EU Parliamentary delegation visits Sri Lanka to discuss national integration and reconciliation ini

A four-member European Parliamentarian Delegation with an European Parliament Secretariat, Political Advisor and EU Sri Lankan Mission of a 10-member delegation visited Sri Lanka to study the national reconciliation initiatives and the GSP+ related matters from 31 October to 3 November. The delegation had a special meeting on 2 November at the Ministry of National Integration and Reconciliation which comes under the direct purview of President Maithripala Sirisena.

The Mission was briefed by the Secretary, Ministry of National Integration and Reconciliation V. Sivagnanasothy about the strategies, initiatives and progress on the reconciliation programs. The EU mission commended about the District Reconciliation Committee (DRC) initiative established by His Excellency the President Maithripala Sirisena through a Cabinet Decision in all 25 districts to resolve religious and ethnic tensions and to formulate district level reconciliation strategies to intervene conflict resolution through mediation, negotiation and amicable settlement. The involvement of religious dignitaries in the DRC was considered as a positive step. The EU delegation in principle agreed to extend support for the capacity building on conflict resolution especially for the DRC members. 

EU delegation also noted the recent progress made on establishing the Office of the Missing Persons (OMP) and Gazette issued to operationalise the OMP by the Minister of the National Integration and Reconciliation and the steps taken to appoint seven member Commissioners through the Constitutional Council following a transparent paper advertisement.

The Programm to inculcate integration and reconciliation to school children, youth through integration friendly school and Sunday Religious School Teaching Program was also explained to the delegation. The delegation also noted that the experiences and international best practices in other countries such as South Africa, Northern Ireland and the localisation and contextualisation of strategies were noteworthy.

The delegation was also briefed on the progress of Transitional Justice Initiative specially the 50,000 permanent housing program for the North and East Provinces and the 2,500 km of road rehabilitation programs including the livelihood support and economic empowerment program as reparation initiative through a Cabinet Memorandum submitted by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to be implemented by this Ministry.

The Economic Empowerment Program and Economic and Social Infrastructure Support Program for the Northern and Eastern Provinces were approved by the Cabinet of Ministers in October 2017 based on the Cabinet Paper submitted by President Maithripala Sirisena in his capacity as a Minister of National Integration and Reconciliation.

The EU delegation also visited the Northern Province and noted the progress made on  land release and suggested on the need to accelerate the release of lands to facilitate resettlement and emphasised that benefit of reconciliation is not restrict to one group but to all Sri Lanka. The Mission expressed that a significant progress made in the reconciliation agenda. 

The Ministry undertook peace journalism, reconciliation walk, declaration of national integration week, formulation of reconciliation policy including support for war widows, women headed families, refugee returnees, socially integrated ex-combatants, missing person’s families, disabled and internally displaced families. The Mission was also briefed the initiative on reconciliation scorecard and barometer which are supported by the UNDP and the ADB to track the reconciliation achievements, said Sivagnanasothy.

The Mission comprised of Jean Denise Lambert, Chair of the Delegation of South Asia, Ambassador Tung Lai Margue, Head of EU Mission, Richard Graham Corbett, Vice-Chair of the Delegation of South Asia, Ulrike Muller, Member of the Delegation of South Asia, Wajid Khan, Substitute Member of the Delegation of South Asia, Paul Godfrey, Counsellor, Roshan Lyman, Economic and Commercial Advisor, Shbine Susanne Colombameyer, Political Advisor and other members of the European Parliament Secretariat.