP had not yet agreed to the PA's 
plans re federalism as encapsulated in CBK's 2000 
devolution plan.  That said, Bandaranaike predicted a 
deal could be done by June (a bit later than we had heard 
before).  If there was a deal, he did not think a snap 
election was immediately forthcoming, but he predicted 
one by next year.  (POL) 
 
LOCAL REACTION RE IRAQ 
---------------------- 
3.  (C) Local reaction re Iraq is real, real quiet. 
The papers have lots of coverage re the dramatic events 
re Baghdad, but editorials are moving on to other local 
subjects like the death penalty and whether a peace 
process referendum is necessary.  As we reported to you, 
demonstrations in SL on Friday, April 4, were very, very 
small. We have heard no reports of future rallies at this 
point.  When asked about Iraq, Anura Bandaranaike (see 
above) waved his hand, indicating that he preferred to 
talk about other, more relevant (and less contentious) 
subjects.  (POL) 
 
WILLS