Sri Lankan president vows to strengthen provincial governments to share power with Tamil minority

Published August 9, 2023 4:00 AM

By KRISHAN FRANCIS
Associated Press

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lanka’s president says he will strengthen provincial governments to meet long-standing demands for self-rule from the ethnic Tamil minority, an issue that led to a bloody quarter-century civil war in the island nation. The provincial councils were introduced in Sri Lanka in 1987 after neighboring India intervened to resolve the ethnic conflict. President Ranil Wickremesinghe in a speech to Parliament on Wednesday said he will take steps to prevent confusion, overlap and intervention from the central government in provinces exercising their powers. But he said it is not possible to allow provinces to exercise police powers immediately.

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