Sri Lankan president casts pall over peace talks

[Resistance]

Christian Science Monitor

COLOMBO, SRI LANKA – Hopes are dwindling for the resumption of peace talks to end Sri Lanka's long ethnic civil war in the wake of a series of unorthodox maneuvers by the president that has thrust the island nation into political turmoil.

In one of the world's least likely political alliances, President Chandrika Kumaratunga's party joined forces yesterday with a Marxist party that she once accused of assassinating her husband. The two parties are diametrically opposed to one another - except for a shared fear that negotiations with the Tamil Tiger rebels could result in the creation of a separate Tamil state.

"The message that is being sent internationally is that this country is heading for more instability and even turmoil until 2007," says Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, executive director of the Colombo-based Centre for Policy Alternatives. "It looks like the peace talks will remain on hold until there is a general election."