India on Monday said that Sri Lanka has not made “measurable progress” in finding a political solution to ethnic issues involving the island nation’s Tamil minority through “full implementation of the 13th Amendment of the Constitution”.
The 13th Amendment to the Constitution was aimed at resolving Sri Lanka’s ethnic conflict that had aggravated into a full-fledged civil war between the armed forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam militant organisation in 1983, The Hindu reported.
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam wanted a separate state in northeast Sri Lanka because of alleged discrimination and persecution of Sri Lankan Tamils by the Sinhalese government.
The 13th Amendment assured a power-sharing arrangement between the Sinhalas and the Tamils by allowing all nine provinces in the country to govern themselves. The Sinhala nationalists have opposed it, saying that it will lead to sharing too much power in the country, whereas the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam argued they were not getting enough say.
The Sri Lankan leaders have also indicated that they do not want to displease the Sinhala majority by not committing to implement the amendment.
On Monday, the permanent representative of India to the United Nations in Geneva, Indra Mani Pandey, said that Sri Lanka has not fully implemented the 13th Amendment to the…
