By Taylor Dibbert
Will Tamil political prisoners in Sri Lanka really be released?
Sri Lanka recently witnessed a hunger strike by more than 200 Tamil political prisoners across the country (who were demanding that they be released). The strike lasted for about a week and has now ended. Evidently the prisoners have been promised by President Maithripala Sirisena (in writing) that he will deal with this issue by November 7. However, what happens next remains unclear. Would Sirisena really allow these prisoners to be released?
A range of people and groups (both on the island and abroad) have been demanding that the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) be repealed for quite some time. The legislation gives the country’s state security personnel wide-ranging authority to search, arrest and detain people; without a doubt, the law has had a disproportionately negative effect on the nation’s Tamil community. Realistically speaking, it’s unlikely that the PTA would be repealed in the near future, even with Mahinda Rajapaksa – the previous president whose decade in power was plagued by authoritarianism, corruption and nepotism – no longer running the country.
Though the country’s numerical minorities voted overwhelmingly for Sirisena during January’s presidential election, Sirisena’s campaign platform dealt mostly with curbing corruption, improving governance and trying to return the country to a parliamentary democracy.
When and how will Sirisena move on other (arguably more controversial) war-related matters that are of particular importance to the country’s Tamil community?
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