UNP SPOKESMAN JAYALATH JAYAWARDENA SAYS RANIL WICKREMESINGHE WILL PROTECT CFA WITH PRABHAKARAN

By Walter Jayawardhana

Confidante of UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe and a man who is considered to be the go between for all written and unwritten agreements between his leader and LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran, Dr. Jayalath Jayawardena said his party and leader take the full responsibility of the controversial Ceasefire Agreement (CFA) and vowed to further protect it.

Dr. Jayalath Jayawardena said in Colombo that the UNP never expected all bombings, killings and other crimes like child conscription would immediately come to end by the CFA and accused the present government of President Rajapaksa of not conducting proper management of the agreement expected from them.

The UNP leader’s spokesman made these statement while hundreds of bhikkus are performing a sthyagraha in the Viharamahadevi Park in Central Colombo demanding the abrogation of the agreement pointing it is only leading to the bifurcation of the country.

When a pressman asked the UNP strongman that the violations of the LTTE never came to an end with the agreement Jayawardena said the UNP never expected the violations to come to an end immediately and it was only a stepping stone to peace. In all agreements of law the agreement breaks down if any party does not fulfill the conditions. But Dr. Jayawardena is a medical doctor and not a lawyer or a jurist. But his leader Ranil Wickremesinghe is a lawyer.

If the LTTE was not expected to fulfill the conditions of the agreement while the then UNP government was following it to the letter, the UNP strongman did not even speak about a timeframe they would have expected to implement it. Still the LTTE is conscripting child soldiers apart from other violations according to international observers including the Nordic managed Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission.

Recently, the governing Sri Lanka Freedom Party spokesman said that at that time there were 6000 violations on the part of the LTTE but still UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe wanted to protect the controversial CFA while they would not hesitate to abrogate other agreements quickly, he pointed out.

The UNP has also announced that they would withdraw from the All Party Conference which is expected to draw proposals to provide a consensus constitution while expressing their fullest confidence in an agreement that has been violated and in shatters for the future of peace in Sri Lanka.

Dr. Jayalth Jayawardena also accused other past leaders of his party like J.R.Jayawardena, Ranasinghe Premadasa, D. B. Wijetunga and President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga of PA for failing to provide a plan for peace and praised his leader Ranil Wickremesinghe as the only one who was “able to bring peace”.

He said his leader has been accused of delivering sections of the country to Velupillai Prabhakaran on a platter but reminded the reporters that those Districts of Mulativu and Kilinochchi were run by Government appointed Government Agents.

But his critics have pointed out that those GA’s run their administrative services at the behest of Velupillai Prabhakaran and implement LTTE plans while the Sri Lanka government pays their salaries.

When the government’s Air Force bombed a LTTE military camp run in a former orphanage it was found the teenaged military recruits who died and injured were conscripted with the help of the government paid Education officers working in those areas.

Dr. Jayalth Jayawardena said under the CFA there is a clause that says the protection of the integrity and territorial integrity was the responsibility of the Sri Lanka security forces. But under the CFA the armed forces of Sri Lanka and the Police cannot enter the areas demarcated as LTTE controlled areas.

When President Rajapaksa came to power he publicly stated that there are no such areas as LTTE controlled areas in Sri Lanka. When the LTTE used military force and stopped water blocking a canal called Mavil Aru depriving water for 20,000 families obviously violating the CFA he in return used military force to provide water for the water deprived families.

When they extended their attacks in the Eastern province he in turn chased them out of Eastern Province from all areas except few jungle pockets in Ampara jungles and has vowed to chase them out from those areas too.

The LTTE wants anybody who respects the CFA to withdraw the Sri Lankan security forces to pre-Mavil Aru boundaries. The UNP has explicitly not stated anything on the demand