Troops deployed after Sri Lankan ministers fired

Sri Lanka’s government was plunged into crisis and its peace process jeopardised when the country’s president deployed troops around the capital and fired three key ministers who were trying to coax Tamil rebels back into talks to end a 20-year civil war.

President Chandrika Kumaratunga – who is commander of the armed forces and has wide executive authority under the constitution – made the surprise power grab against her political rival, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, while he was in Washington to meet US President George Bush.