WikiLeaks: SLFP-JVP MoU; Maithripala Wants Peace With The LTTE, But Not In The UNP Way
December 8, 2014
“Amid fanfare, President Kumaratunga’s SLFP party and the radical JVP formally entered into a political alliance on January 20. The alliance is basically an electoral pact, but an MOU attacking the GSL’s handling of the peace track was also agreed to. In a related development, Somawansa Amarasinghe, a key JVP leader and noted hard-liner based in the UK (see bio-data in Para 10), is making a rare visit to Sri Lanka. While some observers believe the pact is inherently shaky, there is renewed speculation that parliamentary elections may be in the offing.” the US Embassy Colombo informed Washington.
The Colombo Telegraph found the related leaked cable from the WikiLeaks database. The classified diplomatic cable details the “Memorandum of Understanding” between the President Chandrika Kumaratunga-led SLFP and the Somawansa Amarasinghe-led JVP. The “Confidential” is cable signed by the US Ambassador to Colombo Jeffrey J. Lunstead on January 21, 2004.
The ambassador wrote; “As flagged in Ref B, President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga’s Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and the radical Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) party formally entered into a political alliance called the “United People’s Freedom Alliance” on January 20. (The SLFP is the core constituent element in the President’s People’s Alliance, ‘PA’, grouping.) The pact was signed amid considerable fanfare and at ‘an auspicious hour’ at a ceremony in a conference hall in Colombo. The ceremony was televised live on state-owned television and was broadcast on radio. The high point of the ceremony was the signing of the SLFP/JVP ‘Memorandum of Understanding’ (MOU) which is reviewed below. Maithripala Sirisena, chief of the SLFP, and Tilvin Silva, General Secretary of the JVP, signed the document on behalf of their respective parties. (For reasons that are unclear, President Kumaratunga did not attend the ceremony.) In his speech, Sirisena said the SLFP supported peace with the Tamil Tigers, but opposed how the GSL was handling the peace process. Silva, meanwhile, condemned the GSL on various fronts in much harsher terms and also paid homage to Rohana Wijeweera, the JVP founder who was killed during the JVP’s 1987-89 insurrection.”
“None of the speeches at the ceremony mentioned the Norwegian government’s peace facilitation role, which has been on hold pending resolution of the cohabitation impasse between the President and the Prime Minister. The MOU also did not mention Norway. At a January 21 joint SLFP/JVP news conference, however, Mangala Samaraweera, a senior PA MP, stated that “Norway’s role has been questioned by many. We will reconsider the role of Norway.” Tilvin Silva of the JVP also piped in to say that he did not think Norway had any role in the peace process.” the ambassador Lunstead further wrote.
Placing a comment the ambassador wrote; “The pact signed on January 20 took almost a year to conclude, with the President mulling over the matter for months before giving it her blessing. This is in fact the second time that the two parties have signed a pact: in September 2001, the JVP agreed to support the then-PA government in Parliament. That pact collapsed about a month later when the PA government fell and elections were called. The September 2001 deal was shaky and this latest pact may be shaky, too. Minister Milinda Moragoda told the Ambassador today that he thought the two parties would get into serious arguments about seat allotments in Parliament down the line. He added that he did not see how a party “run by a family” (the SLFP) could realistically align for long with an ideologically driven party like the Marxist JVP. That said, the signing of the pact has led to renewed speculation that parliamentary elections may be in the offing. Moragoda did not appear too concerned about that possibility. Other observers, however, believe the President may think that the pact provides her party its best chance to defeat the UNP in elections, while also giving her leverage over the PM during the ongoing cohabitation dispute.”
