Constitutionality questioned over WPC suspension

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 April 2005, 14:58 GMT]
The main opposition United National Party (UNP) said Tuesday that a provincial governor under 13th amendment to the constitution has no power to suspend the functions of a provincial council. Instead he has power to dissolve or extend the term of the council. "We are contemplating to move a no confidence motion on the Governor Mr Alavi Mowlana for his undemocratic action by suspending the WPC till May 17," said Mr.Lakshman Abeyaratne, UNP group leader.


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Governor suspends WPC to avert UPFA crisis

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 April 2005, 10:23 GMT]
Mr.Alavi Mowlana, Governor of Western Province Tuesday by extra ordinary gazette notification suspended the functions of the Western Provincial Council (WPC) till May 17th to avert a major political crisis between the constituent political parties, Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) of the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government, political sources said.
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JHU joins anti joint mechanism fray

[TamilNet, Monday, 25 April 2005, 14:11 GMT]
Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU), an ultra Sinhala nationalist party in Sri Lanka's Parliament, Monday vowed to oppose the proposed joint mechanism between the Liberation Tigers and Colombo to distribute Tsunami aid in the island's northeast. Addressing a press conference in Colombo Monday, Mr. Champika Ranawaka, propaganda secretary of the JHU said that his party was ready to join hands with the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) to campaign against the joint mechanism proposal. He said that there are many politicians in the ruling Sri Lanka Freedom Party and the opposition United National Party who are against the joint mechanism for Tsunami aid.
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JVP says will campaign against joint tsunami aid mechanism

[TamilNet, Monday, 25 April 2005, 05:22 GMT]
Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga’s main coalition partner, said Monday it will launch a massive campaign to oppose the proposed Joint Mechanism between the Liberation Tigers and Colombo for distributing Tsunami aid in the island’s northeast. “The campaign will start from the capital and will be held in all major provincial towns to educate the people about the dangers the Joint Mechanism poses to the country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity”, a party spokesman said. JVP’s opposition to the Joint Mechanism will be the central theme of the huge May Day rally the Marxist party is preparing to hold in Colombo, according to him.
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Tigers postpone crucial press meet

[TamilNet, Sunday, 24 April 2005, 17:36 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers said Sunday they are indefinitely postponing a crucial press conference scheduled for Tuesday in Kilinochchi. Informed sources said that the press meet was intended to explain the LTTE’s stand on the proposed Joint Mechanism for Tsunami reconstruction in the island’s northeast province. The indefinite postponement of the press conference added fuel to speculation in Colombo that a compromise on the Joint Mechanism is floundering on strident opposition by President Chandrika Kumaratunga’s main coalition partner Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna.
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SLFP launches campaign to promote Joint Mechanism

[TamilNet, Sunday, 24 April 2005, 14:26 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), main constituent of the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government, Sunday launched a two day-awareness campaign in Sri Lanka's South explaining the positive aspects of the proposed joint mechanism expected to be signed with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to disburse funds provided by several international aid agencies and foreign governments to reconstruct tsunami affected areas in the northeast, sources said.
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Christina Rocca meets JVP delegation

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 20 April 2005, 16:16 GMT]
The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), Sinhala Marxist Nationalist Party and a major constituent of the United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government, Wednesday told Ms Christina Rocca, the visiting US Assistant Secretary of State, that JVP is opposed to the joint mechanism which was proposed to enable the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to disburse funds from foreign governments and international aid agencies to assist tsunami rehabilitation and reconstruction programme in the northeast, sources said.


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Joint Mechanism means end of UPFA, warns JVP

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 20 April 2005, 05:02 GMT]
At a time when the Norwegian facilitators indicated that the Government and the LTTE are coming close to enter into an agreement on the proposed Joint Mechanism for post-tsunami aid distribution in the North-East, the marxist extreme Sinhala nationalist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), a major ally of the ruling UPFA coalition, warned on Tuesday that such a deal would mean the end of the United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government.
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Joint-mechanism with LTTE only way out, says Kumar Rupasinghe

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 19 April 2005, 05:09 GMT]
Dr. Kumar Rupasinghe, a leading peace activist in Sri Lanka, said Tuesday that the proposed joint-mechanism between the government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE is the only way out in the decision making process to carryout the much-needed rebuilding and resettlement program for tsunami-affected people in the worst-hit North-East region.
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Media watchdog says JVP inciting violence against journalists

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 12 April 2005, 16:20 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s main press watchdog, Free Media Movement FMM, Tuesday expressed grave concern that a speech by Mr. Wimal Weerawansa, the powerful propaganda secretary of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), could incite violence against journalists and media institutions. In a letter addressed to the Patriotic National Movement, a JVP affiliate which organized the meeting where Mr. Weerawansa spoke, FMM said “stop this hate campaign your organisation has launched against journalists and media institutions and to keep criticisms within the limits of democratic freedoms."
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JVP assists Sinhala fishermen migrate to Kalkuda

