UNP tells Govt: ‘Change course now’

Saturday, 29 March 2014 00:20 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Govt.’s diplomatic, democratic failures led to this resolution, says Karu
Stop politicising international problems, says Kiriella
Main opposition says Rajapaksa Govt.’s sole reason for being is to win elections
Restore democracy, secure media freedom and stop arbitrary killings now, says UNP

By Dharisha Bastians The main opposition United National Party launched a scathing attack on the Government’s democratic and foreign policy failures yesterday, warning the ruling administration that unless it altered course now it would face damning international consequences. UNP Leadership Council Chairman Karu Jayasuriya told a press briefing at Sirikotha that it was the Government’s diplomatic and democratic failures that had resulted in the UNHRC adopting a resolution to launch a war crimes inquiry into Sri Lanka.

“This censure is distressing to the UNP. And it is the Government’s own conduct that has got it here,” Jayasuriya charged, adding that the regime had spurned the UNP’s every request to support it to conduct a credible domestic probe into the allegations. Jayasuriya said that it was tragic that the democratic countries of the world were deserting Sri Lanka, which had a long tradition of democracy itself, as evidenced by the UNHRC vote on Thursday. Scoffing at the Government’s mathematics that concluded abstentions and votes against the resolution gave Sri Lanka a majority of support in the UN Human Rights Council, UNP MP Lakshman Kiriella said by that argument the UNP would have won every election in recent years. “If you count all those who voted for the UNP and all those who refrained from casting their votes also then the opposition would have beaten the Government every time,” he quipped. Kiriella said that most countries who had voted with Sri Lanka at the UNHRC on Thursday were those that behaved in the same undemocratic way.

“Why is this government politicising this international crisis?” Kiriella said. He said the Rajapaksa Government behaved as if its sole reason for being was to contest and win elections. “Is that what people elect governments for? What about the part where they are supposed to govern? To negotiate? To work in the country’s interest internationally?” he charged. Kiriella said the UNP had repeatedly told the Government since 2012, to fix the problems as outlined the in the US resolution of that year to prevent further international action. “There are some things they can do immediately. They can restore democracy, they can ensure journalists are not attacked, they can repeal the 18th Amendment and restore the 17th Amendment; they can stop arbitrary killings. Aren’t these good things for the country? What stops the Government from doing these things?” he charged. According to Kiriella, the international process, now begun at the UNHRC is virtually irreversible. He said any attempt by the Government to prevent UN investigators from entering the country would result in an ex-parte international investigation into allegations of war crimes that could be disastrous for Sri Lanka. He said that if the Government really wanted to send a message to Geneva, it should have called elections before the vote at the UNHRC. The UNP MP said that the Government had no idea how to obtain opposition support, let alone international support. “We are citizens of this country. We will live and die here. We will support the Government if it comes to the centre. Unlike members of the ruling regime, we don’t have US citizenship to run away to that country,” Kiriella charged. He said sections of the regime were being hypocritical by attacking the US Government while holding citizenship in America. “It was not we who renounced our Sri Lankan citizenship and swore allegiance to the American flag. They did. So now what is their problem with the US?” he said.

Countries in UNHRC supporting US-led action against are now a minority – Ambassador Aryasinha

Countries supporting US led action against Sri Lanka are now a minority in the Human Rights Council, Sri Lanka’s Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva, Ambassador Ravinatha Aryasinha says. Speaking to media in Geneva following the vote on Thursday, the Ambassador said a significant point about the vote in the Human Rights Council on the resolution on Sri Lanka, was that since the US first began moving resolutions on Sri Lanka in 2012, a majority of the 47 members of the Human Rights Council - 12 countries opposing and 12 other countries abstaining - has made it clear that they do not support the action taken by the US, the UK and the other co-sponsors of the resolution to impose an international inquiry mechanism concerning Sri Lanka. “Those 24 countries, as against the 23 ( that includes 12 - EU, EU aspirants and the USA), who refused to endorse the action being taken, have sent a very clear and emphatic message rejecting imposition of external solutions on Sri Lanka, and the detrimental effect it would have on the reconciliation process,” he said. Earlier, addressing the Human Rights Council on behalf of Sri Lanka as the country concerned, Ambassador Aryasinha said Sri Lanka was disappointed to observe that a key imperative driving this resolution is not genuine concern for the welfare of the Sri Lankan people but electoral compulsions of some States at the behest of certain extreme elements with links to the LTTE. “Such biases and extreme ideologies ignore the ground realities, the legitimate aspirations of the Sri Lankan people, and trivialize the price paid by all Sri Lankans to defeat a 30-year brutal terrorist conflict and consolidate peace,” he said.