The National Peace Council (NPC) has urged the government to address the missing persons issue and to conduct the Provincial Council polls. The NPC issued the following statement as Sri Lanka marked the 14th anniversary of the armed forces’ triumph over the LTTE: “The country will be commemorating the 14th anniversary of the end of the war that dragged on for nearly three decades, on May 18. The war which ended bloodily on the battlefield continues to exert its baleful influence over the life of the people. Tens of thousands of families will mourn the loss of their loved ones while thousands of others will be hoping that their missing loved ones will reappear soon. Typically, the government has organised events to mark the war victory on May 19, which is reflective of majority sentiment in the country.

The National Peace Council believes that while the war is over the problems that gave rise to it, and new ones that have arisen from it, continue to trouble the country and detract from its ability to reach its full potential. The country continues to be like a family divided, which cannot succeed until it heals its divisions and cannot succeed until it heals its divisions, which requires statesmanlike leadership with a vision for a truly reconciled Sri Lanka.

The most urgent of unfinished task is to deal with the issue of missing persons in a manner that satisfies the sentiments of the people that the state has cared for them in their grief and justice is done. Second is to ensure that the Provincial Council system of devolution of power is implemented fully according to the Constitution, Provincial elections held without further delay and adequate financial resources are made available to them. It is also essential that the power of the Governor, provided under the Provincial Council act, needs to be revisited to provide more power to the elected councils to ensure that the people’s representations are prioritized.

There are other unfinished tasks as well but we believe that if there is genuine willingness to address the two above, the rest will follow. There is urgency in undertaking these tasks for the sake of national reconciliation within the country and to ward off the growing threat of international political and economic sanctions that have begun to bite in the form of travel bans for war crimes and the need to retain the GSP Plus economic concession.

The National Peace Council welcomes the president’s direct engagement with the Tamil political parties in discussions, which have been positively received both nationally and internationally. We call on the president to inform the people about his intentions in this regard, and the government to engage on the issue with the opposition political parties, so that the agreements reached are inclusive and have a maximum of support from all the ethnic and religious communities in the country. “