The 13th Amendment -Solution to Sri Lanka & LTTE Tamil's Perspectives

Ayubovan, Vanakkam, Asalam Aleikum,

Mr. President, Madam High Commissioner Navanethem Pillay, distinguished delegates,

I am honoured to address this assembly on behalf of His Excellency Mahinda Rajapakse and the people of Sri Lanka.

I am a Sri Lankan who is also ethnically Tamil, representing the North, a province populated overwhelmingly by ethnic Tamils. It also had many Tamil speaking Muslims, such as my colleague Minister Rishad Bathiudeen who is with us today, after being internally displaced himself by LTTE terrorism.

Sri Lanka has four major religions Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity and Islam, and three distinct major communities, Sinhalese, Tamils and Muslims, and three languages Sinhala, Tamil and English. This diversity has made for coexistence as well as conflict.

The sources of conflict lie in factors related to our deliberations here. They are also related, as in many places, to colonialism. Though post-colonial Sri Lanka saw legislative changes which made Tamils feel they were being treated unequally and discriminated against, the majority Sinhalese felt Tamils got disproportionate advantages during colonial rule. Redress was thought necessary but the Tamils felt those actions were discriminatory.

Tamils started agitating against the discrimination and demanded equality and power sharing in areas where they lived in substantial numbers. In the early period these agitations were democratic and non-violent. However, the next generation reacted to the state machinery crushing the non-violent acts of the Tamils. They took up arms against the state through many militant organizations. I was the leader of one such organization.

The flames of conflict should have been doused by the Indo-Lanka accord of 1987, brokered by the Prime Minister of India at the time, Shri Rajiv Gandhi, who was later murdered by the LTTE. It paved the way for a power sharing arrangement. The agreement also required the militants to lay down arms and join the democratic main stream, and almost all of us did so at the time.

Due to the fanaticism of the LTTE, which rejected the Indo-Lanka Accord, the full implementation of the provincial council system has been blocked. The LTTE has been waging war with the ultimate aim of creating a separate state, Tamil Eelam. They are not only waging a war against the state, they also annihilate any democratic Tamil forces that would not be subservient to them.

As a young man in my twenties, I was a survivor of the massacre of Tamil political prisoners in the Welikada jail, in July 1983 by a majority racists mob. However, I had not foreseen the evil of the racism and terrorism of the minority. When I gave up armed struggle and entered the democratic mainstream in 1987, I was regarded as a traitor by the Tigers. The US State Department reports I have survived eleven assassination attempts by the Tigers. My sight is impaired in one eye due to a spike driven into my skull by Tiger detainees when I visited them in prison to improve their conditions of detention. But my perspective is clear.

Our President took action to curb LTTE terrorism after his attempts at negotiation were rejected. Now the Sri Lankan security forces have almost crushed the Tigers. However the Tigers use innocent civilians as human shields. These are my people, Mr President, from the islands North; people to whom I belong; people to whom I am tied by common ancestry and place.

Though over 70, 000 of those held initially succeeded in getting away, despite being shot at by the LTTE as they escaped, there are still a large number held in captivity. Yet even as I speak today, thousands managed to get away to refuge with the government.
If the international community can pressurize the LTTE to surrender or at least to release the rest of these civilians unconditionally, that will go a long way in ending the suffering of the Tamil minority.

President Rajapakse is committed to full implementation of the 13th Amendment to the Sri Lankan constitution which ensures substantive provincial autonomy.

The political process has already started.

Elections were conducted for the Eastern provincial council in May 2008.

A Task Force for the Development of the North under my Chairmanship was established to oversee activities until normalcy is established in the province and elections are held.

In the meantime, an All Party Representative Committee is finalizing proposals, including necessary constitutional amendments, to address grievances of the Tamils.

We refer to this as 13th amendment Plus, that is, deeper provincial autonomy than currently in the Constitution.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• The 13th Amendment
• Douglas Devaanda
• Sri Lanka War
• sri lanka news 2009
• wanni operation
• largest hostage rescue
• LTTE
• EELAM
• Genocide
• LTTE cannibals
• EU HYPOCRISY
• UN
• EU
• EU Dictatorship
• EU Double standards
• HRW
• AI
• ICRC

[NoEalamInSL]

2012 Feb 4 (Island) President will trust 'Douglas' with land and police powers but not others.

The EPDP leader and Minister, Douglas Devananda says that President Rajapaksa would have no hesitation in entrusting land and police powers to him,but will not risk giving it to others. Asked in a brief interview with The Island, as to what his views were on the demand by Tamil political parties that the subjects of land and police be devolved in terms of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution

[NoEalamInSL]

Divaina 23 Dec 2011: 13 වැනි සංශෝධනයෙන් (13th Amendment) ඉඩම් පොලිස්‌ බලතල අහෝසි කරනවා. පළාත් සභාවලට ඉඩම් සහ පොලිස්‌ බලතල ලබා දිය යුතු බවට 13 වන ආණ්‌ඩු ක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්‌ථාවේ පැවතුනද එම නීතිය අහෝසි කිරීමට රජය ක්‍රියා කරන බව කැබිනට්‌ මාධ්‍ය ප්‍රකාශක ඊයේ (22 දා) පැවැසීය. එම බලතල පළාත් සභාවලට කිසිවිටෙකත් ලබා නොදිය යුතු බව රජයේ ස්‌ථාවරය බව ද කී ඒ මහතා එම බලතල ක්‍රියාත්මක කිරීම තුළින් ඉන්දියාව අත්විඳින පාඩම් ද සැලකිල්ලට ගනිමින් කිසිලෙසකින් හෝ එම බලතල ක්‍රියාත්මක කිරීමට ඉඩ නොදෙන බව කීය.

[NoEalamInSL]

He survived 11 suicide attacks by LTTE.

[SINGALAMOODYA]

his fucker must got some bone lit of meat for

[lionsden17]

its hard to tame the wild.maybe the ltte supporters should seek counciling

[McCainTheTurdburglar]

The LTTE assassinated all the intelligent Tamils who opposed their fanaticism. Shame on those people who unthinkingly supported the LTTE terrorists. You supported murder and suffering for everyone- including the Tamils you claimed to support.