NEW DELHI -- Peace seems to be eluding Sri Lanka. The latest parliamentary elections there has caused disquiet and confusion after the electorate failed to give a clear mandate to either Chandrika Kumaratunga's People's Alliance (PA) or Ranil Wickremesinghe's United National Party (UNP).
Although the PA won 107 seats -- two more than what it did in 1994 -- the figure was still short of six seats for a simple majority in the 225-member Parliament. However, after marathon discussions, Kumaratunga was able to rope in the support of the Eelam People's Democratic Party and the National Unity Alliance to form a government.
A tenuous coalition of this kind is unlikely to help sort out the bloody mess in Sri Lanka, where an ethnic clash between the minority Tamil population and the majority Sinhalese has been on for well over two decades now. The Tamils, whose most militant representative has been the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), have been demanding a separate homeland in the northeastern parts of the island.