Lankan party to suspend leader

COLOMBO — Sri Lanka’s third strongest political party — the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna or the People’s Liberation Front — has decided to suspend its parliamentary group leader and propaganda secretary Wimal Weerawansa, newspaper reports said.
The suspension which will take effect on May 10, the day on which polls for the Eastern Provincial Council are scheduled to be held, has given rise to a major political crisis within the Marxist-turned-nationalist party.
The reports said the party’s central committee had told its members that they should have no official dealings with Weerawansa.
The party’s decision to suspend Weerawansa came after the firebrand politician told a news conference that a paramilitary group working with the government in the Eastern Province should not be disarmed as its members were facing a threat from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
The JVP’s official policy was that free and fair polls in the East were not possible as long as the paramilitary group led by Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pillayan was allowed to carry arms.
JVP leader Somawansa Amerasinghe addressing the public gathering held in Colombo on Saturday to mark the party’s botched revolution in April 1971, said stern action would be taken against those who violated party discipline.