Kumaratunga fires top official

Kumaratunga fires top official

SRI LANKA: Embattled president sacked a top official of her party on Monday in a bid to quell dissent in the minority government ahead of a no-confidence vote in parliament.

State radio in Colombo said S.B. Dissanayake, general secretary of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party, the main constituent of the ruling Peoples' Alliance coalition, had been removed from his post.

Dissanayake was one of three ministers who resigned from the cabinet this month citing differences with the government's new Marxist allies, the former rebel Peoples' Liberation Front (JVP).

President Chandrika Kumaratunga had traded allegations of misrule and corruption with Dissanayake, formerly a close confidant and second only to her in the party hierarchy.

Their feud was brought into the open by Dissanayake's opposition to Kumaratunga's suspension of parliament on July 11 ahead of an earlier no-confidence vote. --Reuters