Colombo: Tamils in Sri Lanka had anticipated a change for the better with President Maithripala Sirisena’s election two years ago, but they are yet to receive solutions to their problems, main opposition leader has said.
“We do see a difference in the current government from the past one on their policies, statements and standings, but our people are yet to receive solutions to their problems. It has been over two years since this government came,” R Sampanthan said in Vavuniya town addressing a ceremony to handover houses to people displaced due to the LTTE conflict.
“Our people are still resorting to demonstrations concerning the disappearances, land issues and political prisoners.
These issues need quick solutions. Should the government fail in giving solutions then people will feel fed up with this government too,” he said.
Sampanthan’s Tamil National Alliance (TNA) supported Sirisena against his predecessor Mahinda Rajapaksa in the presidential election held in 2015 in which Rajapaksa’s nearly a decade-long rule was ended.
An overwhelming number of Tamils backed Sirisena against Rajapaksa who was banking mainly on the Sinhala majority votes to win his third term.
Sirisena’s government since 2015 has taken many measures to grant relief to the war-battered Tamils by releasing land held for military purposes.
Yet the Tamils remain unhappy on delivering justice to the victims of the conflict.
The Tamils insist on having foreign judges and investigators for probing war crimes claiming lack of confidence in the local judiciary.
The northern and eastern parts of Sri Lanka are the traditional homeland of the ethnic Tamil people where an almost three-decade-long separatist war was fought by the LTTE which ended in 2009 during the tenure of Rajapaksa. (PTI)
