Sri Lanka's minority government on Wednesday formally entered into a pact with the leftist Janatha Vimukti Peramuna to remain in power for another year committing itself to democratic reforms and abolition of the executive presidency, but detractors flayed the new arrangement for ignoring the ethnic conflict altogether.

Representatives of the ruling People's Alliance (PA) and Janatha Vimukti Peramuna (JVP) finalised a memorandum of understanding and held a public ceremony to exchange documents of agreements in the presence of Buddhist clergy, academicians and government ministers on Wednesday evening.
JVP, a Marxist party that stands for a unitary state, has agreed that its 10 MPs will back the PA regime in exchange for a series of measures including a halt to privatisation moves and a bar on any devolution of powers to Tamil-majority provinces.

Bureau Report