COI Report March 2012 - UK Border Agency - Home Office
COI Report March 2012 - UK Border Agency - Home Office
COI Report March 2012 - UK Border Agency - Home Office
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7 MARCH <strong>2012</strong> SRI LANKA<br />
united party line.‖ (Jane‘s Sentinel, Country Risk Assessments, Country <strong>Report</strong>, Sri Lanka,<br />
accessed on 3 February <strong>2012</strong>, Internal Affairs, 17 January <strong>2012</strong>) 571<br />
Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) http://www.jvpsrilanka.com/en/<br />
(People‘s Liberation Front)<br />
―The JVP was the second largest party within the UPFA, and follows a hybrid Marxist-Sinhalese<br />
nationalist platform.‖ The party secured 16 seats in the 2001 parliamentary elections. ―This<br />
political revival was emphatically demonstrated by the success of 36 (of 39) candidates whom<br />
the JVP fielded through the UPFA at the elections of April 2004. In all but one district won by the<br />
UPFA, a JVP contestant outranked all others in the number of individual 'preference votes'<br />
polled. As such, the JVP held a powerful position in the ruling coalition… Agreement with<br />
Rajapakse over the future course of the peace process during his campaign prior to the<br />
November 2005 presidential election ensured that the JVP remained in opposition following<br />
Rajapakse's victory, but with conditional support for the government.<br />
―Since his election in November 2005, Rajapakse has had an uneasy relationship with the JVP,<br />
and has worked steadily to reduce his political dependence on them in parliament. By early<br />
2007, he had largely succeeded in this project by splitting the opposition UNP and winning over<br />
a sizeable UNP contingent to defect to the government benches. The JVP has since broken<br />
ranks with Rajapakse, but is strongly in support of his military policy towards the ethnic conflict<br />
with the LTTE. In 2008, 10 parliamentarians from the JVP, accused of conspiring with the UNP<br />
against the party leadership, broke off to found the Jathika Nidahas Peramuna, a progovernment<br />
party. During the 2010 presidential election, the JVP endorsed the former army<br />
chief Sarath Fonseka when he ran under the UNF banner. The JVP also forms part of the<br />
Democratic National Alliance, a Fonseka-led electoral alliance, formed after his arrest. However<br />
in the <strong>March</strong> 2011 local elections, the JVP contested 233 local authorities alone and won 74<br />
seats. It also contested the July and October [2011] phases of the elections without its ally,<br />
calling the long-term future of its relationship with the Democratic National Alliance into<br />
question.‖ (Jane‘s Sentinel, Country Risk Assessments, Country <strong>Report</strong>, Sri Lanka, accessed<br />
on 3 February <strong>2012</strong>, Internal Affairs, 17 January <strong>2012</strong>) 572<br />
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE/Tamil Tigers)<br />
The LTTE is an illegal organisation after a ban was re-enforced in January 2009. 573 It ceased to<br />
be an effective military force in May 2009, see The internal conflict (1984 to May 2009)<br />
Additional information on the LTTE can be found from the Sri Lanka <strong>COI</strong> report of November<br />
2010<br />
See also Government treatment of (suspected) members of the LTTE and Situation of<br />
(suspected) members of the LTTE<br />
People’s Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE)<br />
571 Jane’s Sentinel Country Risk Assessments, Country <strong>Report</strong>, Sri Lanka,<br />
http://sentinel.janes.com/docs/sentinel/SASS_country.jsp?Prod_Name=SASS&Sent_Country=Sri%20La<br />
nka& [subscription only] accessed on 3 February <strong>2012</strong>, Internal Affairs, 17 January <strong>2012</strong><br />
572 Jane’s Sentinel Country Risk Assessments, Country <strong>Report</strong>, Sri Lanka,<br />
http://sentinel.janes.com/docs/sentinel/SASS_country.jsp?Prod_Name=SASS&Sent_Country=Sri%20La<br />
nka& [subscription only] accessed on 3 February <strong>2012</strong>, Internal Affairs, 17 January <strong>2012</strong><br />
573 Official website of the Government of Sri Lanka, Govt bans LTTE, 8 January 2009<br />
http://www.priu.gov.lk/news_update/Current_Affairs/ca200901/20090108govt_bans_ltte.htm, date<br />
accessed 17 January <strong>2012</strong><br />
The main text of this <strong>COI</strong> <strong>Report</strong> contains the most up to date publicly available information as at 3 February <strong>2012</strong>.<br />
Further brief information on recent events and reports has been provided in the Latest News section<br />
to 2 <strong>March</strong> <strong>2012</strong>.<br />
227