The Tamil People’s Council, a forum of different Tamil political parties and groups, has proposed that Sri Lanka be converted into a federal republic.

It has also suggested that a state of emergency be declared in the event of any State seeking to secede itself from the proposed Federation. The Governor of the State concerned would take over executive functions and powers of the Chief Minister and the Board of Ministers.

These are among the salient features of a proposal worked out by the TPC’s sub-committee on the Tamil question. A document in this regard was released at an event in Jaffna on Sunday.

The TPC, headed by C.V. Wigneswaran, Chief Minister of the Northern Province and P. Lakshman, a Jaffna-based cardiologist, includes representatives of the Tamil National Alliance and several civil society organisations of the Northern and Eastern provinces.

Borrowing ideas from Constitutions of different countries such as Switzerland, South Africa and Bosnia and Herzegovina, the proposal described Sri Lanka as a “pluri-national, multi-cultural, multi-lingual and multi-religious country.”

In contrast to the provision in the 1972 and 1978 Constitutions on providing the “foremost place” to Buddhism, the TPC sub-committee wanted Sri Lanka to be declared as a “secular country” guaranteeing the freedom of religion of all persons and treat all religions equal.

[However, a section of constitutional experts is of the view that the provision on the Buddhism does not contradict with that of the fundamental right on “freedom of thought, conscience and religion including the freedom to have or to adopt a religion or belief of his choice.]

The TPC committee’s formula contained only two Lists – State and Federal. While the Federal government would be based on the principles of the Westminster style of government, the electoral system would follow the German model of mixed electoral system.

The re-merger of the Northern and Eastern Provinces had been suggested and this would be called “North-East State.”

Acknowledging the “distinctive political character” of Muslims, the committee stated that it would discuss with the community any proposal on accommodating the interests and aspirations of the Muslims. The Sinhalese living in the proposed State would all rights.

Citing the examples of the Dayton agreement of 1995 for peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Good Friday Agreement of 1998 on the sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland, the panel wanted a “pre-constitutional agreement” to ensure the success of the present constitution making process. Such an agreement should, among others, recognise Tamils’ right to self determination. The committee also suggested that the proposed pact be underwritten by a third party such as the United States or India or the United Nations.

(The Hindu)

Sri Lanka’s main opposition on Monday welcomed President Maithripala Sirisena’s promise of land for 100,000 people who were forced from their homes during the long civil war.

The majority of these people are Tamils.

The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) said Sirisena’s pledge to give displaced civilians new plots within six months was a “positive development,” but demanded that the military vacate the private land it occupied, AFP said.

“This is the first time he is giving a timeframe,” TNA spokesman MA Sumanthiran said a day after Sirisena made the offer.

“We welcome this as a very positive development but our stand is that the military must vacate all private lands they are occupying.”

Sirisena, who was elected last January, has won praise for starting to hand back land after the end in May 2009 of one of South Asia’s longest and bloodiest ethnic wars.

But he is also under international pressure to do more to ensure reconciliation.

The president said in an interview Sunday he would give land to civilians displaced by war by the middle of this year.

He admitted it was an “ambitious target” but said it was necessary to end what he called an “unacceptable situation.”

More than 100,000 people are still living away from their homes more than six years after the end of the war, Sumanthiran said, while another 168,000 live as refugees in neighbouring India.

(With inputs from AFP)

The leaders of the TNA and the SLMC met today to discuss on the proposal to draft a new constitution and the aspirations of the Tamil and the Muslim people. (Pic: TNAMedia)

India and Sri Lanka should hold joint naval patrols to prevent fishermen from poaching in each others' waters, Sri Lanka's main opposition leader said today.

Speaking during a debate on alleged poaching by Indian fishermen in northern Sri Lanka, opposition leader Rajavarothiam Sampanthan said the incursions had also raised tensions between the two countries and should be resolved amicably.

"This is a matter that raises hostilities between the people of the two countries. Therefore, I urge the government of Sri Lanka to take some action with the Indian government and Tamil Nadu state government."

Sampanthan told parliament that India's navy and the coastguard should work together with Sri Lankan counterparts to patrol their international maritime border.

