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CBK snubs top JVP delegation
By Harinda Vidanage
President Chandrika Kumaratunga this week refused to meet a JVP delegation saying it had no appointment with her to discuss any proposed coalition between the two parties driving another nail into the partnership.

The JVP delegation led by its top rankers Tilvin Silva, Wimal Weerawansa and Anura Dissanayake who actually turned up at the President's House last Wednesday for discussions was told by a presidential aide that no such meeting had been fixed to have a round of talks on the proposed coalition.

The JVP, which met the President last Sunday, said it had fixed the next meeting with the President for Wednesday, but when the JVP leaders turned up for the meeting they had been informed by additional secretary W.B. Ganegala that there was no such meeting fixed.

The JVP leaders had requested him to consult the President and get back to them. The secretary is reported to have contacted President Kumaratunga and responded saying that she did not have any diary entry for the meeting but that she had a cabinet meeting fixed for the same time.

The JVP leadership, which had been very busy throughout last week organizing the all island ten-day political programme launched from yesterday, had cancelled some of its scheduled work to meet the President.

The JVP delegation was reported to have expressed disappointment about the lack of communication between the two sides after a series of talks over the past three months.

Meanwhile, members of the SLFP delegation involved in the discussions with the JVP are maintaining silence over the matter.

Dr. Sarath Amunugama who was initially entrusted with preparing policy matters of the proposed memorandum of understanding was absent for the last round of talks on Sunday.

He told The Sunday Times he was not aware of what happened on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, The Sunday Times learns that President Kumaratunga has had several rounds of talks with members of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and some have pledged their support to a new PA-led government under her leadership provided the PA has no alliance with the JVP.

President Kumaratunga earlier rejected a JVP demand to tell the Norwegians to withdraw from the peace process.

The SLFP-JVP talks were also affected due to serious differences over sharing of positions in the proposed coalition. The SLFP earlier offered the presidency of the alliance to the JVP but later withdrew the offer replacing it with an alternate position, which the JVP rejected outright.

Despite these developments, Anura Bandaranaike, who, many speculated, would be the general secretary of the new alliance, addressing a public gathering in Matale last Tuesday vowed that the SLFP would definitely form an alliance soon with the aim of toppling the UNF government.

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