New Delhi
5 November 2009
A visiting Sri Lankan official says that empowerment of Tamils will be a priority
for President Mahinda Rajapaksa's Government as it seeks to correct some historical
wrongs such as discrimination of the Tamils on the basis of ethnicity or language in
education and employment sectors.
"We think we have dealt with LTTE and got rid of terrorism [but] clearly there is need for
full integration of Tamil citizens in body politic," Rajiva Wijesinha, secretary of Ministry
of Disaster Management and Human Rights of the Government of Sri Lanka, said here
Thursday.
According to him, empowerment should mean holding out the hope that the Tamils can
aspire to become not only "chief minister" of a province but the "equivalent of" Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh and Union Minister of Home Affairs Chidambaram in India.
Delving into the past, Mr Wijesinha said that an articulate section of the Tamil
community "understandably" reacted in the manner it did at the discrimination meted out
to them.
Until recently, Mr Wijesinha headed the Secretariat for Coordinating the Peace Process
(SCOPP) in Sri Lanka. He visited New Delhi for a meeting of Saarc Disaster Management
Centre.
He said that development of infrastructure such as schools, vocational institutions and
telecom connectivity in Tamil-majority areas and strengthening of local and provincial
governments is required.
He iterated that devolution of powers can be considered but Colombo has a problem with
federalism.
"Kosovo is a lesson for all of us," he said, explaining how a smaller country can be
subjected to "splitting". Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008.
He suggested that the India-Lanka Accord of 1987 should be revisited because the
provincial system of administration has not evolved in the manner predicted at that time.
"The Accord should have helped to resolve [problems] but did not due to intransigence of
LTTE," he added.
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