"The action could be for the navy to patrol the border. Both Indian and Sri Lankan navies should carry out joint patrolling that will prevent Indian fishermen and their trawlers from coming in.

"A joint exercise where their navies are engaged. Their coast guards are also engaged," he said, adding that fishermen of both countries should also be helped to upgrade their craft so that they could engage in deep sea fishing.

Fishermen violating each other's territorial waters has become a thorny issue in the Indo-Lanka relations and all previous attempts have failed to amicably resolve the problem.

The opposition JVP, or People's Liberation Front, which moved a resolution condemning the government over its inaction to deal with poaching by Indian fishermen, urged the navy to prosecute boat owners rather than arresting fishermen.

"We have laws under which the authorities can detain the skippers of boats rather than arresting and detaining the poor Indian fishermen," JVP's Vijitha Herath said.

He said thousands of Indian trawlers were engaging in bottom trawling, a practice Sri Lanka has outlawed.

He said entire fish stocks were being wiped out because of the destructive bottom trawling.

"At least thrice a week we see 1,500 Indian trawlers encroaching into our waters and depriving our fishermen of their livelihood," Herath said.

(PTI)

Northern Province Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran expressed his confidence in President Maithripala Sirisena's ability to achieve peace and prosperity.

Small constituent parties of the Tamil National Alliance joined nearly 40 other Tamil organizations in a joint statement on Tuesday, reiterating the demand for an UN-led “hybrid” judicial mechanism to investigate and try war crimes cases in  Sri Lanka. 

The demand, made by Eelam People’s Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF), Peoples’ Liberation Organization of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE), Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization (TELO), Tamil National Peoples‘ Front (TNPF) among others, rests on the conviction that any mechanism, which is by and large managed and controlled by Lanka, will not be deemed credible by victims.

“In deference to the Report of the Office of the UN HCHR Inquiry on Sri Lanka (OISL report) we were willing to consider the possibility of achieving justice and accountability through a credible hybrid mechanism led and managed by its international component under the aegis of the UN. But we regret that the draft (US-Lankan) resolution does not adequately provide for the setting up of such a credible hybrid mechanism. The paragraphs, when read together, only seek to provide the appearance of credibility to a domestic process through the appointment of Commonwealth and other foreign judges, defence lawyers, and authorized prosecutors and investigators.”

“The Lankan Government appointing foreign judges to its own judicial mechanism will not address the structural factors that inhibit domestic structures in Sri Lanka, reasons for which are detailed in the OISL report,” the statement said.

Significantly, Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchi (ITAK), the single largest Tamil party in the North and the largest constituent of the TNA, is not a party to the statement.

(With inputs from The New Indian Express)

Sri Lanka’ Northern Province Chief Minister C.V.Wigneswaran on Sunday publicly lashed out at “concentration of power” in the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchi (ITAK), the party to which he belongs.

ITAK is the single largest constituent of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA).

Striking a belligerent note in his address at the 125th anniversary function of Jaffna Hindu College, Wigneswaran vowed to stick to his convictions and urged the younger generation to do likewise.   

 “In certain political parties one or two persons are taking all decisions. These power centers expect others to accept the decisions they take. If others point out  deficiencies in these decisions, they are branded as opposition parties,” he said.  

Though Wigneswaran did not mention the ITAK, it was clear that the cap fitted it.  He has been having a cold war with the ITAK leadership troika comprising R.Sampanthan, M.A.Sumanthiran and Mavai Senathirajah. While the ‘troika’ views the Supreme Court judge-turned Chief Minister as their protégé who should take orders from them, Wigneswaran feels that he got elected on the strength of his own credentials as a Tamil nationalist. On Sunday, he said that he was a Tamil nationalist at heart even while being a judge.  

While the troika has been veering towards cooperation with the new and liberal Maithripala Sirisena-Ranil Wickremesinghe government at the Center, Wigneswaran feels that the Tamils have not got much from the change of regime. He feels that the TNA should keep up its uncompromising line on the Tamil question.

In the run up to the August 17 parliamentary elections, Wigneswaran unilaterally issued a statement saying that he would be “neutral” and  appealed to the Tamils to vote for genuine and un-buyable Tamil nationalists. The ITAK leadership took this as an endorsement of the radical Tamil National Peoples’ Front (TNPF). They charged that ITAK/TNA lost two seats because of Wigneswaran’s statement.

