President keen on minority aspirations

President Mahinda Rajapaksa has advised the government’s peace delegation to take into account a report by the Panel of Experts on the aspirations of the country’s minorities.

The Sub Committee of the Panel of Experts in their report had made recommendations for eight areas of concerns and grievances of Tamil and Muslim communities, which need to be addressed immediately.

During the meeting with the government delegation for the for peace talks in Switzerland, the President also outlined some of the core issues that government intended to focus on during the forthcoming peace talks. These included democracy, multi-party elections, tolerant of political dissent, human rights, child soldiers, development of the North and East and devolution issues.

The President also instructed the government delegation that the minority concerns identified by the Panel of Experts should need to be addressed soon.

The Panel of Experts has made recommendations and provided guide lines for addressing these grievances, many of which can be attended to without constitutional amendments.

Among the recommendations made in the report of the Panel of Experts are the difficulties faced by minorities during their interactions with the state authorities due to the lack of implementation of language provisions in the constitution, ensuring personal security to eliminate the fear of violence to life and property, compensations for the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) displaced by the High Security Zones and gradual reduction of HSZ, and the acceleration of development in the North-East by ensuring that there is a sufficient apportionment of funds from the Central government. The other recommendations are ensuring the land alienation under colonization schemes are effected in the ethnically just manner.

The report recommended that the special attention should be paid to the minorities and priority should be given the landless persons in the district and the province. The report has also recommended employment opportunities to the minority communities and to rectify the existing imbalances through equal opportunities employment and recruitment of staff by regional administration. It also recommended the fundamental rights chapters of the law be strengthened.

The Panel of experts has also recommended the setting up of an upper house and ensuring the adequate representation of ethnic minorities. It suggested the “adequate minority rights representation at the Centre by setting up of an upper house where two slots be given to the minority community in seven key selected cabinet portfolios. (RJ)