Thetalks on power devolution between Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe and Tamil legislators yielded no positive outcome, according to the Tamil National Alliance, the largest grouping of MPs from the island’s north and east. The Tamil National People’s Front, which has two MPs, stayed out of the talks that it said were “simply aimed at appeasing the international community”. After …
The Sri Lankan government will “fully implement” the 13th Amendment, President Ranil Wickremesinghe said on Sunday, making a familiar promise to the Tamils on the nearly 40-year-old legislation guaranteeing a measure of power devolution to the island’s provinces. His remarks come even as his government is engaged in talks with the Tamil political leadership to find a durable political solution …
For most of its two decade-existence, Sri Lanka’s Tamil National Alliance has been engaged in talks with the southern Sinhalese leadership, to negotiate a durable solution to the island nation’s lingering national question. “We can’t despair, we can’t abandon things,” Mr. Sampanthan told The Hindu in 2018, when the Alliance joined a Constitution drafting process initiated by the President Maithripala …
With the campaign for Sri Lanka’s August general election heating up, India and its role in resolving the lingering national question have begun figuring prominently in the election discourse, especially in the Tamil-majority north and east. Addressing a recent public meeting, the Tamil National Alliance’s former parliamentarian S. Shritharan said: “India is watching us closely, pointing to inadequacies in our …
