SRI LANKA: Sri Lanka is headed for a major political showdown after the Prime Minister, Mr Ranil Wickremesinghe, returns home today from Washington to face the crisis set off by the President.
Earlier this week she declared an emergency after sacking three senior ministers, suspending parliament and deploying the military around key government installations.
"This is not the first crisis I have had," Mr Wickremesinghe told reporters at the White House, 21 months after assuming office. "When I go back, I'll sort it out. We have a majority in parliament. I have a mandate to bring peace to the country," he declared following talks with George Bush on the fledgling negotiations with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The Tigers' 20-year civil war in the island's north-east has left over 60,000 people dead.
The Prime Minister, who belongs to a party rivalling President Chandrika Kumaratunga's, is accused by her of making too many concessions to the Tiger rebels following the February 2002 ceasefire agreement and the ensuing tentative peace talks.
The two leaders have existed in "uneasy cohabitation" since President Kumaratunga's People's Alliance lost parliamentary elections to Mr Wickremesinghe's United National Party in December 2001, disagreeing on most matters, particularly those relating to the LTTE.
Ms Kumaratunga's assertion is that the peace process has given the rebels time to steadily consolidate militarily, economically and politically in the Tamil-dominated areas of the north and east .
She has also accused the Norwegian-brokered peace talks and other countries such as Japan and the US which are involved in the negotiations of being soft on the LTTE. But yesterday the President assured Sri Lankans and the international community that there was no need for panic as peace talks would continue.
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