JVP leader expected on pact signing day

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 January 2004, 18:57 GMT]
Mr. Somawansa Amarasinghe, the secretive leader of the Sinhala nationalist Janata Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) who lives in London, will return to Sri Lanka on 20 January, the Political Bureau of the party said Friday. The JVP and President Chandrika Kumaratunga’s Sri Lanka Freedom Party are scheduled to sign an agreement cementing a political alliance on 20 January.

“The experience and maturity of Mr. Amarasinghe would be a great boon for the “Programme of National Salvation proposed to be implemented by the Broad National Alliance in the future” the JVP Political Bureau said.


Mr. Somawansha Amarasinghe, leader of the Sinhala nationalist JVP, with his propaganda secretary Mr. Wimal Weerawanse

The JVP’s Program of National Salvation aims at mobilizing the Sinhala people against the ceasefire agreement between Colombo and the Liberation Tigers and against any form of devolution to Tamils in the northeast of the island to resolve the ethnic conflict.

The Program of National Salvation describes the peace process as an American imperialist plot to undermine the sovereignty of the Sinhala nation. Mr. Somawansa Amarasinghe last came to Sri Lanka during Parliamentary elections in December 2001.

JVP sources in Colombo declined to confirm that Mr. Amerasinghe would sign the pact with the SLFP on behalf of his party.