COLOMBO: India has urged the government of neighboring Sri Lanka and a Tamil party to resume stalled negotiations aimed at a meaningful devolution of power to resolve a decades-old ethnic problem.
India’s External Affairs Minister Salman Kurshid’s comments on Monday came after the Tamil National Alliance party recently swept a provincial election, a result seen as backing calls for wider regional autonomy in areas ravaged by a civil war that ended in 2009.
He said India looked forward to an early resumption of the dialogue process “in order to address this issue in a timely manner.” India has a major interest in the dispute because southern India is home to 60 million Tamils, although New Delhi has been reluctant to become directly involved in Sri Lankan politics since a disastrous military intervention during the civil war left more than 1,000 Indian troops dead.
Kurshid said he hopes the Sri Lankan leadership that ended the war and held the elections will now “work for genuine reconciliation.” The talks stalled in 2011 when the government said it wanted a Parliamentary committee to discuss devolution rather than through talks with the TNA.
The Indian military intervention followed an agreement between India and Sri Lanka, which led to an amendment to Sri Lanka’s constitution and established provincial councils in an effort to end Tamil militancy.
Commonwealth boycott
In Toronto, Canada’s prime minister says he’ll boycott next month’s Commonwealth summit in Sri Lanka because of human rights abuse concerns and he’s threatening to cut off funding to the organization of former British territories over the decision to host the meeting there.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper said in a statement early Monday that the Sri Lankan government has failed to uphold the Commonwealth’s core values. He says Canada remains disturbed by ongoing reports of intimidation and incarceration of political leaders and journalists, harassment of minorities, reported disappearances and allegations of extra-judicial killings.
Harper warned previously he wouldn’t attend the meeting. Parliamentary secretary Deepak Obhrai will now represent Canada.
Harper also said on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in Indonesia that Canada will examine its financing of the Commonwealth.
