Thaindian News

Colombo, Sep 17 (IANS) The Sri Lankan government has agreed to formulate a political solution to the ethnic issue very soon, a key minority Tamil political party said Saturday.

The Tamil National Alliance, which had talks with the Sri Lankan government Friday, said that an agreement was also reached to look beyond the 13th Amendment to the constitution, reported Xinhua.

Under an India-Sri Lankan Accord in July 1987, the then Sri Lankan government agreed to devolve some authority to the provinces by introducing the 13th Amendment.

However the 13th Amendment had never been fully implemented and this has been a sticky point at consecutive elections in Sri Lanka with Tamils demanding more authority for their areas.

Tamil National Alliance legislator Suresh Premachandran said Saturday that the Sri Lankan government has agreed to look at the 13th Amendment and go beyond it when formulating a political solution.

The Tamil National Alliance and the Sri Lankan government, which began talks focusing on Tamil issues, suspended negotiations last month following disagreement between both sides.

However international pressure, especially from India, saw discussions resume on Friday and a joint statement later being released saying talks will continue even next month.

Premachandran said that the focus of future talks will be on reaching a final political solution to the concerns of the Tamils.

Sri Lanka fought a 30 year war against Tamil Tiger rebels who were demanding a separate state for the Tamils in the north and east of the country.

The Tamil Tigers were defeated in May 2009 and after that the Sri Lankan government said it will discuss concerns of the Tamil community by putting forward a political solution.