The Global Tamil Forum (GTF) called on Sri Lanka’s government to “accelerate” initiatives addressing issues of the Tamil community in Sri Lanka, adding that further steps were needed to resolve the Tamil national question.

Highlighting that "above all, the Tamil national quesiton remains unresolved," in a statement that welcomed Sri Lanka's passing of the 19th amendment to the constitution, the Global Tamil Forum called for further steps to address a list of Tamil issues.

The organisation noted that several issues affecting the Tamil community had not been resolved, including the appropriation of Tamil lands, intense militarisation of the North-East, prevalence of sexual violence in the North-East, issues of arbitrarily detained political prisoners, draconian anti-terror laws and justice for alleged war crimes.

See extracts from the statement below.

“However, large swathes of private land are still illegally occupied by the military, disproportionate number of military personnel still remain in the North and East, intimidation and arbitrary arrests still continue, military remains engaged in day to day life of Tamils in North and East, sexual violence continue against the tens of thousands of war widows and others, Tamil men and women still live in fear even more so in the Northern and Eastern provinces, several hundreds of political prisoners still remain in custody without being charged, the Prevention of Terrorism Act still not repealed, above all the Tamil National Question remains unresolved. “

“Momentum developed by passing of the 19th amendment and other positive initiatives taken to provide limited relief for the Tamil people, should be developed further to be stepping stones, to resolve the long standing Tamil national problem in Sri Lanka.  In this context, it is important that the government accelerates implementing these initiatives and also takes meaningful steps to comprehensively address the issues related to alleged war crimes, serving of justice, political resolution and reconciliation.”