SL President to meet JVP, JHU separately before APC

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 March 2006, 00:31 GMT]
Sri Lanka's President Mr.Mahinda Rajapakse is planning to meet the leaders of the Sinhala nationalist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) and all monks' party Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) separately before holding the All Party Conference (APC) to brief the outcome of the Geneva peace talks between the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), political sources in Colombo said.

President's latest move is to pacify the leaders of JVP and JHU who have expressed their opposition to the way the GOSL delegation had conducted talks with the LTTE at Geneva last week and its outcome, sources said.

Mr.Vijitha Heart, JVP parliamentarian told Colombo media that his party would exert pressure on the President to take steps to disarm the LTTE if he is committed to disarm the other groups. JVP leadership has already condemned the government for coming to an agreement with the LTTE regarding disarming Karuna and other armed groups, sources said.

Mr.Vijitha Heart further said that his party leaders would shortly meet the President to discuss this matter.

The JHU leadership also criticized the outcome of the Geneva peace talks stating that it was not conducted on the basis of "Mahinda Chintanaya."