COLOMBO, Jan 18: An influential Buddhist priest has fired a shot into Sri lanka's Golden Jubilee celebrations by deciding to boycott the official ceremony in protest against the participation of Prince Charles as chief guest, the Sunday Times reported today.Rambukewelle Sri Vipasi, the head priest of the Malwatte chapter of the Siam sect, said, however, that Charles' presence notwithstanding, he would attend the religious ceremony at the Temple of the Tooth Relic in Kandy.
The heir to the British throne is scheduled to arrive in Sri Lanka along with a host of other foreign dignitaries for the 50th anniversary celebrations that will be held in Kandy on February 4.
Despite the logistical problems posed by security due to the ever present threat from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), the Sri Lankan Government has arranged an elaborate show in Kandy, the capital of the last Sinhala king who ruled in the 19th century before being captured by the British after a battle.
In Colombo, too, a numberof programmes have been scheduled, including a massive exhibition at the Chinese-built Bandaranaike memorial hall. The total cost of the celebrations is pegged at US $ 5 million.
However, security at the functions may not be the Government's only headache as the campaign against the participation of British royalty gathers momentum. ``I have nothing against Prince Charles personally, but whoever invited him should have thought about the relevance of inviting him for this function in the context of the plundering and exploiting of our resources by the British rulers,'' Vipassi told the Sunday Times.
Meanwhile, the Federation of Buddhist Organisations said that in the coming days, it would visit each Buddhist temple to ``enlighten'' the clergy to gain their backing for a wider boycott.
The campaign follows a demand from the National Joint Committee, a Sinhala nationalist organisation, which declared last month that Charles should not attend the ceremony.
Tigers seek asylum for leader
TheLiberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam has approached some `friendly' nations to grant temporary asylum to its senior leader Suresh Manickavasagam after the Canadian federal court upheld the country's decision to deport him to Lanka.
With the deadline approaching for Suresh's deportation to Sri Lanka, the LTTE and its affiliated international Tamil organisations reportedly approached South Africa and some South-East Asian countries to provide temporary asylum to him, Sri Lankan intelligence sources said here today.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
