Making a speech in Parliament, Sri Lanka Muslim Congress leader Rauff Hakeem urged the government to avoid the construction of any more Buddha statues in the Muslim majority areas of the East in order to prevent possible communal clashes. "The government must stop this. It has the potential to incite communal violence and disrupt centuries of harmony between the Muslims and Buddhists in the East".

He further expressed confidence in the members of the House saying "I hope the members would understand the sensitivities in this issue. He claimed that Buddha statues was constructed in Ullei,, Pothuvil two months ago by some political elements who wanted to shift the racial balance by planting unsuspecting Sinhala villagers in Muslim dominant areas.

‘Buddha statues are suddenly being erected in tsunami affected areas in the East. Statues are coming up even before houses are built. This might even threaten the peace process and the National Security" he claimed. Published: Sat Mar 26 05:52:42 EST 2005

A website dedicated to Sri Lankan Muslim news (www.lankamuslims.com) in its editorial has also noted, “Despite the Muslim community being the most affected in the Tidal Waves that struck the nation on 26th of December, where 60% of the damage and over 50% of the total deaths are of Muslims, neither the Government of Sri Lanka nor the LTTE, who are involved in a series of meetings with the mediation of the Norwegian facilitators, have so far considered the inclusion of Muslims in the discussions or in the proposed Joint Mechanism”.

State Media newspaper today reported that Foreign Minister Kadirgamar Addressing the Foreign Correspondents Association in Colombo noted that the Government's main objective was to enter into a joint mechanism with the Tigers to distribute foreign aid for tsunami victims in the North-East, some parts of which are held by the LTTE.” Published: Sat Mar 26 05:54:32 EST 2005