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Colombo government survives vote

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa's government survived a crucial budget vote on Friday, fighting off a strong opposition challenge that could have frozen an escalating military offensive against separatist rebels.

The outcome remained in doubt until the vote on Friday evening as lawmakers in the coalition and outside the government changed sides in a swirl of political gamesmanship. One powerful minister resigned his post just minutes before the vote.

Had the government lost, it would have been forced to call new elections, likely paralyzing political activity in the country for months.

Over the past few weeks, Rajapaksa's ruling Sri Lanka Freedom Party worked to shore up its razor-thin coalition by offering opposition lawmakers lucrative ministerial positions.

In the end, a slim majority of 114 lawmakers out of 225 approved the budget, parliamentary officials said. Another 67 voted against it, while the 38 lawmakers from the hard-line People's Liberation Front, a former coalition partner, abstained.

Rajapaksa's two-year-old government has vowed to crush the Tamil Tiger rebels. In July it declared it had pushed the separatists from the east, and since then has battled them in their heartland in the jungles of the north.

The budget includes the country's largest-ever defense expenditure -- 166.4 billion rupees (US$1.5 billion) -- for the war.

The total budget was estimated at about 1 trillion rupees.

Government officials accused the opposition of giving comfort to the rebels by trying to topple the coalition.

"The government is trying its best to eradicate terrorism from the country and allow people ... to live in a democratic and a free society," Media Minister Anura Yapa said. "What the opposition is trying to do is to nullify that."

Gayantha Karunatilake, a spokesman for the opposition United National Party, said the accusation was unfair, adding the party was only trying to do what was best for Sri Lankans.

The Tamil Tigers have fought since 1983 for an independent homeland for ethnic minority Tamils after decades of discrimination under governments controlled by the Sinhalese majority.

Fighting continued as troops killed a Tamil Tiger fighter near the front lines in Muhamalai in the northern Jaffna peninsula on Thursday evening, the military said on Friday.

Meanwhile, a London-based rights group accused the government of illegally detaining large numbers of Tamils and Muslims and ignoring civilian rights in its efforts to crush the rebels.

Minority Rights Group International said year-old anti-terror laws have created a deteriorating security situation that led to the killing, abduction and disappearance of hundreds of people.

Between January and August, 662 people were killed and 540 others disappeared, the group said in a report released on Friday.
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