950806

Kumaratunga

offers to set up

Tamil-speaking

regiment

COLOMBO, (Sri Lanka): President Chandrika Kumaratunga has offered to set up a regiment of Tamil-speaking people to give the military a multiethnic character, a Tamil lawmaker said on Sunday.

"Mrs. Kumaratunga agreed in principle to set up a Tamil speaking regiment within the military," said Douglas Devananda, the leader of the Eelam Peoples Democratic Party, who met with the President on Wednesday.

An army regiment in Sri Lanka consists of nearly 4,500 men. She did not say how soon the new regiment would be added to 100,000-strong army, mainly of majority Sinhalese.

After the outbreak of the civil war in 1983, Tamil officers and other ranks in the military quit under threat from Tamil tigers. They haven't been replaced.

The guerrillas are fighting for a separate homeland for minority Tamils who comprise 18 percent of Sri Lanka's 17 million populations. They accuse majority Sinhalese of discriminations in education and jobs.

Devananda said he discussed with Ms. Kumaratunga the government political package which aims at ending the 12-year civil war.

On Friday, Kumaratunga said the military offensive against the rebels would continue and she would not discuss the package with the guerrillas.

It aims at turning Sri Lanka into a federation of eight regions, including one Tamil-controlled region.

At least 35,000 people have died in the fighting between soldiers and Tamil separatists since 1983.-AP