SRI LANKA’S President Ranil Wickremesinghe vowed today to strengthen provincial governments to meet the Tamil minority’s long-standing demands for self-rule.

Self-rule was one of the major issues that led to a bloody civil war that lasted a quarter of a century until Tamil separatist rebels were defeated in 2009.

Provincial councils were introduced in Sri Lanka in 1987 after India intervened in an effort to resolve the deadly conflict, but the system has not been fully functional because the rebels rejected the deal and successive governments usurped the powers given to the provinces.

In a speech to parliament today, Mr Wickremesinghe said that he would take steps to prevent confusion, overlap and central government intervention in provinces exercising their powers.

However, the provinces will not be allowed to exercise police powers immediately, since opposition from the Sinhalese majority could derail the process, the president added.

Tamil legislators have demanded a federal system short of separation and say that the provincial system is far from meeting their demands.

Sri Lanka’s Tamils, who make up about 11 per cent of the country’s 22 million people, consider themselves a separate nation unified with the rest of the island by its British colonial rulers. 

The civil war between separatist Tamil Tiger rebels and the government broke out in 1983 after years of failed attempts to share power.

India, which has its own sizeable Tamil population, signed an agreement with Sri Lanka in 1987 to resolve the conflict through a provincial council system. 

Some armed Tamil groups accepted the deal as a starting point to be strengthened later. But the Tamil Tigers, which were the largest, rejected it and continued their fight for separation.

Sri Lankan government troops crushed the Tigers in 2009, but the government has faced international pressure since then to resolve the power-sharing dispute through talks.