For the third day, Tamils across the homeland called upon Tamil politicians to push for the reunification of the North and East as a separate provincial unit.
Initially, the Tamil majority provinces of the North and East were merged and had a North-Eastern Provincial Council, however, the provinces were segregated following a 2007 decision by Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court. For decades the Tamil homeland has been subjected to forced demographic reconfiguring through Sinhalisation projection.
The protests were held in Mannar, Mullaitivu, and in the Navakuli junction in Jaffna and were organised by the North East Coordination Committee. The demonstrations will continue till Tuesday.
The protests come as the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) has been in discussions with the Sri Lankan president and Mahinda Rajapaksa concerning issues afflicting the Tamil nation. Speaking on these negotiations, MA Sumanthiran noted a lack of tangible progress and warned that the TNA may need to rethink its strategy of engagement.
The TNA has faced criticism for its policy of engagement with the Sri Lankan government as Tamil families of the disappeared and Tamil civil society organisations have stressed the need to direct their appeals to the international community. The Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF) has maintained that they will not engage with the government unless there is a recognition for a federal solution.
Whilst the TNA has pushed for the implementation of the 13th amendment, the TNPF has stressed that this does not go far enough and the need to break from the unitary structure of the Sri Lankan state.
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The "North-Eastern provinces should be re-united and North-East should be formed as a separate provincial unit" a demonstrator maintained.
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