The Sri Lankan government announced this week it had agreed to initiate dialogue with Sinhala Buddhist groups, Bodu Bala Sena and Ravana Balaya.
“The agreement was reached at a meeting I had with members of the Bodu Bala Sena and other groups in the Parliamentary Complex," the minister of justice and Buddhist affairs, Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe told journalists.
The announcement follows a spate of recent incidents where Sinhala Buddhist monks have incited racism and directed hate speech towards Tamils and Muslims.
The incidents had prompted calls for an investigation with criminal prosecutions.