President fires ministers, calls for new elections
Colombo (AsiaNews/Agencies) President Chandrika Kumaratunga has fired 39 ministers and vice-ministers of the government headed by his political rival.
Saturday, Feb. 7, the president dissolved the government's house of representatives and called for early elections next Apr. 2.
Kumaratunga's decisions have sparked controversy within the opposition party led by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe as well as the Tamil minority. This is the 3rd time in 4 years that the country has been called to vote. The fired government should have stayed in power until 2007.
Early elections risk putting peace process negotiations with Tamil separatists on hold. The separatists have been battling for independence of country's Tamil majority north east regions since 1983.
Prior to dissolving Parliament, Kumaratunga allied himself with the People's Liberation Front, a Maoist-inspired political party opposed to any concession to the separatist faction.
Some observers say that in calling for early elections Kumaratunga is attempting to get the prime minister out of his way even if the official reason is to "give impetus to the stalemate in peace negotiations".
Following defeat in the 2001 elections, Kumaratunga, who heads the left-wing People's Alliance Party, has had to share parliamentary seats with his political adversary, Wickremesinghe, leader of the National Unity Party.
Last November, the president fired 3 ministers, while accusing the premier of making too many concessions to rebel Tamil extremists. Three days before that, "Tamil Tigers" had presented a proposal to divvy up power, which according to the president would have led to the country becoming divided.
In 1994, the then newly-elected president Kumaratunga proclaimed his commitment to peace and approved of negotiations to be made with Tamil militants. After negotiations failed and a series of violent attacks occurred, Kumaratunga took on a hard-line approach and ordered the army win back the southern island of Jaffna, a rebel stronghold. In 1999, the island managed to survive a military attack.
Jehan Perera, communications director for the National Peace Council, a non-political party organization, says the upcoming elections will not help the country, despite who's elected. He added that if Kumaratunga wins, negotiations will, at any rate, become more difficult.
Japan, the United States and Europe, who have pledged 4.5 million dollars in subsidies, have asked the president to re-shuffle the government instead of calling new elections that risk delaying any hope for peace.
Sri Lanka has a Sinhalese majority population (81.9%), with a slight Tamil minority (9.5%, including Indian immigrants). Thirty years of bloody civil war have caused 70,000 people to die and 800,000 to flee the country as refugees. (MR)
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