As talks with Tamil parties drag, Ranil pledges full implementation of 13th Amendment  

The President has pledged to address the country’s long-pending national question tied to the historic demand of Sri Lanka’s Tamils for equality and self-determination

The Sri Lankan government will “fully implement” the 13 th Amendment, President Ranil Wickremesinghe said on Sunday, making a familiar promise to the Tamils on the nearly 40-year-old legislation guaranteeing a measure of power devolution to the island’s provinces.

“We hope to fully implement the 13th Amendment of the Constitution. Not only in the North but also in the South, the Chief Ministers are demanding that it be implemented,” Mr. Wickremesinghe said, speaking at a Pongal event organised in Jaffna, in Sri Lanka’s Tamil-majority Northern Province.

His remarks come even as his government is engaged in talks with the Tamil political leadership to find a durable political solution to the civil war-scarred island nation’s long-pending national question. The President has pledged to resolve the ethnic conflict— tied to the historic demand of Sri Lanka’s Tamils for equality and self-determination— before February 4, 2023, when Sri Lanka marks its 75 th anniversary of Independence.

Mr. Wickremesinghe’s announcement on Sunday also assumes significance before the scheduled visit of External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, who has earlier emphasized that addressing Tamil concerns and implementing the 13th Amendment was in Sri Lanka’s interest. While several past leaders have made the promise, none has kept it.

What is the 13th Amendment to the Sri Lankan Constitution, and why is it contentious?

The Tamil National Alliance (TNA), the main grouping representing Tamils in the north and east in Parliament, has participated in four rounds of discussions with the President since December 2022, including one last week.  The Alliance has urged the government to fully implement the 13 th Amendment, passed consequent to the Indo-Lanka Accord of 1987, as a necessary first step while negotiating a final political settlement. With no movement on it so far, and little tangible action on its other urgent demands pertaining to land grabs in the north and east, prolonged detention of political prisoners, and answers to enforced disappearances, the TNA said it has little hope left in the process.  

Watch: TNA Leader R. Sampanthan speaks on the Indo-Lanka Accord