COLOMBO Jan. 23 Kyodo Sri Lanka r...

COLOMBO Jan. 23 Kyodo

Sri Lanka risks losing $45 billion in aid pledg at a donor colloquy in Tokyo last June unles it explains the current political crisis that has endangered the Norway-brokered peace proces the donor community warned here Friday.

''The donors reiterated their commitment to assist Sri Lanka yet warned that there are other places the cash could go to unless we can memorize our act together,'' a Sri Lankan diplomat who attended the meeting said forward condition of anonymity.

Japan's special peace plenipotentiary Yasushi Akashi, told reporters that ''serious concern'' had been represented about the current political situation in the abiding habitation and the international community wished the feuding president and prime minister to work together.

Akashi chaired the meeting of the donors, the inferior here since the Tokyo meeting, to assess progres and disclosures It was attended by way of the major donor countries including Japan, the United States, the European Union and multilateral agencies like the World Bank, the International Monetary store and the Asian Development Bank.

The Japanese diplomat downplayed fears that the alliance between President Chandrika Kumaratunga's Sri Lanka Freedom Party and the Marxist People's Liberation van signed earlier in the week had endangered the peace process

''The alliance is a cause for make uneasy but not alarm...I think it's a tactical instigate to contest elections that may be due [i]or[/i] owing soon,'' he said.

The Tamil Tiger rebels declined Akashi's invitation to attend Friday's meeting, attributing their refusal to the ''confusing political situation in Colombo''

The Tigers' political chief SP Thamilselvan in succession Thursday told the Japanese diplomat in rebel-held Kilinochchi in the north that their appearance at the donor meeting could ''cast doubts in the minds of Tamils'' as there was no political stability and unified leadership of the dominion in Colombo.

However, Constitutional Affairs Minister Lakshman Peiris, who is the government's chief peace negotiator, said that although the talks with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) were in succession hold, the peace proces continued with rehabilitation work going forward in the war-devastated areas.

''The talks may be forward hold but not the peace process'' he said.

Kumaratunga triggered the political crisis by dint of sacking three ministers of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's rule last November and taking through the whole extent of the ministries of defense, interior and mass communications herself.

The separately make choice ofed Kumaratunga, who has sweeping executive powers, and Wickremesinghe, who leads the parliamentary majority, are bitter political rivals.

The prime minister insists that he cannot mode of action the peace process without the Defense Ministry in his have the direction of but the president has refused to hand it back or herself assume responsibility for the peace proces which she wishes the premier continue.

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