SRI LANKA: Sri Lanka's political crisis eased somewhat yesterday after President Chandrika Kumaratunga withdrew the state of emergency she had imposed earlier this week to coincide with the return home of the prime minister, her rival, to cheering crowds.
Last night, President Kumaratunga called for all political parties to join her in forming a national government.
"I call upon all parties in parliament ... to join me to form a grand alliance ... with the objective of forming a government of national reconciliation," she said in a televised address, three days after she sacked three cabinet ministers and suspended the legislature.
It was unclear whether the speech was a genuine attempt at reconciliation or a move effectively to downgrade the role and status of Prime Minister Mr Ranil Wickremesinghe. There were brass bands and balloons and buntings in green, the colour of his United National Party, choking the 25 km highway to the capital Colombo, as he returned from Washington early yesterday morning following talks with President Bush on his peace initiative with Tamil Tiger rebels.
Saffron-robed monks carried out an abridged version of a ritual to tie a blessed thread on the prime minister's right wrist to invoke divine help while Hindu leaders representing the minority Tamil community draped him in multi-coloured silk shawls.
"I will see that parliament is resummoned immediately to continue the peace process," Mr Wickremesinghe declared, while his supporters shouted "Ranil: take over the country".
"Parliament is the focal point of the peace process and with it closed we cannot take the peace process forward," he said, adding that the entire negotiation process had been put at risk by the president's actions.
"I have to create an environment in which the peace process can go forward. Sri Lanka cannot be found to be at fault in stopping the peace process," the prime minister said, referring to the fledgling peace talks with Tamil Tiger rebels fighting a civil war for an independent homeland in the north-east of the island.
Mr Wickremesinghe said he would also resume the Norwegian-brokered talks with all those directly and indirectly involved in the peace negotiations, such as neighbouring India, which is apprehensive about instability on its southern tip, the USA, Japan, the European Union and the World Bank.
"There is no state of emergency now," the government chief printer Neville Nanayakkara, in charge of publishing official declarations, declared in Colombo. But he said President Kumaratunga had authorised a law that allowed troops to conduct nationwide searches in the name of national security.
Analysts said the political situation remained tense and open-ended, despite the emergency withdrawal as the stand-off between the president and her rival prime minister continued.
The Tamil Tiger rebels were meanwhile reported to be rearming themselves and preparing for possible hostilities.