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NEWS : Sri Lankan president accepts her anti-Hindu stance.
CHANDRIKA ACCEPTS HER ANTI-HINDU STANCE
Sri Lankan president accepts her anti-Hindu stance.
10:00 GMT - 23 October 1996
COLOMBO, Oct 23 (AFP) - A minority Hindu Party Wednesday demanded an
apology from Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga over remarks
that she will attack ethnic Hindus if separatist rebels hit religious
shrines.
The minuscule but vocal All Ceylon Hindu Congress (ACHC) said
Kumaratunga must publicly apologise to Hindus for the remark
attributed
to her in an anti-government weekly, the Sunday Leader.
The paper quoted Kumaratunga, a member of the majority Sinhalese
community, as saying that if the rebel Liberation Tigers of
Tamil Eelam (LTTE) targeted places of worship she will personally
attack the Tamils(Hindus).
The report has not been denied by the President who has filed two
cases
of criminal defamation against two other weekly newspapers for less
inflammatory statements.
"I wish to remind you about your statement that your war is against
the
LTTE and not against the Tamils(Hindus)," ACHC leader Kumar
Ponnambalam said in
a letter to the President.
"Your outrageous statement proves that you have been insincere even in
this (statement)," he added.
Copyright AFP
15:45 GMT - 25 October 1996
