{"id":125891,"date":"2014-06-14T11:55:58","date_gmt":"2014-06-14T06:25:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=125891"},"modified":"2014-06-19T05:55:38","modified_gmt":"2014-06-19T00:25:38","slug":"full-statement-unps-stance-on-sri-lanka-investigation-govt-must-cooperate-with-unhrc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/full-statement-unps-stance-on-sri-lanka-investigation-govt-must-cooperate-with-unhrc\/","title":{"rendered":"Full Statement: UNP’s Stance On Sri Lanka Investigation; Govt. Must Cooperate With UNHRC"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Rajapaksa regime is once again playing politics with the national question and\u00a0toying with\u00a0the grave threat\u00a0that it is\u00a0posing\u00a0in the international arena. After the\u00a0recent announcement by the\u00a0United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights\u00a0of\u00a0the establishment of her team to investigate\u00a0the\u00a0atrocities committed by both parties to the Sri Lankan conflict, the government,\u00a0in a blatant attempt to\u00a0politicize\u00a0the\u00a0issue,\u00a0has placed before parliament the question of whether the Government should allow the team to visit Sri Lanka\u00a0or not.<\/p>\n

\"Ranil<\/a>The burning question before us today is not the issuance of visas to a few foreigners. Whether they visit Sri Lanka or not, is not going to have any effect on whether the investigation would be held or not;\u00a0this investigation will\u00a0go\u00a0ahead. What we should do and what the United\u00a0National\u00a0Party<\/span><\/a> (UNP)\u00a0has been stressing for many years\u00a0is\u00a0the necessity to prevent\u00a0such international\u00a0scrutiny into\u00a0our affairs.\u00a0It is beyond dispute that\u00a0we are in this precarious plight today\u00a0because of\u00a0the\u00a0egregious\u00a0errors\u00a0committed by and the lackadaisical\u00a0inaction\u00a0displayed by the ruling family cabal.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0international community,\u00a0after\u00a0offering\u00a0the Sri Lankan government numerous opportunities to carry out a credible internal investigation into the alleged human rights violations, especially in\u00a0relation to\u00a0the final phase of the war, has determined that the Rajapaksa regime is\u00a0neither\u00a0willing\u00a0nor capable\u00a0of such action. It needs to be recalled that it was President Rajapaksa<\/span><\/a> who himself pledged to the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon<\/a> in May 2009 that he\u00a0would\u00a0undertake an internal investigation to look into the alleged incidents in the last phase of the war. President Rajapaksa also promised that he would\u00a0implement the 13th Amendment<\/span><\/a>\u00a0to the\u00a0full. This pledge has been repeated for the consumption of the international community.\u00a0After\u00a0being duped for years,\u00a0the international wheels of justice have now begun to turn.<\/p>\n

The fundamental tenet of international jurisdiction is that the local justice system has failed to deliver a credible remedy to victims. What the Rajapaksa regime has done since the day it assumed power\u00a0is the systematic destruction of\u00a0the judicial system in the\u00a0country. By illegally impeaching\u00a0the\u00a0Chief Justice,\u00a0Dr.\u00a0Shirani Bandaranayake<\/span><\/a>,\u00a0the first female Chief Justice in our two hundred year old Supreme Court, and the subsequent appointment of a puppet Chief Justice along with a long line of stooges\u00a0and political friends\u00a0to the highest court in the land,\u00a0the Rajapaksa administration has demonstrated to the people and to the international community that\u00a0Sri Lanka\u00a0no longer has a functioning, independent judiciary.<\/p>\n

Furthermore,\u00a0the draconian and dictatorial policies of family rule have also\u00a0shown that Sri Lanka is no longer a country where the rule of law and good governance-principles are upheld, prerequisites\u00a0to\u00a0accountability,\u00a0in any\u00a0country.\u00a0Repealing the 17th Amendment<\/span><\/a> to the constitution and hounding the media and other dissenting\u00a0voices and\u00a0forces, increasing acts of violence against religious and ethnic minorities which are clearly orchestrated by groups with\u00a0aiding and abetting\u00a0of the ruling regime,\u00a0further cast doubts on the Government\u2019s genuine commitment to reconciliation.\u00a0Continuing abductions, torture, intimidation of the media,\u00a0militarization\u00a0of every aspect of social and economic spaces, blatant corruption, nepotism and the glaring impunity with which the ruling elite flout the norms and laws of human rights have all contributed to bring Sri Lanka to the brink of\u00a0an abyss and the\u00a0international\u00a0community now has taken notice of that dangerous spectacle.<\/p>\n

