Flash News

[kuruvikal]

<span style='color:red'>Sri Lanka monks rebuke government over rebel split

[size=9]By Lindsay Beck
COLOMBO, April 20 (Reuters)

[size=14]A political party formed by Buddhist monks criticised Sri Lanka's government on Tuesday, saying it should have exploited a split in the Tamil Tigers by supporting a breakaway rebel faction.

The Tigers regained control of the region held by an eastern commander known as Karuna earlier this month, but the government was at pains to steer clear of the infighting for fear of disrupting the island's two-year truce.

"This is a great betrayal of the nation. There was a great opportunity to crush the murderous LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam)," Omalpe Sobitha, the deputy leader of the National Heritage Party, told a news conference, speaking in Sinhalese.

The monks won nine seats in the 225-seat parliament in Sri Lanka's April 2 election after campaigning for the first time as a single political force on a platform to protect the majority Sinhalese, who are mostly Buddhist.

They say the foremost place for Sinhalese must be preserved in any peace settlement to end the island's 20-year civil war with the predominantly Hindu Tigers, who have been fighting for a separate state for the minority Tamil community.

Despite the criticism, the monks have said they would support the newly elected United People's Freedom Alliance -- which is seven seats short of a majority -- on an issue-by-issue basis, but have declined to join the ruling coalition.

Surrounded by fellow saffron-robed parliamentarians and speaking to reporters seated barefoot and cross-legged in keeping with Buddhist practice, Omalpe said the government's failure to intervene was a "missed opportunity".

The Freedom Alliance takes a tougher approach to the Tigers than the government of former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, and when Karuna broke from the Tigers, hardliners pressed for the opportunity to be used to weaken the rebels.

But that would almost certainly have invited the wrath of the Tigers and wrecked the ceasefire that is thought to have given the island its best chance to end the war that has killed 64,000.

The Tigers have installed new leaders in the east since vanquishing the breakaway group in the four-day offensive and said their strength shows the government cannot afford a military solution to the conflict.

"The leader has put a stop to the idea that GOSL (the government of Sri Lanka) can suppress and destroy the Tamil people," the rebels' political wing leader S.P. Thamilselvan said on the pro-rebel Tamilnet Web site.

"The leader has shown that it is only by talking to the Tamil people... that the GOSL can come to an agreement," he said.

The Tigers' reclusive leader Velupillai Prabhakaran held a rare meeting with parliamentarians from the rebel-backed Tamil National Alliance on Tuesday, underscoring their weight behind the party ahead of the first session on parliament on Thursday.

The TNA won 22 seats in the April 2 poll, up from 15 in the last election, running for the first time with the explicit backing of the Tigers. </span>


tamileelamnews.com