Tsunami: One Year Later

Photo Essay: Sri Lankans protest the government's tsunami initiative

Photo Essay: Sri Lankans protest the government's tsunami initiative

Shaun Kadlec's June 14 photo essay of a JVP protest in Colombo

By Shaun Kadlec
AsiaMedia Contributor

Colombo --- Despite the afternoon heat, on Tuesday, June 14, vigilant Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) supporters gathered to protest the Post-Tsunami Operational Management Structure (P-TOMS), a joint mechanism that would give the LTTE power to reconstruct the hard hit, Tamil-populated areas of the north and east coasts devastated by the Dec. 2004 tsunami disaster.

View Shaun Kadlec's photo essay

Headed by JVP parliamentary group leader and party propaganda Secretary, Comrade Wimal Weerawansa, over 10,000 protestors marched from the Campbell Park in Borella to the Colombo Municipal Council offices. The procession shut down the city's main roads for nearly four hours. More than one thousand police and army officers were called in for security and the Sri Lanka telecom junction was shut down to protect the President's House.

The JVP were joined in their protest  by Buddhist and Muslim parties; the National Bikku Front (NBF) and Jathikia Hela Urumaya (JHU), two Buddhist parties, organized marches and fasts to protest the implementation of the PTOMS since discussions began in early January. JHU Buddhist monks were among the crowd of protesters marching in Colombo on June 14.

On June 22, two days before the P-TOMS was signed, the JVP left the United People's Freedom Alliance, making President Chandrika Kumaratunga's administration a minority governement. Since the document's approval, the JVP has filed suit against the government to challenge the treaty's legality. The NBF and JHU have launched similar suits.

Date Posted: 6/14/2005