JVP flips on 13th Amendment in meeting with ITAK

by Thusiyan
Jun 12, 2024

Anura Kumara Dissanayake, leader of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), met with members of the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchi (ITAK) in Jaffna yesterday where he affirmed his party would support the implementation of the 13th Amendment to the Sri Lankan constitution.

The pledge revelation starkly contrasts Dissanayake's previous meeting in Jaffna recently where he specifically said that he was not there to barter the 13th Amendment in exchange for Tamil votes.

The 13th Amendment was brought in after the Indo-Sri Lankan agreement of 1987, which calls for a merged North-East and the devolution of police and land powers to the province. However it has been consistently rejected by the Tamil people as not being an adequate solution, whilst the Sri Lankan state for decades has obfuscated its implementation.

Dissanayake met with Tamil lawmakers M A Sumanthiran, Mavai Senathirajah, and Dharmalingam Siddarthan during his visit to Jaffna.

According to Dissanayake, they had discussed at length the current political situation in the country, “the issues faced by the people and the need to create national harmony.” JVP's coalition party National Peoples Power (NPP) National Executive Committee members Bimal Rathnayake and Ramalingam Chandrasekar were also pictured in the meeting

The JVP has staunchly opposed any devolution of power, which was reaffirmed by senior JVP member Herath who told reporters in Colombo this year, that the party would never take any measures that would endanger the country's territorial integrity.

Just last month, senior Janatha Vimukthi Party (JVP) member K D Lalkantha said only his party and one other led by extremist Sinhala monks are responsible for defeating “separatist terrorism” as he boasted of “ending” the island’s conflict “through war,” a day after Tamil Genocide Remembrance Day.

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