Strong support from Sinhala community to a military solution to the ethnic strife of Sri Lanka

Apr 16, Colombo: An opinion poll conducted by Center for Policy alternatives, a peace NGO in Sri Lanka, pointed to a strong rise of support from majority Sinhala community towards a military solution to the country's ethnic problem by February 2007.

The survey also found that a majority of the Sinhala community believe that the government has done enough to protect human rights while the Up Country Tamils, on the other hand, did not.

Some 59.2 per cent of those polled Sinhalese backed a military solution and 48 per cent of them were confident in President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s ability to wage a successful military campaign against the LTTE.

Sinhalese support for the government defeating the LTTE has increased to 35.1 per cent (from 26.1 per cent) while support for peace talks is down to 46.3 per cent (from 57.3 per cent), when compared to the 2006 November report of the series of opinion polls.

However the report stated that, "The upcountry Tamil and Muslim communities remain sceptical." The poll does not cover the opinions of the Tamils in the north and east and only covers the Sinhala, Muslim and the upcountry Tamil communities in the areas outside north and east.