'Will come to power soon' proclaims JVP

[TamilNet, Saturday, 13 November 2004, 17:57 GMT]
Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) Sri Lanka's powerful Marxist Sinhala nationalist party and President Chandrika Kumaratunga main coalition partner, Saturday marked the 15th death anniversary of its founder Rohana Wijeweera with a massive public meeting at the Sugathadasa Indoor Stadium in Colombo.Addressing the meeting, Mr. Tilvin Silva, general secretary of the JVP, lambasted the United National Party, accusing its leader Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe of conspiring with the Liberation Tigers to divide the island nation. JVP is stridently opposed to granting regional autonomy to Tamils.

Mr. Silva said the party is on the path to victory and that the people would eventually support the JVP to form the government on its own. "The party founded by Rohana Wijeweera cannot be destroyed by anyone", declared Mr. Somawansa Amarasingha, the reclusive leader of the JVP, in his address. He too said JVP is on an inexorable path to taking the reins of government.

Mr. Silva said that there is no going back for the party now as it had risen from annihilation twice in1971 and 1989. He said JVP rise from 1994 when it had only one MP in Parliament to 2004 when it got thirty nine MPs has been remarkable. Mr. Silva called on party workers and supporters to make sacrifices and even lay down their lives to protect and build up the party.





JVP founder leader Mr. Wijeweera was captured, shot dead and buried at an unmarked grave by the Sri Lankan armed forces in November 1989. The bloody insurrection he led from hiding was crushed fast after he was killed.

JVP was decimated in 1971 too after a botched insurrection to capture state power with armed force.