Kumaratunga ally threatens to quit if talks resume

[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 February 2005, 06:48 GMT]
The Sinhala nationalist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), the main coalition partner of President Chandrika Kumaratunga’s government Thursday threatened to pull out of the ruling alliance if the long stalled talks between Colombo and the Liberation Tigers on setting up an interim administration to address the immediate humanitarian needs of the war torn Northeast of Sri Lanka are resumed. In a hard hitting statement issued Thursday, JVP slammed President Kumaratunga’s government for neither consulting nor informing them about the announcement Wednesday that Colombo is ready to restart talks with the Tigers on the basis of a proposal for establishing an interim administration.


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TNA meets with German Minister

[TamilNet, Monday, 21 February 2005, 17:34 GMT]
A delegation of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) compring TNA Parliamentary Group Leader, Mr. R.Sampathan, and parliamentarians Mr. Joseph Pararajasingham, Mr. Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, and Mrs. Padmini Sithambaranathan, met with German Economic Cooperation and Development Minister Ms. Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul at the German Embassy in Colombo, Monday, political sources in Colombo said.
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Chandrika appoints new secretary to JVP's Fisheries Ministry

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 February 2005, 09:52 GMT]
President Chandrika Kumaratunga on Tuesday has appointed a new Secretary to the Ministry of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, one of the three ministries under the JVP control. Mr. E. Jinadasa, a senior officer in the Sri Lanka Administrative Service has been appointed as the new Secretary to the Ministry, replacing the former Secretary, Nandasena Bambaravanage.
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Sri Lanka President warns main coalition partner

[TamilNet, Sunday, 13 February 2005, 16:07 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s President Chandrika Kumaratunga Sunday warned her main coalition partner that it can leave her government if it continues to obstruct her politically. In a hard hitting speech at the opening of a Multi Purpose Co-operative Society in Attanagalla, her home electorate in Sri Lanka’s western province, she warned the Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP): "If they want to leave, let them leave. I cannot rule like this. They threaten to leave the government even over paltry issues. They are more interested in getting rid of me than doing away with Pirapaharan".


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Sri Lanka in danger of losing Tsunami Aid- Prof. Peiris

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 February 2005, 03:00 GMT]
Failure to reach consensus with the Liberation Tigers in setting up a mechanism that will ensure equitable distribution of aid will lead to Sri Lanka losing large amount of aid pledged by the International community, said Prof G L Peiris, United National Party (UNP) parliamentarian and former Minister of Constitutional Affairs, addressing a press conference held Thursday at the opposition leader's office.
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JVP says will boycott Tsunami debate

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 08 February 2005, 06:40 GMT]
In the first clear signal of a rift with President Kumaratunga, her main coalition partner, Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), said Tuesday that it will not take part in the debate on the Tsunami devastation in Sri Lanka’s Parliament on Wednesday and Thursday. With thirty nine MPs, the JVP calls the shots in the ruling coalition. If the party pulls out of the Kumaratunga led alliance, Sri Lanka’s President has to go for another general election or seek the support of her rival, Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe, to run the government.
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JVP, JHU boycott Independence Day celebrations

[TamilNet, Friday, 04 February 2005, 18:29 GMT]
Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU), the powerful ultra Sinhala nationalist Buddhist monks' party in Sri Lanka's Parliament, boycotted Friday's Independence day celebrations organised by Chandrika Kumaratunga's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government, ven. Ellawala Madhananda Thera, the Head of the JHU, told media Friday. Another significant player absent in Friday's celebrations was the marxist extreme Sinhala nationalist party, Janatha Vimukti Peramuna (JVP).
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Probe NGO links with the LTTE, JVP tells President Kumaratunga

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 February 2005, 06:25 GMT]
Describing the field hospitals, ambulances and generators as "war-like materials brought in by the NGOs for the LTTE", the Marxist extreme Sinhala nationalist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), a major coalition partner of the ruling Freedom Alliance government, has urged President Chandrika Kumaratunga in a letter Tuesday to probe "into the activities of foreign NGOs, their staff and foreign volunteers" working in Sri Lanka's tsunami-hit areas. The JVP's letter has come as an apparent bid to divert the public attention from their widening rift with President Kumaratunga, who according to reports, was getting ready to retaliate the JVP for its recent remarks against her.
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JVP, SLFP discord widens

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 February 2005, 12:33 GMT]
Relations between the two main constituent parties of the United people front Alliance (UPFA) government worsened with the Janatha Vimukthy Peremuna (JVP), the Marxist extreme Sinhala nationalist party expressing its displeasure over the Sri Lanka government's failure to involve JVP in the rehabilitation and reconstruction efforts in the North and East, JVP sources said.
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Don't include LTTE in post-tsunami rebuilding effort - JVP

[TamilNet, Monday, 24 January 2005, 05:36 GMT]
Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), a major coalition partner of President Chandrika Kumaratunga's Freedom Alliance government and a self styled radical marxist party that draws on Sinhala nationalist sentiments to augment its popularity, has expressed its strong opposition to the government's bid to include the Liberation Tigers in the post-tsunami relief, reconstruction and rehabilitation process using the outpouring international aid resources.
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Colombo’s post tsunami development blueprint assailed

