Sri Lankan authorities have assured a slew of actions and measures to address key demands of Tamil leaders, including the release of detainees, a truth commission for missing persons, setting up a special fund for the war-affected underdeveloped regions of the country’s north and east, and legal reforms hours after President Gotabaya held meetings with important leaders of the country's minority community. 

Rajapaksa met the leaders of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), the largest parliamentary group of the country’s Tamil lawmakers, for the first time in his almost three years in power. The long-sought meeting by leaders of the TNA came on Friday—which was twice canceled in the past—days after beleaguered Rajapaksa held an all-party meeting amid the unprecedented economic crisis unfolding in the island country. 

During the meeting, which was also attended by senior ministers, including Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, Tamil leaders reiterated their demand of addressing the national question through the political solution by a new constitution. 

The Friday meeting was significant as this is the first time when the present government reached out to Tamil leaders and assured measures to address their concerns. Despite assurances, successive governments, since the end of the war, had failed to keep the promises of an honest reconciliation process, justice to the victims of war, mostly missing persons, and measures safeguarding the political and human rights of Tamils. 

“We must unite as a country. It is the responsibility of everyone to work together to overcome the current challenges as one country and one nation,” R Sampanthan, leader of the TNA, was quoted as saying by The Island.

Significantly, the government assured to release long-time prisoners, detained under the country’s draconian the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) but haven’t been charged. A truth-finding commission—one of the key demands of the relatives of thousands of people gone missing during the war—was also offered. 

The issue of land grab by different state agencies—which Tamil parties say is a deliberate attempt to change the region’s demography—was also discussed in the meeting that lasted almost two hours. 

Ties between Sinhalas and Tamils, the country’s two prominent ethnic groups, have historically been fractious and at times quite tense, with the former—mostly Buddhist, residing in the country’s south, and constituting roughly 70 percent of the total population—often systematically discriminating against the latter. 

Tamils, mostly residing in the country’s north and east, constitute roughly 11 percent of the total population and struggle to protect their political, linguistic, and ethnic identities in the country’s Sinhala-dominated politics.

Ethnic tension had engulfed the country in a three-decade-long war that only ended in 2009 when the government annihilated the LTTE, one of the most potent Tamil insurgent groups. 

Thirteen years on, Sri Lankan Tamils still wait for the government to fulfill the bulk of their pledges that it had made after the end of the war to address their concerns through political means. 

(SAM)