CFA teaches belated political lesson to UPFA, says UNP MP

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 19 April 2006, 21:01 GMT]
United National Party (UNP) parliamentarian Dr. Jayalath Jayawardene, addressing a UNP press conference Wednesday in Colombo said that those in power in Sri Lanka today are facing the political reality and learning a hard lesson that proper implementation of the Cease Fire Agreement is a critical prerequisite if efforts to find solutions to the national problem are to make progress.

Many Sri Lankan armed forces personnel including policemen have been killed during the past 4 months since Mahinda Rajapakse was sworn in as executive President of the country, the UNP MP pointed out.

The UNP MP also said, that the head of the Sri Lankan government (GoSL) delegation at Geneva Talks, Mr. Nimal Sripala de Silva, who opposed the Geneva talks at the beginning accusing that it was against the constitution of the country, later reversed his earlier stand by saying that an agreement has been reached with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) at the Geneva talks to safeguard and strengthen the CFA.

He said that though the Jathika Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) had demanded the immediate ouster of Norway from the peace process, and the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) party had insisted on amending the CFA in the All party conference held on the 10th of April, Sri Lanka's President Mahintha Rajapakse and the Head of the GoSL delegation to Geneva Talks had to remain silent.

Tissa Athanayake, the deputy General secretary of the UNP, pointed in his address that Sri Lanka's security and financial well-being have been compromised by ill-advised policies adopted by the ruling UPFA alliance.