[TamilNet, Sunday, 23 January 2005, 03:03 GMT]
Plan drawn up as a blueprint for post-tsunami development by the “Task force to Rebuild the Nation” (TAFREN), one of the three committees comprising the Center for National Operations (CNO) set up by Sri Lanka’s President Chandrika Kumaratunge, announced Monday, is assailed as being immoral, hastily produced, too centralized and conceived without adequate consultation with organizations whose support is vital for the plan's successful execution.
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Government's call for unity is an empty ballyhoo, says JVP

[TamilNet, Saturday, 22 January 2005, 05:40 GMT]
Mounting an all-out attack against President Chandrika Kumaratunga's leadership, major coalition partner of her Freedom Alliance government, radical Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) has said on Friday that the call by the government leadership for national unity was an "empty ballyhoo".
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JVP, JHU object to channeling relief through World Vision

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 11 January 2005, 14:11 GMT]
Parliamentary group leader of JVP (Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna), Mr Wimal Weerawansa, said at a meeting of the national committee on disaster management that his party is deeply concerned about channeling tsunami relief aid through World Vision. The proceeds of one day international cricket match between Asia and the rest of the world, held in Melbourne, Monday, was to be channeled through World Vision, according to sports officials in Melbourne.
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Relief supplies hijacked and relabelled in Moratuwa - Colombo paper

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 January 2005, 10:39 GMT]
The radical Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), a major coalition partner in the ruling United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government of President Chandrika Kumaratunga, has been accused of hijacking relief supplies sent to welfare camps and re-distributing them as supplies from the JVP, reported The Sunday Leader, a Colombo based English weekly in its latest issue.
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Irate Tsunami refugees jeer PM, JVP in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 December 2004, 13:04 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksha and leaders of the Sinhala nationalist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna visited Jaffna Thursday amidst strong protests by refugees from the Tsunami destroyed coastal villages of the peninsula. Jeering refugees, demanding relief from Colombo, got into a tussle with the PM’s delegation at the Puloly American Mission School near Pt. Pedro. Earlier, the PM and his entourage were turned back by refugees in Valvettithurai protesting against Colombo for not sending relief or medicine to them since the Tsunami devastated their villages four days ago.
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South gambles with Sri Lanka's destiny- NLF

[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 December 2004, 11:40 GMT]
"The most urgent need today is not to cave in to the antics of the [Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna] JVP," said Mr. Thirunavukarasu, polit bureau member of the New Left Front (NLF) Saturday, political sources in Colombo said. He noted that the deadlock reached in the peace process is not of recent origin, but represents the "cumulative effect of the manner in which the ruling classes have handled the Tamil National issue since the 1950s" and said that the time has come for the two main parties to "shed their predilection just for power and one-upmanship."
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LTTE calls for clear, well defined agenda for talks

[TamilNet, Friday, 24 December 2004, 12:34 GMT]
The LTTE leadership, in an official response to the fresh agenda proposed by the Sri Lanka government, has called for a clear, coherent, well defined agenda for peace talks. The Tamil Tiger leaders have also expressed their disapproval to the structure and content of the government’s agenda because of its vagueness and ambiguity.
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New GoSL 'agenda' for talks with LTTE called smokescreen

[TamilNet, Friday, 24 December 2004, 02:18 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s President Ms. Chandrika Kumaratunga’s claims of a ‘new agenda’ for the resumption of peace talks with the Liberation Tigers through the Norwegian facilitators must be viewed in the context of the hurdle she faces in winning a two-thirds majority in parliament for the constitutional changes to abolish the executive presidency that she plans to table in January 2005, said the Jaffna-based Tamil language daily, Uthayan, in its editorial Wednesday.
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PNM wants CFA annulled

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 December 2004, 16:54 GMT]
The Patriotic National Movement (PNM), a sinhala nationalist organization, decided at its 19th annual convention of its branches, to annul the ceasefire agreement (CFA) and to remove Norway from its facilitation role in the peace talks, political sources in Colombo said. PNM further decided that peace talks should not resume on the basis of the Interim Self-Governing Authority (ISGA) proposals of the LTTE. The convention was held Tuesday evening at the Colombo Town hall.
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Falk Rovik didn't represent Amnesty - Amnesty Norway

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 December 2004, 11:51 GMT]
Head of Information at Amnesty International Norway, Mr. John P. Egenæs , earlier on Tuesday, denied that a controversial Norwegian called Falk Rovik had represented his organisation at a conference held at the Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall (BMICH) in Colombo on Saturday, 18 November 2004. The conference was organised by hard-line forces in southern Sri Lanka opposed to the Norwegian facilitation of the peace process. Mr. Egenæs told TamilNet that the controversial Norwegian neither is, nor has ever been a spokesperson of Amnesty International Norway.
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