COLOMBO: The UPFA Government last Tuesday recorded what is described by government sources as an unprecedented response from the donor community for its post-tsunami reconstruction plan, with pledges made to the tune of $3 billion at the Sri Lanka Development Forum, a donor conference to allocate aid to Sri Lanka, held in Kandy. But the UPFA had to face its share of embarrassment with the anti-LTTE Buddhist political party, the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) deciding to wash dirty linen in public.

Soon after President Kumaratunge had wound up her inaugural speech at the forum, Parliamentarian Buddhist monk of the JHU, Ven. Ratana Thera stunned the international donor community, speaking out of turn from his seat in the audience, lambasting the government’s proposed Joint Mechanism with the LTTE to share international aid. The monk’s outburst came just after President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga asserted that the Government would be able to move forward with the agreement with the LTTE, as a majority of the Government and the population were supportive of the move.

“It is the first time the LTTE has accepted to work with the Muslim representatives and the Sinhala representatives...on equal terms and participate together with the Government in an administrative arrangement giving their ideas and contributing to the reconstruction process. It does open many doors towards a final negotiated settlement, a final peace to the ethnic problem,” President Kumaratunge said in her speech.

The monk’s surprise uninvited speech made a drastic contrast to the image that President Kumaratunge had tried to build up in her carefully worded statement and her over-positive comments about the Joint mechanism with the LTTE. “You should insist that the LTTE dismantles its Air Force, puts an end to the child recruitment drive and their killing spree”, the monk, known for his outspoken manner told the gathering of donor representatives from more than 50 donor countries and agencies participating in the Forum.

“I address you as a Buddhist, a Bhikku, in a voice that represents a people and a movement that stands for humanity. We understand that there are plans to prevail on our government to establish a joint mechanism with the LTTE as a precondition for the provision of assistance. On the assumption that you have not been adequately briefed on what the LTTE is, what it has done and indeed continues to do, we would most respectfully present you with the following facts”, the monk said continuing to list the LTTE’s terror activities, and its violations of the ceasefire. “The LTTE has methodically ethnically cleansed the areas under its control of Sinhalese and Muslims,” the monk said referring to the LTTE’s ethnic cleansing of the north east in 1990. The key point made by him was that it was unwise to force the government to enter into any agreement with respect to aid disbursement with the LTTE as such an agreement would give legitimacy to the LTTE.

In an interview on national television on Monday, soon after the conclusion of the first day of the conference, President Kumaratunge insisted that she would not give into those elements, both within her government and outside which were against her peace moves. Claiming that only those who were power hungry obstructed her attempts to make peace with the LTTE, President Kumaratunge’s direct barbs at her government’s chief coalition party , the radical anti-LTTE Marxist party, the Jathika Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) has further widened the gulf between herself and the JVP. It is also interesting to note that the Muslim representative party of Kumaratunge’s government, the National Unity Alliance (NUA). has echoed the sentiments, strongly opposing the agreement.

Further trouble is expected with NUA insisting that in the event of the agreement being signed with the LTTE, equal status should be given to Muslims along with the assurance that the LTTE would not be allowed to monopolize the aid distribution.