Sri Lanka's marxist opposition party changes top leader

Sri Lanka's marxist party JVP today announced change in its top leadership after nearly 20 years.
Anura Kumara Dissanayake has replaced Somawansa Amarasinghe as the party's new leader, it was announced at the party convention.
Amarasinghe, who held the leadership for nearly 20 years, proposed the name of Dissanayake for the post at the party's seventh convention that was unanimously approved by the party members.
Dissanayake, 45, is a member of the opposition party's younger brigade and currently functions as a member of parliament.
The JVP, formed in the mid 1960s as a revolutionary party, led two bloody rebellions in 1971 and 1989.

Thousands of youth who joined the rebellion - aimed at overthrowing the government - suffered death as a result of the state crackdown.
Their last attempted revolution was based on the opposition to the Indian intervention to settle Sri Lanka's conflict with the Tamils in 1987.
They called it an expansion of Indian imperialism when the Rajiv Gandhi government sent the Indian troops to be stationed in the north and east of the island.