UNF leaders prepare to welcome Sri Lanka’s PM

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 November 2003, 03:26 GMT]
Leaders of the United National Front government are making elaborate arrangements to accord a rousing welcome to the Prime Minister, Mr.Ranil Wickremasinghe, at the Katunayake International Airport (KIA) when he returns home Friday after a three day high profile official visit to the United States, UNF sources said.

Ruling party parliamentarians, ministers and leading activists are expected to assemble at the Airport to receive Mr.Wickremasinghe and to take him in a motor convoy to his official residence, Temple Trees, sources said.

Meanwhile, the country is once again under a state of emergency with effect from midnight Wednesday by the President, Chandrika Kumaratunga.

The Defense Ministry has ordered the armed forces and police to provide more security to foreign missions in Colombo. The headquarters of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission has been provided with tight security, police said.

The previous state of emergency came to an end in the middle of the year 2000, when the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress withdrew its parliamentary support to the then People’s Alliance government. Thereafter the PA government allowed it to lapse, as it was not in a position to muster parliamentary support to extend it every month, political sources said.