Lanka Muslim party opposes president

[bemildred]

This is potentially quite important. Kumaratunga has managed to
alienate the largest minority after the Tamils in Sri Lanka.

The Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) said on Monday it was staying away from the first meeting of the National Advisory Council for Peace and Reconciliation, which Chandrika Kumaratunga launched last month.

SLMC leader Rauf Hakim said the president had engineered the defection of three of his legislators over the weekend in an effort to change the constitution. He said the move was prejudicial to minorities.

Three SLMC dissidents were sworn in by Kumaratunga at the weekend as non-cabinet ministers, boosting the strength of her coalition government in the 225-member assembly where it has a wafer thin margin.

"She wants to use our members and form a constituent assembly and resort to extra constitutional means to change the constitution and perpetuate herself in office," Hakim said.

al Jazeera