[TamilNet, Sunday, 10 April 2005, 12:44 GMT]
Mr.S. Jeyanandamoorthy, Batticaloa district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian has brought to the notice of Sri Lanka's President Ms Chandrika Kumaratunge that cadres of Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), a key member of the coalition government, assisted by Sri Lanka security forces, have been helping Sinhala fishermen from other districts to move to Kalkuda, an area which is completely destroyed by the tsunami tidal wave, sources said.
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Kumaratunga off to London for New Year holidays

[TamilNet, Sunday, 10 April 2005, 10:03 GMT]
Sri Lanka's President Chandrika Kumaratunga left for London on Saturday night to spend the forthcoming New Year holidays with her children, Yashoda and Vimukthi. According to reports, Ms Kumaratunge before undertaking her private trip to UK has appointed her close confidante, Ratnasiri Wickremenayake, as the Minister of Defence and Dinesh Gunawardene as the Minister of Education until she returns back to Sri Lanka.
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JVP slams NGOs, western countries for meddling

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 06 April 2005, 18:28 GMT]
“We should spit on NGOs and stop them from walking on our streets. Donor countries and their NGO agents are holding this country to ransom, telling the government to set up a joint Tsunami relief mechanism with the LTTE. It is something that can be done through the Sri Lankan state machinery. There is no need for a joint mechanism”, said Mr. Wimal Weerawansa, the powerful propaganda secretary of Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), speaking to a packed audience in Maharagama, an outer suburb of Colombo, at a meeting Wednesday to ‘expose the NGO Mafia that is against the land and the country’.
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Not even twenty percent support for federalism - JVP

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 06 April 2005, 12:51 GMT]
"A federal system as a political solution to Sri Lanka’s ethnic conflict would not even get twenty percent support from the people at a referendum", said Mr. Somawansa Amarasingha, leader of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), President Chandrika Kumaratunga's main Marxist coalition partner, addressing a meeting Tuesday in Anuradhapura to commemorate the thousands of party activists who were killed in April 1971 when Colombo brutally crushed an armed uprising by the JVP to establish communist rule in the island. Mr. Amarasingha was one of the young JVP leaders who led the 71’ insurrection.
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JVP supports Cuba, China’s anti secession law

[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 March 2005, 16:16 GMT]
Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), the main coalition partner of President Chandrika Kumaratunga’s government, said Thursday that Sri Lankan should oppose the US resolution against Cuba at the UN Human Rights Commission. “It is the internationalist duty of this government to oppose the US resolution and support of Cuba”, said Mr. Wimal Weerawansa MP, the powerful propaganda secretary of the JVP in Parliament Thursday. Meanwhile, the JVP sent a message to China’s President Hu Jintao Thursday expressing support for the anti session law he promulgated on 14 March to prevent Taiwan from declaring independence.
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JVP will never quit UPFA government, Kadirgamar assures to BBC

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 March 2005, 13:19 GMT]
Throwing his weight fully behind the radical Sinhala nationalistic Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), a major coalition in the ruling United People's Freedom Alliance government, Sri Lanka's Foreign Minister, Lakshman Kadirgamar, in a live television interview with the BBC on Tuesday said that the JVP is for the negotiated political settlement with the LTTE and assured that it would never quit the ruling coalition in this regard.
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Sri Lanka’s referendum blues

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 March 2005, 12:23 GMT]
Opposition fears that President Chandrika Kumaratunga is making serious moves to hold on to the reins of power were further exacerbated when thousands of posters calling for the immediate abolition the country’s executive Presidential system appeared in many part of the island’s capital and suburbs this week. The purple coloured posters were in the name of a nebulous organization called ‘People’s Movement for Democracy’. Sri Lanka’s main opposition United National Party (UNP) says President Kumaratunga is planning to change the constitution to illegally perpetuate herself in power.
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Tilak Karunaratne withdraws petition against MoU

[TamilNet, Sunday, 20 March 2005, 08:27 GMT]
One of the three petitions filed in the Court of Appeal challenging the constitutional validity of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed by the then Prime Minister Mr.Ranil Wickremasinghe and Mr.V.Pirapaharan leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) was withdrawn last week, legal sources said.
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Thousands of university students protest in Colombo

[TamilNet, Thursday, 17 March 2005, 11:49 GMT]
More than five thousand university students marched through downtown Colombo Thursday demanding that the Government of Sri Lanka drop plans for privatizing higher education. The massive protest march which winded through busy and traffic congested areas of the city to the University Grants Commission around Thursday noon was organized by the powerful Inter University Students’ Federation (IUSF), an arm of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), the main coalition partner of President Kumaratunga.
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Kumaratunga moves to clip JVP's strong media links

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 March 2005, 13:19 GMT]
Sri Lanka's President Chandrika Kumaratunga is reported to have taken over the administration of the Media Ministry, held by Minister Mangala Samaraweera, in a move widely seen as intended to limit the strong links the radical Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) has with the State media institutions, especially the Sri Lanka Rupavahini Co-operation (SLRC), Independent Television Network (ITN) and the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation (SLBC), political sources in Colombo said.
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