One of the donor representatives addressing the gathering

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VIP guests at the aid summit (left to right) Central Province Chief Minister Sarath Ekanayake, Kandy Mayor Kesara Senanayake, Ministers A. H. M. Fowzie, Ferial Ashraff and Tissa Karalliyadde.

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President Kumaratunga lighting the traditional oil lamp.

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One person killed and four injured in explosion in volatile eastern Sri Lanka ; curfew imposed

Protesters lobbed a grenade at a shop in eastern Sri Lanka - , killing one person and wounding four others, the military said.
A curfew was imposed following the attack in the town of Trincomalee, where police had already been put on alert after another grenade blast late Monday damaged a Buddhist statue and slightly injured one person. The town is 230 kilometers (140 miles) northeast of the capital, Colombo.
The protesters had gathered to demand that the statue be removed from the market square in the heart of the town, said S. Bandara of the Trincomalee police.
``Initial reports indicate that one person was killed and another four were injured'' in Tuesday's explosion, said military spokesman Brig. Daya Ratnayake. He said no other details were immediately available.
The attacks occurred less than a week before the Vesak festival marking the birth of Buddha the most sacred day for people in this South Asian country, where 70 percent of the 19 million people are Buddhist.
Most shops, offices and schools were closed and public transport ground to a halt Tuesday in Trincomalee, home to equal numbers of Buddhists, Hindus and Muslims.

Joint panel with rebels could firm Sri Lanka's peace, but analyst warns plan could fail

A top Sri Lankan official said Tuesday that the president's pledge to create a joint panel with Tamil rebels within weeks to distribute tsunami aid would help bring the two sides closer. But an analyst warned that opposition within the ruling coalition could derail the plan.
The comments came as delegates from 125 donor countries and aid agencies met for a second day to discuss ways of ensuring that some of the US$2.2 billion (euro1.74 billion) in aid pledged reaches areas inhabited by minority Tamils, who have long accused the Sinhalese-dominated government of neglecting them.
On Monday, President Chandrika Kumaratunga told the delegates that a joint agency between the government and Tamil Tiger rebels would be set up within weeks to distribute aid to the guerrilla-held north and east, meeting a key rebel demand.
``The proposed agreement will not only help people on the ground, but will go a long way to take the two sides closer,'' Jayantha Dhanapala, head of the government's Peace Secretariat, which handles negotiations with the Tamil Tigers, said Tuesday.
Kumaratunga's main coalition partner, however, has opposed the plan, saying it would help the rebels achieve their goal of establishing a separate Tamil state. The Marxist People's Liberation Front has threatened to withdraw from the coalition if the plan goes ahead, a move that could cause the government to collapse.
Jehan Perera, an analyst with Sri Lanka's National Peace Council, a think-tank, cautioned against too much optimism.
``The issue remains open whether the government can both sign and implement the joint mechanism,'' if it's opposed by her coalition, Perera said.
Kumaratunga also faces opposition from a political party of Buddhist monks that has nine seats in the 225-member Parliament. Most Sri Lankans are Buddhist, and monks are influential in state affairs.
The Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam began fighting in 1983 for a homeland for the island's 3.2 million Tamils. A cease-fire halted the conflict in 2002 but subsequent peace talks collapsed in April 2003 over the rebels' demand for greater autonomy in the north and east.
The fragile truce still holds despite allegations of attacks on both sides.
``We have a large number of violations, but the cease-fire is holding because neither of the sides wants to go back to full scale conflict,'' Dhanapala said.
Decades of war and the Dec. 26 tsunami - which killed some 31,000 people and affected about 1 million more - have thrown 5 million of the island's 19 million people into poverty, the government has said.

Sri Lanka receives record US$ 2.2 b grants from donors

President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, Finance Minister Dr. Sarath Amunugama, Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar, World Bank Vice President Praful Patel and other dignitaries at the Sri Lanka Development Forum at the Earl’s Regency, Kandy yesterday.Pictures by Dudley Wickramasinghe
The Government recorded an unprecedented response from the donor community yesterday for its post tsunami reconstruction plan, on the first date of the Sri Lanka Development Forum held in Kandy with donors making commitments worth US$ 2.2 billion yesterday itself, Finance Minister Dr. Sarath Amunugama announced last evening here in Kandy.
Addressing the media at the conclusion of the first day sessions of the Development Forum, which focused on post tsunami reconstruction plans, Dr. Amunugama said the commitments by the donors topped the entire tsunami reconstruction requirements presented by the Government at yesterday's sessions.
"More than ninety per cent of the commitments pledged were in the form of grants", Dr. Amunugama added.
A confident Finance Minister said donors were impressed with the presentations made on the post tsunami reconstruction plans of the government.
The estimated post tsunami reconstruction requirement was put at US$ 2 billion. Minister Amunugama said the donors were impressed by the 'excellent' speech made by President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga at the inauguration of the Development Forum. "The President's speech has had a tremendous impact on the donor community today", the Minister added.
Deputy Finance Minister Tilak Siyambalapitiya said the bilateral agencies made a commitment worth US$ 745 million at the Forum while multilateral agencies and Non government Organisations making commitments worth US$ 631 million and US$ 853 million respectively.
"Ninety per cent of the commitments were in the form of grants", the Deputy Minister said.
Finance Ministry Secretary Dr. P.B. Jayasundera said the special feature of the Development Forum was that it had not made any impact on the country's debts or to the country's budgetary provision since these commitments were made in the form of grants.
"This is the first time Sri Lanka receiving aids in the form of grants", he pointed out. He also said the Government has also received US$ 300 million debt relief from donors.
"Italy and China has written off the debts", Dr. Jayasundera added.