A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
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Thiranjala Weerasinghe sj.- One Island Two Nations
?????????????????????????????????????????????????Tuesday, July 11, 2017
Sri Lanka monks vow to resist deal with Tamil minority
Sri
Lanka radical monk Maagalkande Sudaththa said hardline Buddhists were
mobilising Sri Lankans from the majority Sinhalese ethnic group to
resist a new power-sharing arrangement being drafted by the government
Sri Lanka's hardline monks on Monday broadened a growing campaign by the
Buddhist clergy against the government, threatening street protests if
the island's Tamil minority is granted greater autonomy.
Radical monk Maagalkande Sudaththa said hardline Buddhists were
mobilising Sri Lankans from the majority Sinhalese ethnic group to
resist a new power-sharing arrangement being drafted by the government.
"Monks are going from district to district to educate their followers
about the dangers of the proposed constitution," Sudaththa told
reporters in Colombo.
Last week the government vowed to enshrine in law a promised
power-sharing agreement in Sri Lanka's Tamil-majority northern and
eastern regions in exchange for a lasting peace.
President Maithripala Sirisena has stated he wants to prevent a repeat
of the bloody separatist war that claimed 100,000 lives on the tiny
island between 1972 and 2009.
The 225-member national parliament is currently drafting the
legislation, but hardliners have vowed to take to the streets before the
measures take effect.
"About 70 percent of MP's are asleep in parliament when important issues
are discussed," Sudaththa said, accusing many of them of being
"uneducated."
Sudaththa is an ardent supporter of firebrand monk Galagodaatte
Gnanasara, who is on bail after being accused of hate speech and stoking
violence against Sri Lanka's tiny Muslim population, the second largest
minority after Tamils.
Nearly 70 percent of the island's population is Buddhist and the monks,
who hold huge sway, have generally opposed any political concessions to
Tamils.
The mounting opposition from the Buddhist clergy is seen as a challenge
to Sirisena, also a Buddhist from the Sinhalese majority, who is
committed to ethnic unity.
Hardline Sinhalese oppose a federal system that would ensure more political power for Tamil Sri Lankans.
The island's Tamils took up arms in 1972 against what they claimed was entrenched discrimination in education and employment.
These grievances expanded into a full-fledged war with the Tamil Tigers,
a guerrilla rebel group, eventually controlling a third of Sri Lanka
before being crushed in May 2009.
The brutal suppression of the Tigers movement caught civilians in the
crossfire, with government forces accused of war crimes including the
murder of at least 40,000 Tamil civilians.
Sirisena was elected to power partly on the back of support from Tamils,
after he pledged reconciliation and promised investigations into
war-time atrocities.