PM winning race to New York
By Shelani Perera
After weeks of crossfire between President Chandrika Kumaratunga and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe as to who should address the UN General Assembly, it now seems likely the Prime Minister will do so but the President's office is not giving up the battle.

Speaking for the government, Foreign Minister Tyronne Fernando told The Sunday Times that the President's request to address the sessions came in too late and they had no time to inform the UN Secretariat that the President was to address the Assembly. " If the President wanted to address the Assembly, she should have informed us ahead of time.

We had already submitted the Prime Minister's name and there was no way we could have changed names, at such short notice," Mr. Fernando said. Last week President Chandrika Kumaratunga informed the Sri Lankan Mission in the United Nations and the Sri Lankan Foreign Ministry to officially inform the United Nations that she would be addressing the UN General Assembly. Despite the Prime Minister going ahead to address the UN sessions, Presidential Spokesperson Harim Peiris told The Sunday Times that the President was awaiting a reply from the United Nations.

"The President sought a clarification and we expect a reply.Until then we won’t make any plans," Mr. Peiris said. With the Government making the final arrangements for the Prime Minister to address the Assembly which begins on September 23, it is unlikely that the President would attend the HIV AIDS conference which was to precede the GA sessions."We have not changed our stance. We still say that the Government cannot nominate a person without consulting the President," Mr. Peiris said.

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