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Sri Lanka president courts right-wing Buddhists, offers them environment portfolio
Associated Press,
Thu February 1, 2007 06:38 EST .
BHARATHA MALLAWARACHI - Associated Press Writer - COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - (AP) President Mahinda Rajapakse cemented his majority in Sri Lanka - 's Parliament by courting a party of hardline Buddhist monks and offering its lawmakers a ministerial office, officials said Thursday. A total of 19 members of the main opposition United National Party crossed over to the government side, while six members from the Sri Lanka - Muslim Congress also joined the administration. The UNP has said Rajapakse's move to lure its members to defect has effectively ended a previous agreement between them to cooperate in solving the island's two-decade-long separatist war. A negotiated power-sharing settlement with ethnic minority Tamils could be further hampered by the inclusion of the monks' party in government, as they have stridently opposed any talks with Tamil separatist rebels. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam rebels have been fighting since 1983 to create a separate homeland for the country's 3.1 million minority Tamils, saying that after decades of discrimination, Tamils can prosper only away from the domination of the majority Sinhalese. About 68,000 people have been killed in the fighting, including some 3,600 fighters and civilians who died last year when the conflict escalated despite a 2002 Norway-brokered cease-fire.
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Published: Thu Feb 1 07:56:23 EST 2007
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We have lost a great mathe-
matician, engineer, scientist, an old timer
of SLNet/LAcNet and a former LAcNet director. Pubudu Dayawansa (Daya)
was instrumental in carrying out many LAcNet projects. He was
responsible in setting up "Colombo Calling" a website that was
designed to carry weekly articles from Sri Lankan Academic community
and Human Rights activists. [
