by Amal Jayasinghe
COLOMBO, (AFP) - Sri Lanka’s president and prime minister are hardly ever seen together, but the two have displayed a rare meeting of minds on tackling mental illness in a nation suffering the stresses of decades of civil conflict.

President Chandrika Kumaratunga and her political rival Premier Ranil Wickremesinghe shared a common platform last week to make an appeal for the island’s first private residential mental care facility.

Official figures show about two percent of the 18.6 million population suffer from serious mental disorders while one in every 10 Sri Lankans suffer from behavioural problems.

Some 6,000 people committed suicide annually in Sri Lanka and at least half of them could be treated for mental disorders and their lives saved, psychiatrist Nalaka Mendis said.

He said about 25 percent of work absenteeism was due to mental disorders.

"Trauma of war would add to the number of mentally ill," Prime Minister Wickremesinghe said while paying President Kumaratunga a compliment for her "deep interest" in caring for the mentally ill.

He said a large number of people affected by decades of fighting in the north and east regions could be suffering trauma and the state health care system was grossly inadequate to deal with the problem.

President Kumaratunga noted that the drawn out ethnic conflict in the island’s north-east as well as continuing political violence was making more people mentally ill.

Kumaratunga, who is also the commander in chief of the armed forces, said 30,000 soldiers were deserters. Some of them had taken up a career of crime while many others suffered severe trauma.

"In almost every major crime, deserters have been involved," Kumaratunga said, adding that a culture of political violence was also harming the mental health of the nation.

Kumaratunga herself suffered trauma at a young age when her prime minister father was assassinated in 1959 and she suffered another loss in 1988 when her actor-turned-politician husband Vijaya was gunned down in her presence.

She also narrowly escaped an assassination bid by a Tamil Tiger suicide bomber in December 1999.

The state is struggling to keep up with the growing numbers of mental patients. There are only 2,400 beds in state hospitals dedicated to mental patients.

Mendis said the number of psychiatrists had gone down to 11 from 19 some 30 years ago, underscoring the worsening problem.

Mendis is initiating a project to set up a residential facility that will also train mental health care workers.

President Kumaratunga has publicly lambasted the prime minister.

However, both were seen engaging in light hearted banter in a rare display of bonhomie while trying to drum up private donations to build the 100 million rupee (one million dollar) facility for mental health care.