Italian FM to brief EU states on GSP+

An inter-religious delegation headed by Colombo Archbishop Most Rev. Dr. Malcolm Ranjith, and composed of Chief Incumbent of the Bellanwila Raja Maha Viharaya Venerable Bellanwila Wimalaratana Nayaka Thera, Ven. Kamburugamuwe Vajira Thera, Hindu Vidyanithi Brahmasri Kuhananda Sarma, Muslim Affairs Coordinator Venerator Alhaj Moulavi Viyas Mohamed JP, and Rev. Fr. Damian Fernando together with Ambassador of Sri Lanka in Italy Hemantha Warnakulasuriya, met Foreign Affairs Minister of Italy Franco Frattini, and the other members of his delegation, (Deputy Director General of the Asia Desk) Enzo Angeloni, Economides (Chief of Cabinet of the Minister) Alain Giorgio Maria and Chief of Press Office to the Minister Maurizio Massari).

Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini thanked the inter-religious delegation for having enlightened him and the Foreign Affairs Ministry on the current situation in Sri Lanka. The Foreign Minister assured that the Italian Government will under no circumstances deprive of the benefits of the GSP+ concession on the women and children.

He said, the Italian Government could see the position of Sri Lankan Government much clearly, and I would request the Sri Lankan Ambassador to submit a report with the full statistics with regard to the resettlement process and the negative impact the suspension of the GSP+ scheme will have on the women, especially the factory workers. Once this information is available, I will discuss it with the Italian President and Prime Minister, to enlighten the other EU member states, who are not aware of the situation in the country, especially in light of the information given by this important inter-religious delegation and by the Ambassador'.

Archbishop Malcolm Ranjith said the inter-religious delegation is an independent delegation, and not a political one. It does not represent the position of the Sri Lankan Government.

It represents the position of the four major religions. Archbishop Malcolm Ranjith further said the suspension of the GSP+ concessions will only worsen the human rights situation, and negatively affect women and children.

As the inter-religious delegation represents all ethnic groups, it made an appeal to ensure that the GSP+ concessions are granted without any suspension, as it would aggravate the human rights situation in Sri Lanka.

After the war was over, when peace finally settled, we found that more than 250,000 people were displaced due to the LTTE. The Government had the onerous task of providing food, water and shelter to those IDPs. Out of these 250,000 people, over 100,000 have been resettled.

The IDPs are an example of people ravaged by war. If the GSP+ concessions are suspended, this would have a negative impact on the poor and underprivileged of the country, especially women and children.

Over one million people depend on the GSP+ scheme, working in the factories. Of these, 95% are women.

The Ambassador said the human rights concerns expressed by the EU are due to the terrorist actions of the LTTE; long before it started terrorism, the Sinhalese youth also took up arms in 1983.

Foreign Minister Frattini explained that there will be the Council meeting in December, where every single country will be able to vote, and most of these countries will not know the real situation in Sri Lanka.