JVP accuses India of international intrusion in Lanka

Colombo, Feb 28 (UNI) Sri Lanka's hardline JVP Marxist party has alleged that India was leading an international campaign for outside intervention in the island nation's internal affairs.

It also accused India of having promoted cross-border terrorism by supporting the Tamil separatist groups in the 80s.

''India is leading the R2P (Responsibility to Protect) evil axis in Sri Lanka. Delhi, Brussels, Oslo, Washington and Tokyo are the key partners in this campaign. We are very concerned about the evil design,'' leader of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), Somawansa Amarasinghe told reporters at an interaction with Sri Lanka's Foreign Correspondents' Association last night.

Mr Amarasinghe said the R2P was nothing new to Sri Lanka as it has faced several interventions in the past, with India's direct involvement in the local civil war in the late 80s being the last one.

''The members of the R2P campaign are after the natural resources in other countries. This is not the Responsibility to Protect, but to Right to Plunder,'' Mr Amarasinghe said.

Coming hard on India the JVP leader said, ''India is once again trying to force a solution on Lanka by reactivating the 13th Amendment to the constitution that devolved powers to the provinces.'' He said that the Provincial Council system was imposed at gun point by India on Lanka as a solution to the ethnic conflict, but ironically the system was in operation other than the Northern and Eastern provinces, which were merged illegally by India by force without the consent of majority of the people in the country.

''We will reject any solution based on the 13th Amendment, because it is illegal as it stemmed out from the Indo-Lanka Accord.

We totally reject the proposals of the All Party Representatives Committee (APRC) or the 13th Amendment as much as we oppose the Indo-Lanka Accord,'' Mr Amarasinghe said, adding that India was violating the Pancha sheela policies unlike China.

Pointing out that the JVP with 39 members in Parliament holds the balance of power in the current political scenario, the JVP leader said the party would vehemently oppose the implementation of the APRC proposals.

He, however, said the party was fully supportive to the current military campaign against the Tamil Tiger rebels and wanted the rebels to be completely wiped out.

''We are supporting the war and believe that the national security should be ensured and separatism should be defeated at any cost,'' Mr Amarasinghe said, expressing hope that the troops would capture the Wanni from the rebels very soon.

''The LTTE is like a fully blown pappadam and losing its strength daily due the ongoing military campaign. Our troops will defeat them in the North like they did in the East,'' Mr Amarasinghe said.

UNI XC PD PM1323