Sri Lankan political groups who are opposed to the President Chandrika Kumaratunga's joint aid deal with the Tamil Tigers have expressed jubilation over the court ruling which blocked the functioning of the joint mechanism.

Sri Lanka's Supreme Court on Friday suspended the functioning of the government's joint deal with the Tamil Tigers for tsunami relief co-ordination.

It said in its ruling issued here that four of the clauses in the post Tsunami Operational Management Structure (P-TOMS) are suspended until Sept. 12 when the case would be taken up for hearing again.

Among the four clauses termed illegal are the ones on locating the regional fund headquarters in Kilinochchi,the northern headquarters of the Tamil Tigers, and the operations of the regional fund.

The former main ally of Sri Lanka's ruling coalition JVP or the People's Liberation Front,the prime mover of the petition against the post-Tsunami Operational Management Structure (P-TOMS),said the ruling had really crippled the deal, rendering it meaningless.

The JVP filed action in the Supreme Court early this month, claiming their fundamental rights had been violated by the President Chandrika Kumaratunga's decision to enter the deal with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels.

The JVP propaganda secretary and its leading legislator Wimal Weerawansa said the ruling was most welcome and they were hopeful that the final ruling would be even more satisfying.

The all Buddhist Monk party the JHU or the Heritage Party who also moved similar court action said that the ruling was a triumph for all anti-P-TOMS sections.

Udaya Gammampila, a JHU party lawyer, said with the court decision it would now be difficult for the mechanism to function.

The court in its ruling in response to the JVP petition blocked the P-TOMS regional fund and its headquarters being located in the LTTE headquarters in Kilinochchci,an area held by them in the northern province.

However, the deputy minister of Ports Dilan Perera, one of the staunchest allies of the president Chandrika Kmaratunga who spearheaded the pro P-TOMS campaign on behalf of the government, said the ruling was not in favour of those who opposed as the very point on which they filed the cases - to seek a cancellation of the mechanism had not been upheld by the court.

"The court has accepted the mechanism," Perera said.

The court ruled that Kumaratunga has powers to enter into the deal with the Tigers and other than the four clauses which they have passed ruling, the rest of the clauses in the mechanism Memorandum of Understanding were legally sound.

The Sri Lankan President signed the deal on June 24 in spite of vehement opposition from the JVP, JHU and a section of the powerful Buddhist clergy who claimed the deal conferred recognition to a terrorist group and impinged on the country's sovereignty.

The government also said on June 24 a controversial joint deal with the Tamil Tigers for tsunami relief delivery in the Tamil regions could form the basis for reviving the stalled peace negotiations between the two sides after signing the deal.

The JVP, protesting against the P-TOMS entered by the government with the LTTE, walked out of Kumaratunga's government reducing the Kumaratunga administration to a parliamentary minority.

Earlier, International donors on June 14 who pledged three billion dollars in aid to rebuild Sri Lanka's tsunami-hit coastal areas have asked the government and the rebels to set up the joint mechanism to ensure the equitable distribution of relief.

Source: Xinhua