The TNA’s position is that a new Resolution must be adopted at the UNHRC and Sri Lanka must agree with that and co-sponsor it yet again, TNA MP M. A. Sumanthiran said.
Joining in the Budget debate yesterday in Parliament, the MP said the Tamil community is desperate and thoroughly disappointed at the pace with which the reforms and actions that Sri Lanka has agreed to take under the UNHRC have moved.
“Sri Lanka rightly co-sponsored the UNHRC Resolution in 2015 after re-negotiating its clauses. In March 2017, Sri Lanka was given more time and the report is expected in the UNHRC on Friday. The Government of Sri Lanka has already received a copy of this report. On Wednesday, there was disturbing news that President Maithripala Sirisena would be sending three of his own representatives to Geneva and that he would be seeking the UN body to let Sri Lanka handle its own affairs.
Sri Lanka has been allowed to handle its own affairs. In 2012 and 2013, the UNHRC only urged Sri Lanka to implement its own LLRC recommendations. When that was not done an international investigation was mandated. Subsequently, it was with Sri Lanka’s consent to promote accountability and reconciliation that HRC30/1 was passed in 2015,” he said.
“We need technical assistance from the international community in this task. Sri Lanka must agree to further persuasion of the Resolution. The core group has given notice already,” he added.
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