Showing posts with label Frontline Socialist Party. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Frontline Socialist Party. Show all posts

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Abducted activist of Sri Lanka's Frontline Socialist Party speaks to media following release

Abducted activist of the Frontline Socialist Party of Sri Lanka today described her ordeal today at a special press briefing.

She said she was abducted in April 06 evening close to her house in Godagama by a group that came in a white van. She said she was blindfolded and gagged.

"I was questioned and when I remained silent they attacked me. They took me while questioning to a far away place that I suppose a place linked to military. They took me to  an upstairs. Questioned about two hours about the international relations of the Movement for People's Struggles, about the bank accounts of the passbooks that were in my bag, about the activists of the party and later put me into a room both hands and legs handcuffed.

"Later in the early morning, I was taken to a room and questioned. There was Kumar Mahattaya also. They questioned both of us. They wanted to know about armed wing, future plans and party convention scheduled on April 09.

"We were questioned for around two hours and I was put back to the room.

"In the night of April 07th, they took me in a van to another place close to a main road in a residential area, I suppose. They brought Kumar Mahattaya also in the van as I perceived. We were kept their until I was freed.

"Last night, a new official who had not questioned me earlier came and said to me that Kumar Mahattaya would be deported to Australia. He further said to me that I would also be released after that after observing if Kumar Mahattaya would behave as they asked him to do. They asked me to get ready to go last night also but I noticed they would not take me.

"In the morning, they took me in a van and asked me not to try to trace them or the vehicle number. They dropped me on a by-road in Thalapathpitiya. I came to this office in a three wheeler.

"They always highlighted that they had no links with the government or military. They repeatedly questioned about armed activities, links with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam (LTTE), about Lalith and Kugan etc. They also highlighted that they had no links with Gotabhaya Rajapaksa.

"The last official that questioned me said that they had understood that FSP had no link with the LTTE and it is not receiving funds Tamil Diaspora.

"Answering questions of the journalist, she said that she saw two persons with blue uniforms as she was arrested. She also said that She added that two persons got down on the way from the vehicle who spoke pro-JVP. They said that this was the punishment for me for breaking away from JVP."

She said that it was clear for her that this (abduction) was a (part of an) official and non official process to suppress activists who work against the government.

Dimuthu Atigala said she joined the JVP in 1988 as a student of Bandarawela district. Later she worked as an English teacher for sometime and joined the JVP as a full time activist after 1994.

She said that the abductors told her that JVP was providing them information to suppress FSP.

Dimuthu Atigala said she would continue politics.

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Monday, April 9, 2012

The central committee of Sri Lanka's Frontline Socialist Party

Sri Lanka's latest political party, Frontline Socialist Party (FSP), held its inaugural convention today and appointed the central committee.

The central committee comprises Premakumar Gunarathnam and Dimuthu Atigala that were abducted hours ahead of the convention and remain disappeared so far.

Many former internal leaders of the People's Liberation Front (JVP) such as Senadheera Gunathilaka, G. Kularathna and Champika Sudasinghe are in the FSP central committee.

Shantha Wijesinghe, Pubudu Jayagoda, Chameera Koswatta, Duminda Nagamuwa, Ravindra Mudalige, S.K. Subasinghe (former MP), Sunil Jayarathna, Sujith Kuruvita, Jude Silva Pulle, Indrananda Silva (former Provincial Councilor and an eyewitness to the killing of JVP founder Rohana Wijeweera), Samansiri Fernando, Indika Weerakoon and Jaminda Siriwardhana are the rest of the central committee.

Galle district MP Ajith Kumara of the Democratic National Alliance is a notable absentee here, perhaps because of legal issues pertaining to the parliamentary seat.

The central committee is to meet today to appoint the politburo, party Chairman and General Secretary etc.

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Sunday, April 8, 2012

Please let them go! (An appeal for the release of Premakumar Gunarathnam and Dimuthu Atigala)

Sri Lanka's political craze is incomprehensible.

Now, the de facto leader of Frontline Socialist Party (FSP) leader Premakumar Gunarathnam and FSP senior cadre Dimuthu Atigala have disappeared.

Premakumar lived an illegal life without any clear reason as an internal leader of the People's Liberation Front (JVP) for at least 16 years.

He was not in any legal document of the party although he was one of the senior most leaders. But he lived a normal life with his wife who was a doctor being a loving father to his two kids who educated in elite schools in Colombo. Later, they migrated to Australia apparently for a better life.

Premakumar could be made a popular JVP leader and his Tamil name also could be marketed well in the JVP's Sinhala chauvinist politics that went in the guise of socialism.

But JVP hierarchy did not do that and Premakumar also appeared lacking interest in that regard.

FSP spokesman Senadheera Gunathilaka a.k.a. Comrade Opatha is also a similar guy. Both were powerful internal leaders who had their bandwagon. They marketed their elusive characteristic as revolutionary nature of the party. JVP hierarchy exploited the labor of the honest and energetic lower strata cadres marketing these duo as revolutionary symbols of the party and they also were well aware of the party tactic.

