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Rajapakse exchanges papers with Buddhist party

V.S. Sambandan

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse and the all-Buddhist clergy parliamentary party, Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) on Tuesday exchanged a 12-point poll pact in which Mr. Rajapakse agreed to safeguard the unitary character of the state in any settlement of the separatist crisis.

Sources close to the Prime Minister said the 12-point charter was signed last week.

The signed documents were formally exchanged on Tuesday at the precincts of the Dalada Maligawa (Temple of the Tooth Relic), considered the most sacred of Buddhist shrines in Sri Lanka.

The agreement also says, "historical and traditional boundaries of ethnic groups should not be considered" while introducing new social, economic and political policies and that "self-determination should not be given to any group of people in Sri Lanka."

Poll pact criticised

Opposition to Mr. Rajapakse's poll pacts with the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) and the JHU has mounted with Foreign Affairs Minister Anura Bandaranaike saying that the policies of the ruling Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) have been betrayed.

"I don't really care about the outcome of the election now since the party's long upheld principles have been betrayed," Mr. Bandaranaike, who is the brother of n President, Chandrika Kumaratunga told The Daily Mirror.

Mr. Bandaranaike said: "Our party's candidate has joined hands with extremist forces and understandably, I and my sister strongly feel a major damage has been done to the party by his actions."

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