Wednesday Dec 11, 2024
Wednesday Dec 11, 2024
Friday, 4 July 2014 01:15 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
Minister Rambukwella said the UNHRC Resolution calling for investigations into atrocities committed by the LTTE as well as government troops was a strategic move to treat a legitimate government and a defeated terrorist organisation as equals.
“We are clear that a legitimate government and a terrorist organisation cannot be treated as equals,” he charged.
“The LTTE is a dead organisation,” the Spokesman said, just months after his government announced that the Tigers were regrouping in the Northern Province.
“As far as the Government of Sri Lanka is concerned, there is no one left on the ground level to hold accountable for LTTE crimes,” Minister Rambukwella emphasised.
Repeatedly questioned by journalists whether the Government did not seek to try Tiger members still among the living, including Adele Balasinhgam, Kumaran Pathmanathan and Karuna Amman, Minister Rambukwella responded that the Government had found rehabilitation and reintegration of these former LTTE leaders into the political mainstream was a better way.
“We are happy and content with our system. We are not interested in prosecuting people. We are looking at rehabilitation and absorption,” he explained.
He said that the Government of Sri Lanka had already concluded investigations into crimes and atrocities by the Tigers, from the Alfred Duraiyappah assassination right up to the Kebethigollewa attacks in 2006. “All of the evidence is there, we have provided it,” the Minister said, adding that the Government had no faith in the UN probe.
Questioned about whether the Government would permit Sri Lankan citizens to freely testify before UN investigators, the Spokesman said the Government would have to wait until the process started to decide if there was a need to take action. “We will have to decide whether there are provisions to do so,” he noted.
Govt says ‘no agenda’ for talks with RamaphosaThe Government yesterday downplayed the implications of the impending visit of South African Special Envoy to Sri Lanka, Cyril Ramaphosa to Colombo next week, amid speculation that the African nation was attempting to start tripartite talks on a political settlement to the ethnic question.
Government Spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella said there was no agenda set for talks with South African President Jacob Zuma’s special emissary, who arrives in the island on Monday (7).
“The Sri Lankan Government has always been ready for acceptable discussions with anyone,” Minister Rambukwella asserted yesterday.
The Minister added that he was not aware of the agenda or scope of the discussions with Ramaphosa.
The South African Special Envoy arrives as part of a high level four member African National Congress (ANC) delegation for talks with President Mahinda Rajapaksa, Government Ministers G.L. Peiris and Nimal Siripala De Silva and the Tamil National Alliance (TNA).
Talks of a South African-style Truth and Reconciliation Commission to address problems of reconciliation and accountability that have plagued the Government internationally, have also been in the air.
Key government constituent allies the JHU and the NFF have opposed the South African initiative, saying third party mediation would ‘internationalise’ the Sri Lankan problem. (DB) |
