Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe, who is currently in England, told the British media, at Reading yesterday, that Sri Lanka’s politics were at make or break point, agency reports said.

Wickremesinghe met the Reading’s newly-elected Mayor Fred Pugh during a visit to the area to canvass for European election votes for his friend, Conservative MEP candidate, Nirj Deva.

The group met at the Civic Centre in Dusseldorf Way before Wickremesinghe and Deva took to the streets of Caversham, Get Reading web news agency said.

Wickremesinghe told media that President Mahinda Rajapaska had put military action before politics in his campaign.

The Get Reading story also said: "He said: "My policy is to put politics before military, but their’s was military and then politics, this is why now the war is over but we have to think about the politics.

"It is a crucial time, peace will depend on the ability to sort out the politics for the sake of the Tamils and the Sinhalese and this has to be done soon.

"All efforts have focused on the military objectives so far. The Tamil Tigers were effectively incapable of military action as long ago as January but the army has been dealing with the population left in the region, many of whom were held as human shields.

"There were more people than they thought. This has been one of the problems but the government could have been more prepared.

"They knew there would be a need for refugee camps and they should have been built and developed before. We now have an immediate situation where we have a humanitarian crisis and that needs to be dealt with now."

Speaking of the criticism of the government and the condemnation of the refugee camps by international media, he said: "There have been shortcomings but now is the time to resolve that. There has been an issue with allowing media into the area which has restricted any positive news in favour of the government coming out which is a mistake.

"The international media needs to meet the government to find out what is going on and to build relations for the sake of the IDPs (Internally Displaced Persons). That is a key need, to build relations."

Wickremasinghe is due to return to Sri Lanka at the weekend."