When the matter was raised at the last ITAK Executive Committee meeting, it was decided to have talks at the highest level. But clearly, the talks, if held, were fruitless. Wigneswaran continues to be belligerent and an irritant to the ITAK leadership.

(The New Indian Express)

The Chief Minister of Northern Province C.V.Wigneswaran on Wednesday welcomed the resolution passed by the Tamil Nadu Assembly calling for an international inquiry into war crimes in Sri Lanka and urging the Indian Central government to move a strong resolution at the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) for such an inquiry.

"We thank Selvi Jayalalithaa for the extreme concern she has shown over our situation. It augurs well for the future. It demonstrates a sense of togetherness that exists between Tamils all over the world," Wigneswaran told the media.

"The resolution of the Tamil Nadu assembly is on the lines of the resolution the Northern Provincial Council passed earlier this month," he added.

On the UN report on war crimes, he said that he was happy that the report called for an Special Court with international judges and prosecutors. Sri Lanka he added does not have judges and prosecutors who can take up war crimes cases.

(The New Indian Express)

The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) will be sending a lawyers’ team to the coming session of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva, The New Indian Express said. The team will be lef by Jaffna District MP M.A. Sumanthiran.

“A TNA delegation, as such, might be sent after reading the High Commissioner’s report and the Sri Lankan government’s response to it. The task of Sumanthiran and his team of lawyers will be to examine the High Commissioner’s report and the Lankan government’s reply, and chalk out a line on which the TNA leadership will base its final decision,” ITAK leader and Jaffna District MP Mavai Senathirajah said.

Meanwhile, speaking to the media on Friday, TNA’s chief, R.Sampanthan, said that party’s stand on the UNHRC’s proceedings on Lanka will be based on the Tamils’ sentiments as well as the views of the International Community.

“While we have to go by the peoples’ sentiments, we cannot alienate the international community,” he said.

There is an overwhelming demand from the Tamils that the TNA should reject the US-Lankan agreement to substitute the international investigation by a domestic probe. M.K.Shivajilingam, a TNA member of the Northern Provincial Council is currently leading a march from Kilinochchi to Jaffna seeking an international probe and an international judicial mechanism for the trial of the accused.

But the TNA’s leadership feels diffident about alienating the US and the Western world which also dominate the UNHRC.

(With inputs from The New Indian Express)

Two hardline members of Sri Lanka's main Tamil party today started a five-day protest walk to demand an international war crimes probe into alleged atrocities in the final stages of the military conflict.

"We started from Kilinochchi today at 9 am and finish at Elephant Pass tonight," said MK Shivajilingam, a member of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA)-controlled northern provincial council.

He was joined by Ananthi Saseetharan, a fellow NPC member.

Saseetharan's husband Elilan, a former LTTE political commissar, had gone missing after he gave himself up to the military at the end of the war, she claimed.

"This is a five day walk which we will end in Jaffna's Nallur," Shivajilingam said, adding that idea was to urge the UN Human Rights Council to conduct an international probe and not a local mechanism to investigate war crimes allegations as attempted by the Sri Lankan government.

The walk comes after the US government announced last month that it would back a local mechanism envisaged by the Sri Lankan government.

The US contemplates a pro-Sri Lanka resolution at the UNHRC later this month. The Tamil groups have always encouraged an international investigation claiming that Sri Lanka's internal mechanisms as evident in previous experiences were mere cover up operations.

The UNHRC in March 2014 resolved to order an international investigation which the then Mahinda Rajapaksa government resisted and extended no cooperation.

However, the advent of the Maithripala Sirisena as President in January this year followed by some of the confidence building measures taken by the new government

towards the Tamil minority changed the international perception on Sri Lanka.

The UNHRC on US appeal delayed the presentation of its own investigation report till September as a measure of goodwill on Sri Lanka's new government.

The UNHRC resolution had blamed both the government troops and the LTTE for alleged war crimes during the final stages of the three-dacade-old conflict which ended in May 2009.

(The New Indian Express)