SAN JOSE, Costa Rica: Special Enjoy Philip Habib will start a new tour of Central America this Week to meet with US, allies following a weekend summit by the regions five presidents, a Costa Rican official said Saturday.

Habib, scheduled to arrive Sunday evening in San Jose, will meet Monday with Costa Rican President Oscar Arias Sanchez and Foreign Minister Rodrigo Madrigal Nieto, said the official. A.U.S. Embassy spokesman said Habib’s visit “is related to the results of the meeting of the president in Esquipulas.”

The heads of state of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua were meeting in the Guatemalan religious shrine of Esquipulas Saturday and Sunday to discuss the possibility of a Central American parliament and the Contadina peace accord.

The official said Habib, who attended the Costa Rican presidents May 8 inauguration, was also scheduled to travel to El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala to discuss the weekend meeting.

Habib, who was named by President Reagan to be his special envoy to Central America earlier this year, has not met with members of Nicaragua’s leftist Sandinista government.

Habib has been criticized in Washington for a letter he sent to several congressmen pledging the U.S would end its support to Nicaraguan rebels trying to overthrow the leftist Sandinista government of Nicaragua if the country signed a regional peace pact.

Against the predominantly Hindu minority by the Sinhalese,

Thousands of Sinhalese Buddhists crowded temples across the country to celebrate the festival of Vesak, which marks the birth, enlighten and death of Lord Buddha 2,350 years ago.

Security was tight at shrines around Colombo; with hundreds of additional police placed on duty following the bombings two weeks ago of an Air Lanka passenger jet and the city’s main public telegraph office observance of the holiday.

In a special message to the nation carried in newspapers, Prime Minister R. Premasada called for an end to the bloody ethnic strife

“This nation and much of the world are undergoing great suffering at this time,” he said. “Let us rededicate ourselves to lead lives of self-contentment, self-sacrifice and self-discipline which would make all beings well and happy.

Article extracted from this publication >> May 30, 1986