COI Report March 2012 - UK Border Agency - Home Office

7 MARCH 2012 SRI LANKA
united party line.‖ (Jane‘s Sentinel, Country Risk Assessments, Country Report, Sri Lanka,
accessed on 3 February 2012, Internal Affairs, 17 January 2012) 571
Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) http://www.jvpsrilanka.com/en/
(People‘s Liberation Front)
―The JVP was the second largest party within the UPFA, and follows a hybrid Marxist-Sinhalese
nationalist platform.‖ The party secured 16 seats in the 2001 parliamentary elections. ―This
political revival was emphatically demonstrated by the success of 36 (of 39) candidates whom
the JVP fielded through the UPFA at the elections of April 2004. In all but one district won by the
UPFA, a JVP contestant outranked all others in the number of individual 'preference votes'
polled. As such, the JVP held a powerful position in the ruling coalition… Agreement with
Rajapakse over the future course of the peace process during his campaign prior to the
November 2005 presidential election ensured that the JVP remained in opposition following
Rajapakse's victory, but with conditional support for the government.
―Since his election in November 2005, Rajapakse has had an uneasy relationship with the JVP,
and has worked steadily to reduce his political dependence on them in parliament. By early
2007, he had largely succeeded in this project by splitting the opposition UNP and winning over
a sizeable UNP contingent to defect to the government benches. The JVP has since broken
ranks with Rajapakse, but is strongly in support of his military policy towards the ethnic conflict
with the LTTE. In 2008, 10 parliamentarians from the JVP, accused of conspiring with the UNP
against the party leadership, broke off to found the Jathika Nidahas Peramuna, a progovernment
party. During the 2010 presidential election, the JVP endorsed the former army
chief Sarath Fonseka when he ran under the UNF banner. The JVP also forms part of the
Democratic National Alliance, a Fonseka-led electoral alliance, formed after his arrest. However
in the March 2011 local elections, the JVP contested 233 local authorities alone and won 74
seats. It also contested the July and October [2011] phases of the elections without its ally,
calling the long-term future of its relationship with the Democratic National Alliance into
question.‖ (Jane‘s Sentinel, Country Risk Assessments, Country Report, Sri Lanka, accessed
on 3 February 2012, Internal Affairs, 17 January 2012) 572
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE/Tamil Tigers)
The LTTE is an illegal organisation after a ban was re-enforced in January 2009. 573 It ceased to
be an effective military force in May 2009, see The internal conflict (1984 to May 2009)
Additional information on the LTTE can be found from the Sri Lanka COI report of November
2010
See also Government treatment of (suspected) members of the LTTE and Situation of
(suspected) members of the LTTE
People’s Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE)
571 Jane’s Sentinel Country Risk Assessments, Country Report, Sri Lanka,
http://sentinel.janes.com/docs/sentinel/SASS_country.jsp?Prod_Name=SASS&Sent_Country=Sri%20La
nka& [subscription only] accessed on 3 February 2012, Internal Affairs, 17 January 2012
572 Jane’s Sentinel Country Risk Assessments, Country Report, Sri Lanka,
http://sentinel.janes.com/docs/sentinel/SASS_country.jsp?Prod_Name=SASS&Sent_Country=Sri%20La
nka& [subscription only] accessed on 3 February 2012, Internal Affairs, 17 January 2012
573 Official website of the Government of Sri Lanka, Govt bans LTTE, 8 January 2009
http://www.priu.gov.lk/news_update/Current_Affairs/ca200901/20090108govt_bans_ltte.htm, date
accessed 17 January 2012
The main text of this COI Report contains the most up to date publicly available information as at 3 February 2012.
Further brief information on recent events and reports has been provided in the Latest News section
to 2 March 2012.
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