Sri Lanka’s All-Party Conference has unanimously agreed to meet Tamil demands for self-governance through full implementation of the 13^th amendment, and to go beyond, however, a history of broken promises has Tamil on the island sceptical.

Whilst Sumanthiran expressed satisfaction over the resolution of the conference and the acceptance of the 13^th amendment as a starting point, Tamil Families of the Disappeared staged protests in Vavuniya condemning Tamil MPs who met with the government.

'I have told the MPs that we don't want them to speak to the government because the government has said no to any solutions. What benefits can be gained by speaking to them?' a demonstrator told reporters.

She instead urged Tamil MPs to speak to the international community. pic.twitter.com/8xHvaqC1Ft

— Tamil Guardian (@TamilGuardian) December 12, 2022

“I have told the MPs that we don't want them to speak to the government because the government has said no to any solutions. What benefits can be gained by speaking to them?” a representative of the Families of the Disappeared told journalists.

Tamil protesters demonstrated their anger by throwing tomatoes at photos of Tamil MPs and urged them to make their case not to the Sri Lankan government but to the international community.

13^th Amendment

Earlier this year, Tamil political parties, including the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), Tamil Makkal Thesiya Kootani (TMTK), and Illankai Tamil Arasu Katchi (ITAK) urged India to ensure that Sri Lanka abides by its commitments under the 13th Amendment and devolve power to the Tamil provinces as a starting point "towards a federal structure". However, the Tamil National People's Front (TNPF) has continued to campaign against the implementation of the 13th Amendment, claiming that it would set back the political struggle for Tamil self-determination.

The 13th Amendment was established in 1987 as part of the Indo-Lanka accord and created the system of Provincial Council, promising greater devolution of land and police powers to a merged North-East. However, Sri Lanka has failed to implement the accord. Tamils have long protested against the 13^th Amendment and were not consulted during its adaptation.

The Tamil Progressive Alliance (TPA) leader, Mano Ganesan, defended the 13^th Amendment claiming;

“As time is short, we can’t afford to go back and start all again. Let us start with elections in the Northern and Eastern Provinces and give the people of these Provinces, the taste of self-governance with full implementation of 13A.”  

The Conference repeated the commitment Mahinda Rajapaksa had once made of going beyond the 13^th amendment and maximising devolution to the provinces.

Tamil demands

During the conference, Sumanthiran proposed drawing up a new constitution based on the Experts’ Committee’s reports presented to parliament in January 2019. He further called for immediate steps to meet longstanding Tamil demands.

These included the return of Tamil land taken by Sri Lanka’s military and the release of Tamil political prisoners. Leader of the Tamil Makkal Thesiya Kootan (TMTK), CV Wigneswaran, further called for convictions justified on the basis of confessions to be reviewed given the record of Sri Lanka’s police in extracting forced confessions through torture and abuse.

Sri Lanka’s President Ranil Wickremesinghe reportedly responded that the country’s Justice Minister Wijedasa Rajapakshe, a close ally to the Rajapaksas, would look into the matter.

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