Unwilling at first to believe that Kumaratunga, schooled in liberal politics, would say something like this, many chose to ignore it though it was being widely circulated on pro-LTTE sites on the net. This was so especially because the only person taking up the issue in Sri Lanka, criminal lawyer and politician Kumar Ponnambalam, is widely seen as an apologist for the Tamil Tigers.

However, in a development that is certain to stir up a thus far dormant hornets' nest, Sri Lanka's oldest Tamil party, the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF), finally passed a resolution last Saturday condemning the statement as ``contrary to all historical evidence'' and a cause of ``grave anguish'' to the Tamil people.

The party also condemned a denial issued by ForeignMinister Lakshman Kadirgamar that the statement was ever made.

According to TULF insiders, the resolution came after lengthy deliberations during which one of the committee members presented ``hard evidence'' in the form of a video clip of Kumaratunga saying the very words. The party, which is seen by many Tamils as pro-Kumaratunga, had dropped a resolution on the same issue at last month's executive committee meeting due to conflicting reports about it, much to the chagrin of some members. This time, these members were armed with proof. ``We would have liked to ignore it, because compared to other Sinhala leaders, Kumaratunga's attitude towards Tamils is a hundred times better. But it's there on film and we felt compelled to take it up,'' said a senior member of the party.

Coming from the moderate TULF, this reaction is certain to set off a series of political and historical debates on the age-old question of who came to Sri Lanka first, the Sinhalese or the Tamils. The TULF is already rehearsing itslines.

``A thin strip of water separates northern Sri Lanka from southern India. It is rubbish to think that south Indians were waiting for some people from Orissa or wherever to come and settle in Sri Lanka first,'' said one member, referring to a theory that the first Sinhalese came here either from Orissa or Bengal. The TULF also resolved at the meeting to vote against the 1999 budget which was presented by the government to parliament earlier this week to express its protest against spiralling defence expenditure for the war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). This decision is, however, unlikely to alter the arithmetical game in parliament sufficiently to create any worries for the government.

According to a statement issued by TULF secretary-general R Sampanthan, the party reiterated its demand to the government to end the war and begin negotiations with the LTTE with the help of a third party for a ``lasting solution to the national problem''.