JVP's two conditions to Chandrika on deal

By Nirupama Subramanian

COLOMBO, SEPT. 1. The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna has said that the `deal' it has struck with the Sri Lankan Government would be off if the Government did not meet two of its conditions by Sunday midnight.

The JVP wants the President, Ms. Chandrika Kumaratunga, to announce by the deadline that the prorogued Parliament would be reconvened before the due date of September 7, and cancel a controversial referendum for a new Constitution, originally scheduled for August 21, but later put off for October 18.

The State-radio, Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation, quoted the Prime Minister, Mr. Ratnasiri Wickramanayake, saying that the Government, by Sunday, would put an end to efforts to topple it.

He said an agreement had been reached between the PA and ``a group in Parliament'' and that the two would put out a joint statement on Monday. He said Parliament would most likely be resummoned before September 7.

A memorandum of understanding between the Government and the JVP would be signed in the presence of a supervisory committee of ``religious leaders and intellectuals'' after the Cabinet and the PA parliamentary group approved it, the SLBC said.

Details of the MoU were not available, but indications are that the Government has agreed to implement reforms in governance demanded by the JVP, including independent commissions to insulate elections, the police, the judiciary and the bureaucracy, from political interference.

Included in the JVP's original list of conditions was also a moratorium on peace talks with the LTTE for the one-year period during which it would lend its support to the PA.

It is not clear if the Government, which last week said it was considering inviting the LTTE for peace talks and was prepared to meet its pre-conditions for such talks, has agreed to this demand as well. If the PA-JVP deal is sealed, the Government, which has only 109 MPs in the 225-member House, will benefit by its newfound ally's 10 MPs to fight an Opposition no-confidence motion, spearheaded by the United National Party (UNP), that is expected to come up in Parliament when it reconvenes.

The UNP has said several times it does not need the JVP's assistance to vote out the Government as it expects several PA members to cross over to the Opposition, but the veracity of that remains unconfirmed. The agreement between the Government and the JVP was apparently reached at a meeting at the President's House on Friday that began in the afternoon and continued till midnight.

The Government's deal with the JVP - a party with an ideology that is a curious mixture of right and left - follows its failure to strike a power-sharing deal with the UNP earlier this week.

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