Govt. to delegation to discuss UN report with non-aligned members

Friday, 6 May 2011 02:13 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

The Government yesterday said it will send a delegation including External Affairs Minister Prof. G.L. Peiris to meet the representatives of Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) during its foreign ministerial meeting in Bali, Indonesia on 26 and 27 May to discuss the UN report.

The government said it will also send a detailed response to the report by the Panel of Experts appointed by the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to advise him on Sri Lanka’s accountability during the last phase of the war against Tamil Tiger terrorists.

The response will detail the ongoing post-war development process in the former rebel-controlled North and East and the drawbacks that would cause to the reconciliation process by the “Darusman Report”.

External Affairs Minister has said that the three-member panel, led by Marzuki Darusman, former Attorney general of Indonesia, was prejudiced from the beginning.

“The prejudice was clearly evident from the way they (the panel) described the LTTE as a most disciplined and nationalist Tamil organization,” the Minister has said.

Prof. Peiris observing that the Panel has concluded that ‘Sri Lanka war ended tragically, amidst controversy’ has questioned whether the panel considered the ending of the war tragic because, in its opinion, the wrong side had won. Sri Lanka rejected the Panel’s report as fundamentally flawed and based on patently biased materials.

The Minister pointed out that the Panel is an advisory body to the UNSG and it was a basic misnomer to call its report as a ‘UN report’.

A clear distinction has to be made between the Advisory Panel and the UN and that the report had no stature as a UN document, he has said.

The Sri Lankan government has coined the term ‘Darusman Report’.

Emphasizing that Sri Lanka has a cordial relationship with the United Nations Prof. Peiris has reiterated the government’s commitment to continue to work with the UN.