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JVP protest suspends Parliament sittings
LAcNet Special Correspondent in Colombo,
19:45 SLT, Friday February 21, 2003.
Parliamentary sittings were temporally suspended today
when the JVP members launched a continuous protest
against the chair for not allowing their spokesman to
make a special statement.
JVP spokesman Wimal Weerawansa told the chair that he
wanted to make a statement on yesterday’s police
attack on their protest march, injuring over 20 people
including journalists.
When the request was disallowed the JVP
parliamentarians launched a protest carrying placards
disturbing the proceedings. The sittings were
suspended for nearly 15 minutes.
Police yesterday used water cannons coupled with some
chemicals to disperse a mega protest march towards
Temple Trees-official residence of the prime minister-
by the socialist JVP today against the year-old truce
between the government and the LTTE.
Nearly 50,000 people marched the streets in Colombo
joining the JVP protest opposing the ceasefire
agreement, which they claim would lead to
establishment of a separate state of Tamil Eelam.
The JVP earlier said they intend to hold a joint
opposition protest in Colombo shortly where nearly a
million people were expected to take part.
They claim that the agreement had not given a single
benefit to Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim communities, but
had strengthened the LTTE.
Published: Fri Feb 21 08:45:38 EST 2003
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