Ahead of visit by India’s External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar to Sri Lanka this week, President Ranil Wickremesinghe has assured to fully implement the India-brokered 13th Amendment to the Constitution, The Statesman reported.
Wickremesinghe said that the 13th Amendment, which was proposed to devolve power and solve the ethnic problem between the majority Sinhalese and the minority Tamils, would be implemented not only in the war-ravaged North but in the Sinhala majority South as well.
He announced that a statement on the government’s steps toward the reconciliation will be made public in February after discussing with the political leaders next week.
Wickremesinghe also assured that the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s work will be accelerated in order to provide relief to the families of those disappeared.
Following the intervention of India in 1987, under the Indo-Lanka Peace Accord, 13th Amendment was introduced to the Sri Lankan Constitution.