Against national policy on reconciliation: Tamil perspective

ON 4 August 2025, the Cabinet of Ministers approved the development of a new National Policy and Action Plan on Reconciliation and Co-Existence, to be led by the Office for National Unity and Reconciliation (ONUR) under the Ministry of Justice.

- By J. NAVARATNAM

If such a policy is eventually adopted, it will follow the 2017 National Policy on Reconciliation and Coexistence.

That policy was framed around inclusivity and healing, while avoiding the foundational causes of conflict — impunity for mass atrocities, centralised authoritarianism, Sinhala-Buddhist nationalism, and the denial of Tamil autonomy. It offered no acknowledgement of State culpability, no structural reform, and no response to longstanding Tamil political claims.

And still, or perhaps — thus, it failed miserably. One would be hard pressed to argue that Sri Lanka is any closer to genuine inter-communal unity.

No one answered for the failures of that policy — in formulation, and in the implementation of the weak measures proposed.

Yet here we are again — facing another unilateral initiative, crafted in the same vein, wasting yet more time, and destined to repeat the same erasures.

Such a policy has never been requested by Tamil political parties, and it is certainly not a demand today. Nor — and more importantly — has an ask for such a policy ever been articulated by Tamil communities. (For that matter, one struggles to recall such a demand from any community in Sri Lanka.)

No recognition of mass killings of Tamil civilians

At the time of writing, the new Sri Lankan Government has issued no official statement on the Chemmani mass graves which, at the time of writing, have revealed the remains of at least 147 people, including children and infants. No recognition of the mass killings, rape, disappearance, and displacement of Tamil civilians during the armed conflict has been made - let alone action toward accountability.