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Kumaratunga to quit politics: PTI

Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga has said she will quit electoral politics after resolving the ethnic conflict with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam by ensuring implementation of the new draft constitution and asked people to vote against the opposition for stalling her constitutional reforms package.

Launching her election campaign at public rally at Kegalle, south of Colombo on Sunday, she lashed out at the main opposition party, the United National Party, saying the country was burning under the impact of the ethnic war because the UNP was opposed to the constitution that was accepted by 12 of 14 political parties in the country.

''We won all elections. We need only six years to build the country. Once this is done we will not contest elections. Then anybody can come forward to govern the country," she was quoted as saying in the state run newspaper, Daily News on Monday.

Referring to the agitation by the right wing Sinhalese Buddhist monks and political parties against granting constitutional rights to Tamils, she said, "As long as Tamils are attacked and injustices are caused to Muslims, they will join hands with people like LTTE chief Prabhakaran, for their liberation. If we do not give these people a satisfactory solution, we cannot prevent Tamils from going after so many Prabhakarans."

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