JVP proposals ‘do not reflect ground realities’

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 May 2005, 10:46 GMT]
The ultra-nationalist Janatha Vimukthi Perumana (JVP)’s proposals for an alternative to a joint mechanism with the Liberation Tigers to distributed international tsunami-related aid were not acceptable to Sri Lanka’s President Chandrika Kumaratunga, as they did not reflect the ground realities in the Northeast, the Daily Mirror reported Friday.

“While the JVP's latest proposals for a national council for tsunami aid distribution have some positive aspects, President Kumaratunga cannot accept them because they are not connected to ground realities in the North-East,” the newspaper quoted “Presidential sources” as saying Thursday.

The sources said the government needed a joint tsunami pact with the LTTE because there was an unresolved ethnic conflict despite the prevailing cease-fire.

The JVP proposals ignored realities by leaving out the LTTE, the Presidential sources told the Daily Mirror.

The sources said whether one liked it or not, there were LTTE-controlled areas in Mullaitivu, Killinochchi and parts of the East and the Ceasefire Agreement had cited them as LTTE-controlled areas.

Last week, the JVP "strongly and totally rejected" the joint mechanism between the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE - charging it would be "unconstitutional, undemocratic and create chaos not only in the country but in the whole South Asian region"

Instead of a joint mechanism with the “terrorist LTTE” the JVP had proposed a national committee headed by the President, along with district boards, to oversee tsunami rehabilitation and reconstruction.