The Tamil National Alliance’s leader R Sampanthan said that the Tamil people wanted “credible and durable power-sharing” in comments made to The Hindu this week, ahead of Sri Lanka’s presidential elections.
A group of five Tamil political parties had signed a document outlining 13 demands they had put forward to Sri Lanka’s leading presidential candidates. The document - signed by the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchi (ITAK), Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation(TELO), People’s Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE), the Tamil Makkal Koottani (TMK) and the Eelam People’s Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF) - called for a federal constitution and and international criminal tribunal into genocide amongst other demands.
Read more: Tamil parties sign memorandum on key demands
“Condemnation of the document [by candidates and southern leaders] saying its unacceptable is evasive and indicative of an unwillingness to deal with the issue,” Sampanthan told The Hindu. “None of the parties today are asking for a separate state. Our people want credible and durable power-sharing.”
His comments come after Sri Lanka's leading candidates, Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Sajith Premadasa, have both rejected key demands made in rallies across the south of the island.
Meera Srinivasan writes,
“Today, the Tamil constituency and leadership are disillusioned. While acknowledging the incremental gains made in the last five years, they point to the many failed promises of the incumbent government. The average Tamil voter may yet not to be ready to cast her vote for a Rajapaksa — who brings back memories of fear, surveillance and repression — but the other options do not seem particularly enticing either.”
See more from The Hindu here.
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