After the split, JVP betrayed them and Premakumar who used forged identity was the direct victim. There was no any charge against Opatha. Premakumar had come to Sri Lanka from Australia on the request of his followers and he was unable to return since his forged identity was betrayed by the JVP.

His wife came to meet him, perhaps since the kid/s direly needed to see him. She was followed by intelligence from airport to airport and finally held her there for questioning as she was about to leave.

Premakumar lived under cover in fear of threats to his life, as FSP says. But it is clear that the FSP also has not taken his security serious. The middle aged leaders of FSP have all crawled into their family homes leaving behind  this helpless lone man to stay in the night alone in a lonely house.

Duminda Nagamuwa accompanied Dimuthu Atigala to Thalawathugoda and let the woman to take a night bus alone to go to Godagama. I have questions regarding these acts.

Finally, both Dimuthu and Premakumar disappeared.

JVP betrayed Premakumar. Perhaps the JVP wants to see the death of Premakumar who they have labelled as a traitor.

I can't understand why the government want to kill this man who is not linked to any type of subversive act in the recent past, as I perceive.

But a similar line of people from Prageeth Ekneligoda disappeared leaving mysteries behind as the causes of their deaths.

I beg from the armed powers that abducted Premakumar and Dimuthu to spare them, drop them somewhere and let them go to the FSP conference on April 09 unless they are produced in court.

I don't think there is big conspiracy behind this FEP issue. They are a bunch of middle aged, middle class family men who appear to contemplate the wrongs they did to this country through their narrow political strategies . They may have beautiful ideas today but I don't think the generation will recover from the blood politics of chauvinism they were engaged in the first decade of the new millennium.

If someone wants to take lives of Premakumar and Dimuthu, they may be in want of revival of violence and terrorism in this country which will not bring any good at all.

Please let them go!

-Ajith Perakum Jayasinghe

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Saturday, April 7, 2012

Leader of Sri Lanka's Frontline Socialist Party abducted

FSP released this photo of Premakumar following the abduction
Frontline Socialist Party (FSP) of Sri Lanka says that the elusive leader of their party Premakumar Gunarathnam and another leader Dimuthu Atigala, a female, have been abducted.

Party spokesman Senadheera Gunathilaka said that Gunarathnam stayed in a house in Kiribathgoda last night following a discussion regarding the party convention scheduled to be held on April 09.

He had been alone there and a party member who went to the house in the morning around 4 a.m. has seen Gunarathnam's car with flat tyres and the house broke open. There had been signs of use of force in his room in which the bags had been opened and things in them were scattered.

Dimuthu Atigala had disappeared after she departed from Duminda Nagamuwa who accompanied her to  Thalawathugoda to take a bus to go to Godagama where she lived. FSP guessed she was abducted on her way to her house.

Apparently, Dimuthu Atigala was abducted before Gunarathnam and the latter's whereabouts were found through data in her phone.

Premakumar Gunarathnam was reportedly appear in public at the FSP convention that is to be held on April 09, party sources say.

He was a long time member of the People's Liberation Front (JVP) and broke away last year with a group of ultra leftist cadres of the party.

His wife, Champa Somarathna, a doctor who has migrated to Australia with her family, came to Sri Lanka by the end of the year and she was held and questioned by the authorities as she was returning through Katunayaka airport.

Two members of the group led by Premakumar were abducted in December 2010 and the authorities claim they are not in their arrest.

Police spokesman Ajith Rohana said today that he was unaware of the arrest of Premakumar Gunarathnam.

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Friday, March 30, 2012

Why Frontline and not Vanguard?

Sri Lanka Marxist People's Liberation Front (JVP) splinter group that so far appeared as People's Movement for Struggles announced the launch of a new political party under the name Frontline Socialist Party.

The name goes in Sinhala language as Peratugamee Samajawadee Pakshaya. The word Peratugamee in Sinhala political dictionary resembles to the word vanguard.

But the new party has used Frontline instead of Vanguard in its name.

The Frontline Socialist Party should explain.

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Thursday, March 29, 2012

Sri Lanka Marxist rebels form a Frontline Socialist Party

The split group of Sri Lanka Marxist People's Liberation Front (JVP) has named the new political party they formed as Frontline Socialist Party.

The party was launched today at a press briefing held in Colombo. It was addressed by the leaders of the new party, namely, Senadheera Gunathilaka, Pubudu Jayagoda, Chameera Koswatta and Duminda Nagamuwa.

The leaders of the Frontline Socialist Party said that a party general assembly would be held on April 09 and a central committee would be elected.

Senadheera Gunathilaka addressing the press conference said that Frontline Socialist Party is not a party that is only for elections although it will not reject elections. He said a party is needed to fight for the downtrodden masses. Share this article
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