About 1,000 Muslims blocked traffic Friday to protest plans by the Buddhist-dominated government to reconstruct tsunami-hit eastern Sri Lanka, saying the effort could wipe out their villages and force them to relocate. The Muslim students and teachers blocked vehicles by sitting down on the main road in the town of Oluvil following Friday prayers, demonstrating against the government's proposal to prohibit construction 100 meters (330 feet) from the sea. M.Jasith, an organizer of the protest, said the plan could wipe out Muslim villages on the coast and force them to relocate to other areas, harming their culture and livelihood. "The government has not consulted the people before planning resettlement and reconstruction. We want to pressure them to respect our thinking as well," Jasith said. The government says it wants to create a safety zone to protect people from future tsunamis. Organizers said about 1,000 Muslims participated in the protest in Oluvil, about 200 kilometers (125 miles) east of capital Colombo. Jasith also alleged that the government had not allocated sufficient funds to repair roads and bridges on the east coast, which was among the areas hardest hit by the Dec. 26 disaster. Nearly 31,000 Sri Lankans were killed in the tidal waves that swept across 11 countries in Asia and Africa, and nearly one million people were made homeless. Muslims make up about 7 percent of Sri Lanka's 19 million people. Sinhalese, who are mostly Buddhist, account for 74 percent of the population.
