Sri Lanka's President betrayed renegade commander - JHU

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 April 2004, 10:31 GMT]
The Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) blasted the Sri Lanka Government for the pandemonium caused in Parliament on Friday, and asked Ms.Kumaratunge's government to take responsibility for its defeat. Although the JHU assured Ms.Kumaratunge of their votes, her betrayal of renegade Eastern Commander forced them to decide against supporting her, JHU said in a press conference held in Colombo today. JHU further said that its members would willingly sacrifice their lives to prevent the creation of Tamil Eelam.

Ven. Ellawala Medhananda Thero, Leader of the JHU, said that they assured President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga several times that they would support the United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA). The Thero said that even with such assurances she had wanted the votes of the Illankai Thamil Arasu Katchchi (ITAK), and had betrayed Eastern renegade rebel leader 'Col. Karuna Amman' (Vinyagamoorthy Muralitharan), thereby strengthening the hands of the LTTE’s Wanni leader Vellupillai Prabhakaran.

The Thero told the press that UPFA is now on par with the United National Front in betraying Sri Lanka. The UNF, the Thero said, had previously helped to identify the members of the military intelligence after the Athurugirya Millennium City incident.

The Thero said that JHU voted simply to nullify votes of the two dissident monks, Ven. Apparekke Punnananda and Ven. Kathaluwe Rathanasiha Thero.

Ven. Athuraliye Rathana Thero, the spokesperson for the JHU, said that even now they were willing top support the UPFA Government, if they corrected their wrongs and came up with an agenda for the betterment of Sri Lanka.