Sri Lanka vows autonomy for Tamil minority

Sri Lanka yesterday vowed to grant greater autonomy to its Tamil minority in a new constitution after an influential Buddhist monk said the clergy opposed the plan.

President Maithripala Sirisena has said the new constitution will grant extensive autonomy to Tamils concentrated in the island's northern and eastern regions.

He has said he wants to prevent a repeat of a bloody separatist conflict that claimed 100,000 lives between 1972 and 2009.

On Tuesday the senior monk Anamaduwe Dhammadassi said the clergy opposed the plan, which would "create unnecessary problems".

But government spokesman Rajitha Senaratne said the national parliament would not roll back the process which began in April last year to draft a new statute that will be put to a referendum.