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Posts tagged as “Tamil”

Tamil political alliance objects to President’s call for input on 13A

Report in Daily FT, Aug 9, 2023Asks 13A to be implemented in its original form with land, police, finance and administrative powersA coalition of Tamil political parties in a letter addressed to President Ranil Wickremesinghe have expressed their dissent against his appeal for parties to submit their views and proposals on the implementation of the 13th amendment. The alliance consisting of the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation (TELO), Democratic People’s Liberation Front (DPLF), Eelam People’s Revolutionary…

Tamil MP suggests setting up a community police service under PCs

by Yohan Perera in Daily Mirror, July 28, 2023 at 09:34 pmTamil Progressive Alliance (TPA) Leader Mano Ganesan today proposed setting up a community police service and vesting it with the provincial councils. “Setting up of a community police service under provincial councils is one way of resolving one of the main issues arisen with regard to implementation of the 13th Amendment,” MP Ganesan told journalists. “Many have expressed fears about devolving police powers to…

Indo-Lanka oil pipeline: Govt. to appoint committee to study proposal

By Asiri Fernando in The Morning online, July15, 2023The Government will appoint a committee to evaluate the proposal submitted by the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) for an oil distribution pipeline connecting Nagapattinam, Tamil Nadu to Trincomalee and Colombo, the Ministry of Power and Energy said yesterday (15). The proposal comes days before President Ranil Wickremesinghe is to visit New Delhi on the invitation of Indian Premier Narendra Modi. According to the Ministry of Power and…

’’If you do not know English, why don’t you speak in Tamil,’’ RW tells Tamil activist

report in Daily Mirror, June 28, 2023President Ranil Wickremesinghe asked a Tamil activist in France to pose a question in Tamil when it seemed he was struggling to raise a question in English. The activist, during an event in France, urged the President to address humanitarian issues in Sri Lanka before focusing on other issues. The activist also opined that he does not believe the Government in Sri Lanka was democratic. The President responded saying…

US Congress members introduce Resolution calling for referendum in Tamil Eelam

report in Daily FT, May 20, 2023*Urge referral of Sri Lanka to International Criminal Court US Congresswoman Deborah Ross (NC) and US Congressman Bill Johnson (OH) introduced a bipartisan Resolution yesterday calling for a referendum for Eelam Tamils to be “democratically and equitably represented” as well as a “lasting peaceful political solution”. The Resolution comes as the Tamil nation marks 14 years since the massacre at Mullivaikkal where Sri Lanka’s forces killed tens of thousands…

TNA mulls walking out of reconciliation talks with President

By Maneshka Borham in Daily FT, Jan 6, 2023The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) may walk out of talks with President Ranil Wickremesinghe as there has been no visible progress on reconciliation efforts, the party has said. Representatives of the TNA and Wickremesinghe met yesterday for a second round of talks after the President invited representatives of the Tamil community in Sri Lanka to hold talks to resolve some of the outstanding issues they faced. However,…

No one to listen to the plight of Lankan Muslims

by Syed Ali Mujtaba in The Island, Dec 25, 2022President Ranil Wickremesinghe has announced his intent to resolve the long-standing North-East Tamil national question. This perhaps he is doing at the behest of India. However, he has ignored the problem of problems of the North East Muslims which are indivisibly intertwined in any solution to the Tamil problem. Muslims are a minority within the Tamil minority. Any attempt to ignore the Muslim problem would belie…

Ponnambalam slams Tamil parties for ‘misusing’ federalism for votes

By Mirudhula Thambiah in The Morning, Dec 16, 2022Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF) Leader and Opposition MP Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam accused the other Tamil political parties yesterday (15) that they use the federal solution for the national ethnic question only to win votes, following which they would commit themselves to legitimising the 13th Amendment to the Constitution because India wants such. “As far as the Tamil parties are concerned, our accusation against these parties is that…

Will the Tamil parties’ talks with the Lankan President bear fruit?

The gulf between the government and the Tamil parties has only widened in the recent pastby P K Balachandran in Daily Mirror, Dec 7, 2022Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe will be meeting the Tamil parties of the Northern and Eastern Provinces on December 11 to find a solution to the longstanding Tamil issue. But the chances of a solution emerging look extremely dim given the fact that the gulf between the government and the Tamils…