JAFFNA : The North-East Coordinating Committee in Jaffna on Thursday, April 3, handed a petition to Indian mission in Jaffna requesting the Indian prime minister Narendra Modi to help them with an “Ensuring an Irrevocable Federal Framework for Power-Sharing in the Merged North-Eastern Region of Sri Lanka,” during his visit to Colombo on Friday April
On this day, 3rd of April 2025, we the North – East Coordinating Committee, a network
of civil society organizations functioning in all eight Districts of Northern and Eastern
Provinces of Sri-Lanka, make an open appeal to the Hon. Indian Prime Minister Shri
Narendra Modi to extend the valuable support of the Indian Government to
permanently resolve the long-standing national question of Sri-Lanka.
Hon. Prime Minister,
As a friendly neighbouring country, India always comes to support Sri-Lanka in its
calamities. We always gratefully remember India’s extraordinary support during Sri-
Lanka’s 2022 Economic Crisis. We also remember the India’s role as a mediator to
resolve the national question of Sri-Lanka in 1980s.
The 13th Amendment which was introduced to the 1978 Constitution of Sri-Lanka by
the Indo – Lanka accord has ensured certain rights to the Tamil speaking people of
Northen and Eastern Provinces as well as Sri-Lanka as a whole:
1) Northern and Eastern Provinces were merged and for the merged North
Eastern Province, provincial governance was granted.
2) Tamil Language also accepted as an Official and Administrative Language for
Northern and Eastern provinces of Sri-Lanka.
3) Provincial High Courts were established, and appellate jurisdiction has been
granted to the Provincial High Courts.
The main objective of the Indo – Lanka accord was to resolve the national question
and to share power to the Tamil speaking people of Northern and Eastern Provinces.
However, the 13th Amendment has not guaranteed people of Northern and Eastern
provinces a permanent power sharing with sovereign rights. The Executive President
of Sri-Lanka can exercise his/ her supreme power to disable the functions of the
Provincial Government is another hindrance in this Provincial Governance System.
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As an Unfortunate event, in 2006 the Supreme Court of Sri-Lanka declared the merger
of Northern Eastern Provinces were “null and void and illegal”. This is a political set
back to the Tamil speaking people of this region.
More than 35 years have been passed that the 13th Amendment was adopted into the
Sri-Lanka’s Constitution. During this period the country had gone through more than
two decades of civil war that came to end in 2009. Serious Human Rights and
Humanitarian violations were committed against civilians during the war and
immediate post war context.
The subsequent governments that have come to power failed to ensure power sharing
to Northern and Eastern Provinces and extended the militarization, systematic Sinhala
colonization, Buddhisization, and have denied the language and cultural rights of the
Tamil speaking people. Various types of state sponsored threats and violations are
continuing. The political, social, cultural and economical rights of the Tamil speaking
people of these areas have been undermined by the state policies and practices.
Based on our past and present experiences, that the power sharing method enshrined
in the 13th Amendment is not a sustainable method and any time the Government of
Sri-Lanka can revoke the provincial power. Therefore, Tamil speaking people of
Northern and Eastern Provinces firmly believe that the Federal Method Power-Sharing
will be the only permanent method that would guarantee a dignified and righteous life
to us.
Hon. Prime Minister,
We welcome and highly honour your official visit to Sri-Lanka and make this open
appeal to you to extend the valuable support of the Indian Government to create an
irrevocable federal method power sharing to merged North Eastern Province of Sri-Lanka
