TNA says yes to continue talks with President over on Tamil national question

Wednesday, 10 May 2023 01:20 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Agrees to extend talks to two more days
Says ready to constructively engage in talks with Govt. to settle Tamil National Question but within ‘a specified time limit’
Stresses not prepared to hold talks unless North and East are considered as one unit on the basis that they are areas of historic habitation of the Tamil-speaking people

Representatives of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) will meet President Ranil Wickremesinghe today at the Presidential Secretariat for a second round of talks on the National Question in Sri Lanka and the possibility of arriving at a political settlement on the issue.

The decision to extend the talks to two more days was taken during the discussion held between the two parties yesterday.

Accordingly, the parties are scheduled to meet today and tomorrow for extensive discussions on matters relating to the national question. It is reported that the talks held yesterday primarily centred around the much-debated topic of power-sharing in the country. It is expected that the outcome of the discussions will be announced in due course.

Issuing a statement prior to the talks TNA leader R. Sampanthan said the party was ready to constructively engage in talks with the government to settle the Tamil National Question but within ‘a specified time limit’. He also noted that the North and East were considered as one unit by the Indo-Lanka accord due to them being areas of historic habitation of the Tamil-speaking people and the TNA is not prepared to hold any discussions contrary to that basis.

The discussions are considered a significant development towards resolving the national issue after previous talks held earlier this year fell through after the TNA decided to suspend the discussions and issued the President with an ultimatum. They called on Wickremesinghe to provide solutions to three demands within a week’s time. The demands included the full implementation of the 13th amendment to the constitution, the release of all lands belonging to Tamils in the North and East occupied by the military or other government agencies and the release of all Tamil political prisoners.

However, the talks were indefinitely postponed after the President failed to respond to these demands. The parties at the time expressed their dismay at the lack of progress following the talks with Wickremesinghe who had made an overture to the parties in November last year to initiate talks on reconciliation and the National Question in Sri Lanka.