Chandrika Kumaratunga

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Chandrika Kumaratunga

5th President of Sri Lanka
In office November 12, 1994 – November 19, 2005
Preceded by	Dingiri Banda Wijetunga
Succeeded by	Mahinda Rajapaksa

Born	June 29, 1945 Ceylon, present day Sri Lanka
Political party	Sri Lanka Freedom Party
Spouse	late Vijaya Kumaratunga

Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga (born 29 June 1945) was the fifth President (and fourth to hold the office as Executive president) of Sri Lanka (12 November 1994 - 19 November 2005). She was the leader of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party until end of 2005.

Her father, Solomon Bandaranaike, was a government minister at the time of her birth and later became Prime Minister. He was assassinated in 1959, when Chandrika was fourteen. Chandrika's mother, Sirimavo Bandaranaike, then became the world's first female prime minister in 1960.

Chandrika said to be spent five years at the University of Paris, graduating from the Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris (Sciences Po) in political science. While there, she was active in the Student Revolution of 1968. She is fluent in Sinhala, English and French.

After returning to Sri Lanka, she took up politics in the SLFP and in 1974 became an Executive Committee Member of its Women's League. Following the Land Reform in Sri Lanka in 1972- 1976, she was Additional Principal Director of the Land Reform Commission (LRC). In 1976 - 1977 she was Chairman of the Janawasa Commission, which established collective farms. In 1976- 1979 she acted as an Expert Consultant to the Food and Agriculture Organisation(FAO).

Chandrika married movie star and politician Vijaya Kumaratunga in 1978. He was assassinated in 1988. After his death, she preferred to use the name Kumaratunge instead, dropping a middle syllable to distance herself from Vijaya's proletarian roots.

Kumaratunga herself was elected Prime Minister of a People's Alliance (PA) government on August 19, 1994 and President in the presidential election held shortly thereafter in November. This ended 17 years of UNP rule. She appointed her mother to succeed her as Prime Minister. Early in her term she made conciliatory moves towards the separatist Tamil Tigers to attempt to end the on-going civil war. These overtures failed, and she later pursued a more military-based strategy against them.

In October 1999 Kumaratunga called an early presidential election [1]. She lost her right eye in an assassination attempt, allegedly by the separatist Tamil Tigers, at her final election rally at Colombo Town Hall premises on 18 December 1999 [2]. In an unauthorized biography titled, "Queen of Thieves" by Victor Ivan, it is alleged, the bombing was a conspiracy organized by her "Mafia" to win over public sympathy [3]. President Kumaratunga defeated Ranil Wickremasinghe in the election held on 21 December and was sworn in for another term then next day. [4]

In December 2001 she suffered a setback in the parliamentary election. Her People's Alliance lost to the UNP, and her political opponent Ranil Wickremasinghe took office as Sri Lanka's new Prime Minister. She continued as President of Sri Lanka although her relationship with the Wickremasinghe government was a strained one.

In February 2002 Wickremasinghe's government and the LTTE signed a permanent ceasefire agreement, paving the way for talks to end the long-running conflict. In December, the government and the rebels agreed to share power during peace talks in Norway. President Kumaratunga believed Wickremasinghe was being too lenient towards the LTTE. In May 2003 she indicated her willingness to sack the prime minister and government if she felt they were making too many concessions to the rebels. On 4 November 2003, while Prime Minister Wickremasinghe was visiting the United States, Kumaratunga suspended Parliament and deployed troops to take control of the country, effectively putting it into a state of emergency.

Kumaratunga's PA and the leftist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna or JVP (People's Liberation Front) formed the United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) in January 2004. Having won the election held on 2 April 2004 the UPFA formed a government with Mahinda Rajapaksa as prime minister. This marked the first time in history that the JVP became a partner in a Sri Lankan government.

However, in June 2005, the JVP left her government over a disagreement regarding a joint mechanism with LTTE rebels to share foreign aid to rebuild the tsunami-devastated Northern and Eastern areas of Sri Lanka.

Kumaratunga's six-year term ended in 2005. She argued that since the 1999 election had been held one year early, she should be allowed to serve that left-over year. This claim was rejected by the Supreme Court and Kumaratunga's term was ended in November 2005. In the 2005 election, Rajapaksa succeeded her as president, leading all 25 parties in the UPFA.

Kumurantunga has been accused of involvement of the murder of a number of prominent personalities during her tenure as president including Kumar Ponnambalam, Ashroff and Rohana Kumara [5] by 'Ravaya' Editor Victor Ivan. In addition her organized Mafia has been accused of harassing popular singing duo Rukantha-Chandralekha and arson attack on the residence of actress Anoja Weerasinghe [6].

[edit] Friend Of Pakistan

Chandrika Kumaratunga is a time tested friend of Pakistan and is a member of the Order of Pakistan, She is also a member of the Pakistan caucus of Sri Lanka which is an ardent supporter of Pakistan in Sri Lanka which supports Muslim South Asian settlement in Pakistan.

[edit] See also

President of Sri Lanka

[edit] External links

Profile by BBC
Search BBC for news about Chandrika Kumaratunga
Ministry of Defence : Sri Lanka
Profile of Mrs. Chandrika Kumaratunga on Sri Lankan government website
Personal reminiscence of meeting with the Sri Lankan President by S. Abbas Raza of 3 Quarks Daily.

Presidents of Sri Lanka
William Gopallawa • Junius Richard Jayewardene • Ranasinghe Premadasa • Dingiri Banda Wijetunga • Chandrika Kumaratunga • Mahinda Rajapaksa