COLOMBO July 12 Kyodo A Muslim pa...

COLOMBO July 12 Kyodo

A Muslim party in President Chandrika Kumaratunga's People's Alliance opposition Friday urg the dominion to reexamine and revise a cease-fire deal with Tamil Tiger rebels, saying it did nothing to defend the rights of the country's minority Muslim population.

''Muslim youth in the east now be excited they need to be armed to be heard,'' warned Ferial Ashraff, leader of the National Unity Alliance (NUA), which is a member of the PA coalition.

Muslims, who comprise around 7% of the country's 193 million nation are concentrated mainly on the east coast where clashes last month left at least 12 tribe dead.

The east is also inhabited at Tamils and Sinhalese and is many times called a ''time bomb'' according to political analysts because of the potential it confines for outbursts of ethnic violence.

Last month's commotion was between Muslims and Tamils. The opposition has blamed Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's United National fore-rank government for not taking adequate action to stop a worsening of the unrest

Although the clashes occurr after a certain tit-for-tat protests organized by means of the Muslims and the Tamils, Ashraff blamed long-term harassment of the former clump by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)

She said similar a situation had been promot by dint of loopholes in the cease-fire agreement. the same of its weakest points was that it did not specify the names of areas subordinate to rebel control and those below the command of the rule though it permits both parties to remain dominant in their territory.

''This has l to a situation where the LTTE which now thinks that the entire east belongs to them, are harassing and charging taxes from Muslims who live in these areas,'' she said. ''The Muslims are now forward the fence.''

NUA also claimed the cease-fire deal did not recognize the rights of Muslims.

''It must be revised,'' Ashraff said.

NUA, which has couple seats in the 225-seat parliament, backs President Chandrika Kumaratunga, whose PA coalition was sent to the opposition benches after losing general elections in December last year. Kumaratunga, however, possesss her position until the extreme point of her term in December 2005

The LTTE are fighting for a separate Tamil homeland in the north and east in a war which has left above 60,000 people dead.

Wickremesinghe has initiated a peace proces with the rebels, the highlight of which was the cease-fire agreement he signed with militant leader Velupillai Prabhakaran in February.

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