The Sri Lankan president participated in Pongal, a traditional festival, and ensured the application of the 13th Amendment that provides for the restitution of power to the provinces. In response, activists organized an act demanding justice for the victims of the civil war.
Colombo () – President Ranil Wickremasinghe yesterday attended the Thai Pongal National Festival in the city of Jaffna and guaranteed the full application of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, which provides for the devolution of power to the provinces. Known as Thai Pongal or simply Pongal, it is a harvest festival celebrated in various parts of India and among the Tamil people of Sri Lanka. Victims of the civil war called a demonstration called “Free Pongal” to demand that the government release Tamil political prisoners.
“The leaders of the northern and southern provincial councils demanded the full implementation of the 13th Amendment. We are carrying out this task. Over the next two years we will continue this work systematically,” Wickremesinghe declared. He also said that a special commission will be created to build a country where everyone can live in harmony, and the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission will be accelerated.
However, the relatives of the disappeared youth protested at the president’s words: “We cannot celebrate without our rights. We do not want to celebrate without our disappeared children and husbands and without answers from the authorities,” some women said.
On the other hand, the Tamil population is demanding the return of the lands confiscated by the army during the civil conflict that devastated the country between 1983 and 2009: “Without our farmland, what is the point of celebrating Pongal?”, he told a Tamil mother from the Wanni area in the north of the country.
Instead of the Thai Pongal, some Tamil activists organized a “Free Pongal” at the University of Jaffa to demand the release of those who have been in jail (some for more than 15 years) and who, in many cases, have never received formal charges.
According to Kumanan, a young Tamil activist contacted by the event was organized by “the voiceless of the voiceless” to call for “an amnesty or a presidential pardon” for political prisoners on the occasion of the Tamil festival of Pongal or Sri Lanka’s Independence Day , which is commemorated on February 4.
Murugiah Komakan, the organization’s coordinator, led the event, which also included ex-prisoners from the Kilinochchi and Jaffna areas. Among those present was the Hindu priest Raghupathi Sharma, a Tamil political prisoner recently released by presidential pardon.
