JVP does not support LTTE

The JVP does not even indirectly support LTTE terrorism, General Secretary of the party, Tilvyn Silva said in Kandy Tuesday (01).

He was addressing a meeting at the Kandy Postal Complex Auditorium on the current challenges of the country. Tilvyn Silva said that the JVP had been against the separatist LTTE terrorist movement throughout. The party had protested when UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe signed the MoU with the LTTE on 23.02.2002 and again against the Tsunami Relief Council proposed by Chandrika Kumaratunge, Tilvyn Silva said.

The party had extended positive support to all attempts to resolve national issues. It has aways held that the country must have a leader who says he can resolve the problems and not a leader who says he cannot, Silva said.

Speaking about the crisis the country is facing, Silva said that Sri Lanka was currently sunk in a multitude of problems ranging from political, economic, social and cultural, to the increase in fuel prices.

Even media and media personnel were facing challenges, he said.

He stressed that efforts were necessary to identify the root causes of the challenges. They could be traced from the time Sri Lanka obtained the so called independence in the year 1948. The freedom the country received from the imperialist rulers was not full freedom.

Imperialism in the present era is raising its head in a different manner. Instead of ruling the country directly, the capitalist powers such as America are controlling free movements and self management by interfering in administration, dividing nations, and enforcing embargoes, he said.

He said, an attempt was made after 1970 to implement a national economic system. Some industries such as production of tyres and steel were begun with the assistance of Soviet Russia and other socialist countries. But that programme was limited to three or four years.

And later, local production was discouraged. Some even said that rice should not be grown in Sri Lanka. They said that the country should be industrialised.