MADRAS, India -- The Sri Lankan peace process is under serious threat. Worse, there is a constitutional crisis provoked by President Chandrika Kumaratunga's dismissal of three key ministers, including the island nation's defense chief.
In a political system that closely resembles the French model, an uneasy "cohabition" has existed for many months between Kumaratunga's Sri Lanka Freedom Party and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's United National Front.
Sri Lanka's directly elected president is also the head of state, head of government, head of Cabinet and commander in chief of the armed forces. Kumaratunga's Freedom Party, the island's main political organization, was in power from 1994 till 2001, when Wickremesinghe won the parliamentary elections.