Rajapakse to meet JVP leaders this week

[TamilNet, Sunday, 01 October 2006, 11:46 GMT]
Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse is scheduled to meet a delegation of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) members Monday at Temple Trees on the latter's twenty-point demands to join the United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government in power. With international pressure mounting on the two warring parties, the Government of Sri Lanka and Liberation Tigers, to enter unconditional talks, the JVP demands which include immediate cancellation of the Ceasefire Agreement (CFA), and withdrawal of Norwegian facilitation, are unlikely to receive serious hearing, sources speculated.

The JVP leaders are to meet President Mahinda Rajapakse for the first time after the furore over the remark made by JVP leader Mr.Somawanse Amarasinghe in a public meeting that the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), main constituent of the UPFA government was a party of prostitutes.

Mr Rajapakse is currently holding the post of the President of the SLFP, sources said

Mr Rajapakse met JVP leaders in Temple Trees last month a day before he left for Non-Alignment Movement (NAM) conference held in Havana in Cuba and later UN annual general meeting held in New York. The President had assured the JVP that he would continue discussions once he returned from abroad, sources said.

However, political sources speculate that Monday talks would be more an exercise in public relations than on the JVP's 20-point demand due to the strained relationship between the leaderships of the SLFP and JVP over the degrading remarks by the latter on the SLFP policies, sources said.