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Weerawansa refutes charge of indiscipline

JVP’s propaganda secretary Wimal Weerawansa (right) in this file photo.

COLOMBO: The ultra-nationalist Janatha Vimukthi Perumana (JVP) split on Tuesday with party’s vocal propaganda secretary and MP Wimal Weerawansa along with 10 parliamentarians raising a banner of revolt against the leadership and announcing their decision to function as a separate block in Parliament.

The development, though not unexpected since Mr. Weerawansa was suspended on March 21 from party membership on charges of indiscipline, took political observers by surprise as he managed to walk away with nearly one-third of the party MPs. One of them later walked out of the group.

Mr. Weerawansa chose Parliament to announce the decision of his party to place him under suspension and claimed that the central committee has voted in favour of his expulsion immediately after the Eastern elections.

Mr. Weerawansa said such an action would not please the “members of the party but the will and wish of external evil forces aiming at dividing the nation.”

An emotionally charged Mr. Weerawansa said 20 years ago, he scarified opportunities for higher education for the betterment of the party he represented. He refuted the charges of indiscipline and bemoaned that “shooting within was more painful than being shot from outside.”

Besides the Tamil National Party (TNA), the JVP was the only party to have survived so far without a split. The UNP has been affected the most with nearly half of its parliamentarians defecting to take up ministerial assignments.

At a crowded news conference later, Mr. Weerawansa asked the party rank and file to “probe” how such decisions were made by the party leadership. He said a conspiracy would result in only a “collapse and new births.”

Amid claims by the military on Tuesday that at least 25 LTTE cadres were killed in the north along the Forward Defence Lines, the Tigers appealed to Norway to end the “military assault” on the Madu church in Mannar district.

LTTE’s political head B. Nadesan alleged that Sri Lanka had launched a “large scale military onslaught with the view to occupy Vanni” and said the onslaughts were targeting the church.

The Foreign Ministry refuted the allegation and said the government was committed to safeguarding the sanctity of the shrine.

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