The National Ant-War Front welcomes the people’s victory which forced the government to climb down and reverse its appalling attempt to expel hundreds of poor Tamils out of Colombo. It was public outrage that stopped something which if left unchecked would have grown into large scale ethnic cleansing. The decision of the Supreme Court is a reflection of the public mood.

The decision of the government to abrogate the ceasefire is a grievous setback for the peace process. The fact that in practice the CFA was more honoured in the breach than in the observance is beside the point. The mere existence of the CFA was an opening in the door for the possible recommencement of negotiations. Its abrogation is bitter disappointment for the Tamil community who now fear that the next step will be for the government to target the APRC. It seems likely that the APRC report will recommend a unitary state and the use of this tern will render all the provisions in the fine print, even if devolutionary on some points, psychologically useless in Tamil eyes.

There have been significant changes in the correlations in parliament. Eighteen members of the main opposition party, the UNP, have crossed-over to the government while the 38 JVP (militant, less privileged youth based, pro-war party) MPs have walked out. The JHU (Sinhala pro-war party) with its 9 MPs and 6 from the SLMC (Muslim Congress) which can be counted as opposed to the war since it represents a minority community, have joined the government. Several weeks previously the CWC and UPWF (upcountry Tamil parties) with eight parliamentary seats between them also joined the government.

nadaraja raviraj was a champion of tamil rights and stood for a negotiated peace and a fair and democratic solution of the national question.

The South of the country was swept by a triumphal mood after the successful military campaign to take Sampoor. Many people said: “Now go ahead and finish the job; finish off the LTTE once and for all.” This was motivated by the palpable setback the LTTE had suffered on land and sea and its paralysis in the face of air power. Simple-minded journalists disputed the argument that a military solution was not possible and that a negotiated political solution was the only way out; the state owned media was the most bloody-minded and led the chorus for unlimited war and a final Armageddon

the NAWF consists a broad coalition of numerous different organisations and types of organisations who share a few common fundamental objectives.