JVP to resign on Thursday unless plans to establish JM called off

JVP leader Somawansa Amerasinghe said the party would leave the coalition in a week’s time (16 June) unless the president called off the plans to establish joint mechanism (JM) for tsunami reconstruction.

Addressing a press briefing in Colombo, Amerasinghe said the proposed mechanism is a violation of Sri Lanka’s sovereignty.

President Kumaratunga had agreed with the Tamil Tigers to jointly organise the distribution of billions of dollars of tsunami aid in Sri Lanka after the rebels complained that aid was not reaching areas under their control fast enough.

The JVP holds 39 seats in Sri Lanka’s 225-member parliament. President Kumaratunga has said she would go ahead with the deal even if that means she lose the parliamentary majority.

Sinhala nationalists fear the deal would help the Tamil Tigers to achieve their goal of creating an independent state.

Sri Lanka’s influential Buddhist Mahanayakes (chief prelates) on Thurday urged the president to call off the plan.

General Secretary of the all-monk parliamentary party, Dr. Omalpe Sobhitha thero, began a fast unto death in protest against the proposed tsunami mechanism.

More than 31,000 were killed and nearly a million made homeless in Sri Lanka in the 26 December tsunami.