An Indian parliamentary delegation on Saturday asked Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa to speed up reconciliation with the Tamil minority in the island “with a sense of urgency” and take steps to de-militarize the former war zones in the north.
The 12-members of the team called on the President on the last day of its six-day visit the island and presented their perceptions of what they saw in the north and east scarred by three decades of Eelam war. The MPs urged him to deliver on his commitment to devolve powers to the Tamils.
The government should break the deadlock in talks with the main Tamil party, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and he should deliver on his promise of 'thirteen-plus'(full powers to the provincial councils) in terms of the 13th amendment proposed in the Rajiv-Jayewardene accord (1987), Ms Sushma Swaraj, leader of the delegation told President Rajapaksa.
She later told reporters that Sri Lanka should soon implement the recommendations of the 'Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission' (LLRC).
“We have brought out clearly the need for expeditious implementations of the measures proposed by the LLRC with regard to information on missing persons and detainees, investigation of cases of disappearances and abductions.
It is important that these are pursued with a sense of urgency. This is the message we have conveyed to our Sri Lankan friends”, Ms Swaraj said.
On the issue of demilitarizing the former battle zones in the north and the east, she said President Rajapaksa promised to ensure that the military would not interfere with the civilian life.
Asked about the resettlement of the war-displaced, she said she had visited one of the villages. “The pace of development is good given that the whole infrastructure was destro-yed.
There is lot to be done. There are 6,000 people in the camps wanting to go home”, she said.