Sri Lanka was firm at the UNHRC sessions on the dismissal of war crimes, not taking action against the war heroes, not including international judges in a domestic inquiry and non-acceptance of Geneva imposed time tables, UPFA MP Dr. Sarath Amunugama said.
Dr. Amunugama, who attended the UNHRC session in Geneva, told Parliament yesterday that Sri Lanka had changed its approach to the UNHRC this time making it clear in writing that Sri Lanka’s Constitution does not provide for international judges in the country’s judicial system.
Opening the Committee stage debate of the ‘Budget 2019’ in Parliament yesterday when the Expenditure Heads of Foreign Affairs Ministry and Tourism Development, Wildlife and Christian Religious Affairs Ministry were taken up, the MP said there is positive feedback within the country on the new approach at the UNHRC.
He thanked President Maithripala Sirisena stating that the President’s intervention led to the change of strategies Sri Lanka followed at the UNHRC.
He also questioned the integrity of Canada, the UK and Germany in sponsoring the UNHRC Resolution on Sri Lanka.
“These countries are driven by Tamil diaspora community in them.What they are keen is to secure their votes. They would not change their stances despite how much we try to explain. They merely cater to aspirations of the diaspora,” Dr.Amunugama remarked.
“In contrast, we saw how China spoke in favour of Sri Lanka. India also made it clear that what it wants is the full implementation of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution. That is not a big challenge for Sri Lanka. Devolving power to the Provincial Councils through the 13A is already the country’s law. The President has appointed a multi-party committee headed by me to look into power devolution to the PCs under the 13 A. We are discussing on it,” he commented.
Rejecting the information in the OHCHR report on human casualties during the war, the MP said UN officials had furnished false information to the UN Human Rights Commissioner. “What the report says on human casualties is a blatant lie. Former High Commissioner Navaneethan Pillay is no more at the Geneva office, but her close associates are still there.They feed in wrong information,” he said.
“We did not agree on any time-table to complete the tasks in the 2015 Resolution.We proceed on them depending on our capacity, resources and talents. Nobody in Geneva can make time tables for us. Also, there must be an end to this. It is ten years since the war ended. This issue could not be taken up at the UNHRC every year. We made it clear that no action will be taken against any war hero.We completely reject the war crimes,” he stressed.
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