SL parliament meets, JM not tabled

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 June 2005, 06:13 GMT]
Sri Lanka's parliament reconvened Wednesday for the first time after Sinhala Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), withdrew its support to the United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government last week over the Joint Mechanism structure to be signed with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) which is to facilitate the reconstruction and rehabilitation of the tsunami destroyed coastal areas in the northeast province. The government did not table any document or statement in the parliament on the joint mechanism proposal as widely speculated in the political circles.

JVP parliamentarians who entered the well of the house occupied their seats in the government benches earlier allocated to them when they were with the UPFA government. The question of allocating seats to the JVP members is to be decided later Wednesday at the leaders of political parties represented in the parliament, party sources said.

Mr.Wimal Weerawanse, parliamentary group leader of the JVP and the Venerable Athuraliya Ratana Thera, parliamentary group leader of the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) made special statements defining their stand on the joint mechanism proposal, sources said.