JVP denounces US action against Iraq

[TamilNet, Monday, 07 October 2002, 14:25 GMT]
The Janata Vimukthi Peramuna, the main Sinhala nationalist party in Sri Lanka’s Parliament, demonstrated Monday near the American Embassy in Colombo against US plans to attack Iraq. Police prevented the demonstrators from getting too close to the US Embassy premises. Sinhala and Muslim members of the JVP led by its MPs Mr. Bimal Ratnayaka, Ms. Anjaan Umma and Mr. Vijitha Herath carried placards and shouted slogans denouncing US actions against Iraq. The JVP has been closely linked to President Saddam Hussein’s Baath Socialist Party.

The demonstration was held for about an hour near the Embassy. Senior People’s Alliance Politician and the Governor of the Western Province, Mr. Alavi Moulana was also present at the demonstration.

The Police later allowed JVP MPs Ms. Anjaan Umma and Mr. Vijitha Herath to the embassy to deliver a letter of protest against US moves to attack Iraq.

JVP members shouting slogans against US.

The JVP, which subscribes to a Stalinist brand of Marxism melded to Sinhala nationalist ideals, is aligned with President Chandrika Kumaratunga against the peace talks between the Liberation Tigers and the Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s government.

The party has emerged as the powerful third force in the Sinhala majority districts of the island after surviving virtual annihilation twice at the hands of Sri Lankan armed forces. Thousands of Sinhala youth perished when Colombo crushed two insurrections by the JVP to capture state power in 1971 and 1989.

Iraq’s Baath Socialist Party helped the JVP revive its fortunes in the late seventies after its long incarcerated leaders and senior cadres were released from Sri Lankan prisons by a newly elected United National Party government in 1977.