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Two Sinhala nationalist parties have gone to court against Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's accord with the LTTE for an indefinite cease-fire.
Already under fire from political adversaries led by President Chandrika Kumaratunga, the agreement will shortly face a legal challenge when petitions seeking to quash the pact come up for admission before the court.
The two parties - Sinhala Urumaya and Sinhala Jathika Sangamaya - have questioned the constitutionality and legality of the agreement and sought an order prohibiting the government from giving effect to it. The petitions may be taken up for admission next week.
Sihala Urumaya national organiser Champika Ranawaka has contended that the prime minister had no power to represent the government under Sri Lanka's 1978 constitution, and only the president had such powers, being the head of state and the head of the government.
Further, the government had no authority to enter into an agreement with an outlawed organisation and that it might amount to an offence under the Prevention of Terrorism Act, the petition contended.
The parties have also questioned the 'concessions' given to the LTTE under the terms of the accord, signed by the prime minister on February 22 and two or three days earlier by LTTE leader V Prabhakaran.
"Some parts of the agreement violated the sovereignty of Sri Lanka," they said.
Kumaratunga has also raised the issue of Sri Lanka's sovereignty being undermined by some provisions, especially the role assigned to Norway to be the sole interpreter of the agreement and clauses providing for 'lines of control' between government and LTTE-controlled territories.
She has sought re-casting Oslo's role by amendments to the agreed text, for which her approval was not sought by the Wickremesinghe government.
Her People's Alliance Party and informal Leftist ally, the Janatha Vimukti Peramuna, are expected to castigate the terms of the truce in a two-day parliamentary debate that will begin on Monday.
Meanwhile, a former Norwegian army general who will head a mission in Sri Lanka to oversee the truce between the government and the LTTE arrived in Colombo on Saturday, officials said.
Maj Gen Trond Furuhodve met Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe for a preliminary discussion on his work as head of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission, which will be based in Colombo and in the LTTE-controlled northern Vanni region.
Furuhodve has already met LTTE representative Anton Balasingham in London on his way to Colombo.
The mission, which will report to the Norwegian government, is to be manned by representatives from the Scandinavian countries and assisted by committees in six districts falling in the conflict zone in the north-east.
These nominees will be headed by an overseas monitor and comprise two nominees each of the government and the LTTE. The monitoring mission has been mandated to receive complaints of violations of cease-fire terms, inquire into them and seek to resolve them so that stray infringements do not escalate into a breakdown of the truce.
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