Associated Press

Colombo, May 18:

Most Sri Lankans support a plan for the government to share duties with Tamil rebels in doling out post-tsunami aid to the nation, a poll said today.

The survey conducted by the independent Centre for Policy Alternatives said 65.6 percent of the 1,808 people interviewed approved of the proposal.

President Chandrika Kumaratunga has vowed to press ahead with the plan even while suggesting it might put her life in danger. However, one of the parties in her ruling coalition, the Marxist People’s Liberation Front, is strongly opposed to the deal.The proposal would make the rebels a partner in distributing aid to Sri Lanka’s Tamil-dominated north and east.

Activist killed

COLOMBO: Suspected Tamil Tiger rebels on Wednesday fatally shot Arumugam Murugapillai, a member of a pro-government Tamil group, in fresh violence in Sri Lanka’s volatile east, as security forces went on alert elsewhere in the east in an attempt to quell escalating ethnic tension. — AP