The UNP has repeatedly\u00a0asked\u00a0the ruling regime to address these international challenges\u00a0head-on. Rather than hiding behind\u00a0a\u00a0nationalist, jingoist propaganda\u00a0veil, the Government should\u00a0realize\u00a0that there is a serious\u00a0issue\u00a0of human rights in this country. When the Rajapaksa Administration unleashed the Army on innocent people at Weliweriya<\/span><\/a>,\u00a0whose only crime was to demand safe drinking water and massacred innocent school children,\u00a0the truth dawned on many in the South\u00a0as to what\u00a0this regime had done to our own people in the North. Even at the cost of political expediency the UNP has always stood for the rights of all our citizens and we have continuously offered the Government our support to re-establish the rule of law in this country.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s\u00a0never\u00a0too\u00a0late. International challenges can still be effectively\u00a0faced and resolved.\u00a0What is required\u00a0from the regime is the political will. The resolution passed in March this year at the Human Rights Council allows for a window of opportunity for the Sri Lankan government to carry out a credible internal investigation. This would prove that we are capable of handling our own issues. In the meantime,\u00a0by blanket refusal to engage with the team of investigators appointed by the UN Human Rights Commissioner, Sri Lanka is admitting guilt and depriving itself of an opportunity to make its case. This would not only be an injustice to the valiant soldiers who sacrificed so much for this country but a betrayal of all our people who will have to suffer the consequences of international action.<\/p>\n

The UNP calls on the government to cooperate with the UNHRC. The mandate of the team also involves investigating the atrocities carried out by the LTTE. The Government should at least present to the investigators the crimes committed by the Tigers.\u00a0And it is rather\u00a0ironic\u00a0that some members of the LTTE who committed inhuman crimes such as\u00a0the murder of\u00a042 Buddhist Monks in Aranthalawa are now\u00a0Cabinet Ministers in this very Government whose\u00a0catchphrase\u00a0is patriotism and love for the motherland.\u00a0In their\u00a0own\u00a0midst\u00a0is\u00a0the main weapons procurer of the LTTE, the infamous KP,\u00a0the\u00a0self-proclaimed\u00a0leader of the group after the demise of Prabhakaran;\u00a0one time deputy leader Hon. Vinayagamoorthu Muralidaran alias Karuna Amman\u00a0(the man responsible for the killing of 42 Buddhist Monks)\u00a0who sits in Parliament as a member of the government and is also the Vice President of the SLFP. These individuals have been responsible for heinous crimes including the attempted assassination of\u00a0the then\u00a0President, Chandrika Kumaratunga<\/span><\/a> and the massacre of hundreds of policemen in the eastern province who had surrendered to the LTTE. Accountability can start\u00a0now and\u00a0here. Yet with all\u00a0real\u00a0Tigers in the ranks\u00a0of the cushy Government benches, the Government persists in labelling all other progressive forces in the country as terrorists and traitors.<\/p>\n

The UNP stands prepared to support the\u00a0Government\u00a0to restore the systems and institutions of democratic governance,\u00a0provided\u00a0it will pledge to restore the 17th Amendment and\u00a0prioritize\u00a0a return to\u00a0civilized\u00a0values and the rule of law. The UNP believes in a Sri Lanka that is unified, democratic and truly free. We have no interest in seeing our nation being relegated to\u00a0a \u2018pariah\u2019\u00a0status in the\u00a0international arena. We were once a respected country among the community of\u00a0civilized\u00a0nations.\u00a0The Rajapaksa\u00a0regime might want to\u00a0drag this\u00a0country\u00a0to the\u00a0pits,\u00a0by force of their\u00a0own\u00a0short-sighted\u00a0racist policies and incompetency in handling foreign affairs.\u00a0The\u00a0UNP is not willing to\u00a0stand idly by and\u00a0allow all the people of this land to pay for the sins of the ruling\u00a0clan.<\/p>\n

*Statement Issued by the United National Party<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":2859,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,1,6969,2375],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-125891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-news","category-popular-stories","category-stories"],"yoast_head":"\nFull Statement: UNP's Stance On Sri Lanka Investigation; Govt. 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