Colombo: Sri Lankan government has offered a
"structured dialogue" to the country's main Tamil party TNA to
find a solution to the political aspirations of the minority
ethnic community.
Rajiva Wijesingha, a government legislator who was
part of the talks, said that talks would be carried forward
during three separate days in December.
Commenting on the latest round of talks held yesterday,
Suresh Premachandran, the senior TNA legislator said, "We have
to take forward a structured dialogue".
"We have identified several areas - devolution to
provinces, powers of the centre, legislative, executive,
judicial and powers of the Governor. We discussed these
issues," Premachandran said the talks would continue next
month.
Since the end to the war with the LTTE in May 2009,
the government came under increasing pressure from India and
the international community to work towards finding a credible
devolution of power.
The TNA-govt talks resumed in September after TNA
walked out of talks early August, claiming that the talks were
not leading anywhere.
The TNA looks for meaningful implementation of the
thirteenth amendment to the constitution adopted with Indian
backing in 1987.
However President Mahinda Rajapaksa's government is
averse to conferring land and police powers to the provincial
councils.
The government has mooted the idea of a parliamentary
select committee to include all political parties in finding a
political solution running parallel with its direct talks with
TNA.
PTI
First Published: Thursday, November 17, 2011, 14:53