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Wednesday Dec 11, 2024
Tuesday, 10 May 2016 00:20 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
Regaining the GSP Plus facility by betraying the country’s sovereignty will not be an achievement as the Government is pretending, the Pivithuru Hela Urumaya (PHU) claimed yesterday.
Commenting on the European Union’s (EU) conditions for the Government to regain GSP Plus, PHU Leader Udaya Gammanpila charged that Sri Lanka did not want to adopt those conditions because it had no agreement with the international community over power devolving and amending the Constitution.
PHU Leader Udaya Gammanpila (centre) addressing the media. PHU Ratmalana organiser Daya Tennakoon (left) and PHU Media Secretary Thushara Dissanayake (right) are also present
The news reports said the EU had imposed 58 conditions in order to enable GSP Plus including abolishing the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), introducing a new Human Rights Action Plan, reviewing the status of Tamil diaspora organisations and individuals in the terrorist list, devolving power under the new Constitution, returning all private lands to owners in the north, adopting a policy of National Reconciliation and National Resettlements and ratifying the Convention on Enforced Disappearances.
Gammanpila charged the EU was trying to use GSP Plus as a trick to interfere in Sri Lanka’s internal environment.
“No outsider has the right to demand constitutional reforms of a country and especially no one can force us to abolish the PTA. If the Government agrees to those conditions, it will put the country at risk,” he claimed.
Gammanpila added that GSP Plus would not be important after the country was split into pieces because of these conditions. (CG)
