The Chief Minister of the Northern Provincial Council called for an inquiry into the violence between Sinhala and Tamil student at Jaffna University on Saturday, and said the “underlying causes” of the tensions must be resolved.

“Such incidents should not be viewed from a purely criminal law standpoint,” said the Chief Minister CV Wigneswaran, in a statement co-signed with the leader of the opposition of the NPC S Thavarasa. “We must first try to find out the underlying causes that led to their violent behaviour... This would ensure that such incidents will not be repeated.”

The unprecedented move to issue a joint statement was acknowledged by the two, who said “We have both come together to issue a joint statement to show the world that the Northern Provincial Council views such incidents beyond the mundane political differences that usually engulf us”.

Calling for a “full fledged Commission of Inquiry into all aspects of the incidents” the statement went on to add,

“At a time when the demographic pattern of the North and East after the War is being consciously changed, when the independent War Crimes' Inquiry is being dragged on indefinitely, when students from other Provinces are being admitted in large numbers into the Jaffna University, when such entrants are bent on forcing their arts and cultural background on the Jaffna soil, when there is reluctance and delay on the part of the powers in delivering political solution that would allow Tamils to look after their political affairs in their areas of historical habitation, when there is a tendency to retain in the Province the military in far excess of its needs (seven years after the War) – all these activities must be considered by such a Commission”.

See the full text of the statement here.