Delhi urges Colombo to share power with Tamils

COLOMBO: India urged Sri Lanka yesterday to honor international pledges and share political power with ethnic Tamils after Colombo signaled it will dilute an Indian-brokered devolution plan.
India’s National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon ended a two-day trip to Colombo urging an “early political settlement and national reconciliation,” the Indian High Commission said in a statement.
Menon met President Mahinda Rajapakse and stressed the need for peace with the Tamil community after Tamil Tiger rebels were crushed in May 2009. “He also emphasized the need for adhering to the commitments made by the Sri Lankan government to India and the international community on a political settlement...” it said.
Menon said he wanted to Sri Lanka to build on a devolution plan drawn up after a 1987 Indo-Sri Lanka peace accord, but never fully implemented in the island’s Tamil-dominated areas. His visit came as Sri Lanka announced plans to reduce the power of local councils, before the first-ever provincial elections in the island’s Tamil-majority former war zone in September.