Lankan Tamils Want a Political Settlement: CV Wigneswaran

Colombo: Charging that the current Sri Lankan government had "misled" the Tamils, the Chief Minister of the northern province CV Wigneswaran on Friday said the minority community will continue to push for their democratic rights including a "political solution" to the Tamil question.

Addressing the Ezhuga Thamizh rally in the eastern town of Batticaloa, Wigneswaran alleged that President Maithripala Sirisena had misled the opposition and Tamil National Alliance (TNA) leader R Sampanthan by not settling the Tamil question as pledged by him in 2016.

The northern and eastern parts of Sri Lanka are the traditional homeland of the ethnic Tamil people where an almost three-decade-long separatist war was fought by the LTTE.

Tamil People’s Council’s declaration Consecutive Lankan governments have specifically targeted the eastern regions for state-sponsored Sinhala colonisation, thereby dismantling our lands, economy, culture and language. Above all, this has resulted in the disintegration of the Tamil identity and the collective existence of the Tamil people. Against the backdrop of decades of such systemic state- sponsored colonisation, this rally resolves that for the Tamil nation to be safeguarded, its lands, language, economy, culture and its distinct identity must be safeguarded together. Seven years after the end of the separatist war, the north and east remains heavily militarised. Not only has this occupying military appropriated thousands of acres of land, but it continues to appropriate more land, even under this regime.

It also stressed the need for an international accountability mechanism to investigate crimes perpetrated on the community during the war.

Our demand is that the proposed constitution reflect the political aspirations of the Tamil people. Our intention is not to disrupt the current constitutional process but to project the voices of the Tamil people in the process.

PTI