From: vigneswa@ecs.umass.edu
Newsgroups: soc.culture.sri-lanka
Subject: Monks Strike Again.......
Date: 7 Jan 93 09:59:18 GMT

In a memo to President R Premadasa, the  Sinhala-Buddhist organisations
point out that India was too vast to be ruled as a unitary  state, like
Sri Lanka is.  Hela Urumaya, claimed federalism could not be a prescrip-
tion for solving ethnic problems.  "If federalism was a panacea for the
resolution of ethnic conflict, Yugoslavia and India, for example, would
be havens of communal harmony."

Literacy level  of Sri Lanka is 87 percent.  I guess  the rest 13% call
themsleves "monks". Every sensible person in Lanka knows that this "war"
must  come to an end.  Number of  people  taken by  the bullets and the
amount of money spent in war are too much.  This war must be stopped at
any cost.  One of the first steps  may be to separate religon  from the
state.  We need a John Kottalawela (sp?)!!  


LANKA MONKS PRESENT MEMO TO PRESIDENT
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Colombo Dec. 27
Times of India News Service

Buddhist Monks and other Sinhalese hadrliners have come together 
in a strong protest against any possible  move to devolve powers 
to Sri Lanka's Tamil-speaking provinces on  the  "Indian model", 
picking on the trouble in Ayodhya as  a  case  to provide  their 
point.

A protest letter has been  sent  to the president, Mr Ranasinghe 
Premadasa  by  the  powerful   council for Buddha  Sasana, which 
claims  membership of  leaders  of  the  Malwatta,  Asgiriya and 
Ramanna chapters of  Buddhism.  The  letter  is  also  signed by 
representatives of  other Sinhalese  pressure  groups  like  the 
Mahabodhi Society  and  the  Sinhala  Arkshya  Sanwidhyana,  and 
spells further trouble for the Lankan Tamils.

"Hela Urumaya" or "National  (Sinhala)  Heritage  -  a clique of 
MPs within the opposition Sri Lanka Freedom  Party  (SLFP) - has 
come out with a separate  statement  making  similar points. The 
muscle-flexing  by  Sinhala-Buddhist  groups follows the winding 
up of the parliamentary  select committee on the ethnic conflict 
and   rumours  that   government   planned   to   begin   direct 
negotiations with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

The non-LTTE Tamil groups have already dismissed  the "consensus" 
between the ruling United National  Party  (UNP)  and the SLFP in 
the select committee. The two parties, which last month hinted at 
agreeing on the idea of a federal constitution,  finally ended up 
offering devolution on the Indian Pattern. They  also struck down 
the :basic" Tamil demand that the northern and eastern provinces, 
temporarily united under the Indo-Sri Lanka agreement, should 
stay merged.

The  letter  to Mr Premadasa however complains that even agreeing 
to  the Indian  model  would amount to conceding too  much to the 
provinces.  Instead the  hardline groups suggest that some of the 
powers  already  devolved  to the  provinces under constitution's 
post Indo-Lanka accord amendment should be revoked.

"The only way to peace is to  disarm  completely the LTTE and all 
other parties and groups which  waged war against the state," the 
Hela Urumaya statement said.  "It is only after this end has been 
achieved that any further devolution of powers, if any, should be 
implemented".

The  Sinhala-Buddhist  organisations say India was too vast to  be 
ruled as a unitary state, like Sri Lanka is. Hela Urumaya, claimed 
federalism could not be a prescription for solving ethnic problems. 
"If federalism was a panacea for the resolution of ethnic conflict, 
Yugoslavia and India, for example, would be havens of communal 
harmony."

The Sinhalese hadrliners feel that giving more  powers to a  Tamil 
dominated province would only  encourage  secession. "As Mr Dinish 
Gunawardena, leader  of  the Mahajene Eksath Peramuna (MEP) told a 
Sinhalese  news  paper  recently:  "Proposing  a system similar to 
India's state  government  system is a victory to the objective of 
the Tigers who demand a separate state.

MAIN FEARS:  But  their  main  fears  relate  to  the  devolution of 
responsibilities of maintaining law and order and land distribution, 
as the adoption of  the  Indian  model would suggest. Along with the 
arguments usually earlier, the letter  to  Premadasa offered Ayodhya 
developments as an example.

Thanks:  Kugan

====

Vicky:
UMass, Jan 07
Newsgroups: soc.culture.sri-lanka