Colombo: In a U-turn in its approach to the peace talks, Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga's party today (May 9, 2004) said they will recognise Tamil Tiger guerrillas as the sole representatives of the island's minority Tamils.

Show your Mom how much you love her


Kumaratunga's Freedom Alliance in the run up to the April 2 elections which it narrowly won, had maintained they will not grant "sole representative" status to the Tigers and the talks would be "inclusive".

The Alliance had strongly criticised the previous Government for not including other Tamil and Muslim groups, but in the latest statement issued by the Alliance today the party said there will be no change in the status quo.

"Taking into account political and ground realities concerning the conduct of the negotiations, it is clear that the two principal parties at the negotiation table can only be the Government and the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam)," Alliance secretary Susil Premajayantha said in a statement.

"It is on this basis that Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar was correctly quoted by the Island newspaper on 30th April 2004 under the headline, 'Government recognises by implication LTTE as sole representative of Tamils".

The statement said it did not preclude the Government consulting other parties separately on the issues involved.

The Government has already done another U-turn on peace broker Norway. Earlier, the Freedom Alliance said they wanted to thoroughly review Norway's role, but after the elections invited Oslo to continue the same role.