Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, April 24, 2002
S. Lankan Leftist Party Protests Truce Pact with Tamil Rebels
Thousands of Sri Lanka's leftist JVP or the People's Liberation Front supporters Tuesday demonstrated here against the truce agreement between the government and separatist Tamil Tiger rebels signed in February.
Thousands of Sri Lanka's leftist JVP or the People's Liberation Front supporters Tuesday demonstrated here against the truce agreement between the government and separatist Tamil Tiger rebels signed in February.
The demonstrators shouted slogans against Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, who signed the indefinite ceasefire agreement with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) on February 22.
They accused the government of giving too many concessions to the LTTE rebels whose leader Velupillai Prabhakaran said that they will not give up armed struggle until a permanent solution satisfactory to the minority Tamils is accepted.
The JVP holds 16 seats in the 225-member Parliament after the December 5 parliamentary elections last year which brought the current government to power.
The government and the LTTE rebels are expected to hold peace talks in Thailand in June, which is hopefully to bring an end to the 19-year ethnic war claiming over 64,000 lives.