{"id":128129,"date":"2014-07-22T16:56:01","date_gmt":"2014-07-22T11:26:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=128129"},"modified":"2014-08-01T04:42:00","modified_gmt":"2014-07-31T23:12:00","slug":"rajapaksa-wants-war-crime-investigation-he-should-reveal-why-a-major-policy-change-unp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/rajapaksa-wants-war-crime-investigation-he-should-reveal-why-a-major-policy-change-unp\/","title":{"rendered":"Rajapaksa Wants War Crime Investigation, He Should Reveal Why A Major Policy Change: UNP"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: left;\" align=\"right\">A proclamation issued by President <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Mahinda+Rajapaksa&amp;x=5&amp;y=3\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Mahinda Rajapaksa<\/span><\/a> and Gazetted on July 15, among other matters, calls for investigation into alleged <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=war+crimes&amp;x=5&amp;y=7\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">war crimes<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0For this purpose, the terms of reference of the Commission of Inquiry probing disappearances has been expanded. Three\u00a0international advisors,\u00a0who have prosecuted at UN war crimes tribunals, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/international-advisory-council-appointed-to-advise-on-domestic-missing-persons-probe\/\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">have been appointed<\/span><\/a>. More are to be\u00a0added.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_45079\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/Ranil-Wickramasinghe-1-colombo-telegraph.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-45079\" class=\"size-full wp-image-45079\" alt=\"The UNP leader\" src=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/Ranil-Wickramasinghe-1-colombo-telegraph.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"429\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/Ranil-Wickramasinghe-1-colombo-telegraph.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/Ranil-Wickramasinghe-1-colombo-telegraph-209x300.jpg 209w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-45079\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The UNP leader<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Since the military defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), over five years ago, the UPFA Government\u00a0has consistently\u00a0maintained that no\u00a0war crime\u00a0probes were necessary\u00a0since Sri Lankan troops have not committed any\u00a0of them.\u00a0This position has been enunciated at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva and locally at different occasions.<\/p>\n<p>Addressing the nation on Victory Day, President Rajapaksa has repeatedly re-iterated that the troops fought with the UN Human Rights Charter on one hand\u00a0and a gun\u00a0on the other. At last year\u2019s elections to Southern and Western Provincial Councils, he exhorted from public platforms that he would rather face the \u2018electric chair\u2019 than betray the troops of Sri Lanka.\u00a0These remarks quoting the President were repeated by many UPFA speakers\u00a0who also asserted that they would not allow any form of foreign interference, a position which two constituents of the UPFA have publicly taken.<\/p>\n<p>In what is clearly a complete\u00a0reversal, the Presidential proclamation now seeks a probe into such alleged war crimes. To say the least, the UPFA Government is now concurring with the views of the international community that\u00a0alleged\u00a0war crimes should be investigated.\u00a0If such a position which the UNP repeatedly requested was taken years earlier, there is no gainsaying that colossal damage to the country would have been averted. It could have also brought to question the validity of the current international investigation.<\/p>\n<p>The United National Party strongly believes that both President Rajapaksa and his UPFA Government\u00a0should reveal\u00a0to the public why a\u00a0major\u00a0policy change on such an important matter was made\u00a0secretly. The UNP notes\u00a0with serious concern\u00a0that this\u00a0course of action has been without any recourse to the Cabinet of Ministers.\u00a0If indeed they were briefed, this has not been made public.\u00a0Nor has the UPFA Government informed Parliament.<\/p>\n<p>It is\u00a0ironic\u00a0that when the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) was tasked to conduct an international investigation into alleged war crimes, the UPFA Government moved a resolution in Parliament\u00a0last month.\u00a0The aim\u00a0was to obtain the support of opposition political parties represented there.<\/p>\n<p>The text of that resolution said\u00a0\u201c\u2026..\u00a0this Parliament resolves that the investigation to be conducted against Sri Lanka by the office\u00a0of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights should not be\u00a0carried out on the ground that such a course of action is detrimental to the process of\u00a0reconciliation and peace and that it erodes the sovereignty, dignity and stature of Sri\u00a0Lanka.\u201d\u00a0The UNP did not support this move since it was\u00a0full\u00a0aware of the UPFA Government\u2019s duplicitous approach. This is why the Party moved amendments.<\/p>\n<p>Having sought\u00a0unsuccessfully\u00a0to\u00a0obtain the support of the opposition to\u00a0stall an OHCHR investigation\u00a0saying it was detrimental to peace and reconciliation, the UPFA Government has surreptitiously taken measures to conduct a domestic investigation.\u00a0In\u00a0doing so,\u00a0it has chosen to ignore the Cabinet of Ministers, the Parliament and the people of Sri Lanka.\u00a0Why are they hiding the truth from the public?<\/p>\n<p>Worse enough the MP&#8217;s who voted in favour of the resolution now stand exposed.<\/p>\n<p>They\u00a0should be told why President Mahinda\u00a0Rajapaksa,\u00a0who boasted he would sit in an \u2018electric chair\u2019 than betray\u00a0soldiers,has now done an about turn and that too quite secretly.\u00a0The UNP\u00a0strongly believes\u00a0the public should\u00a0also\u00a0know\u00a0whether the actions\u00a0are in the best interests of Sri Lanka or are the outcome of ignorant, shady\u00a0but powerful\u00a0brokers\u00a0who\u00a0are\u00a0on an adventure wrapping up secret\u00a0diplomatic\u00a0deals\u00a0behind the backs of the people.\u00a0This is whilst the country\u2019s diplomatic missions have become havens for jobs\u00a0to mostly unqualified friends and relatives of UPFA leaders. They\u00a0owe it to the people to tell them the truth.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\" align=\"right\"><em><b>*Statement Issued by the United National Party\u00a0<\/b><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":45079,"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-128129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-news","category-popular-stories","category-stories"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Rajapaksa Wants War Crime Investigation, He Should Reveal Why A Major Policy Change: UNP - Colombo Telegraph<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/rajapaksa-wants-war-crime-investigation-he-should-reveal-why-a-major-policy-change-unp\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Rajapaksa Wants War Crime Investigation, He Should Reveal Why A Major Policy Change: UNP - Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/rajapaksa-wants-war-crime-investigation-he-should-reveal-why-a-major-policy-change-unp\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-07-22T11:26:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-07-31T23:12:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/Ranil-Wickramasinghe-1-colombo-telegraph.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"300\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"429\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/rajapaksa-wants-war-crime-investigation-he-should-reveal-why-a-major-policy-change-unp\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/rajapaksa-wants-war-crime-investigation-he-should-reveal-why-a-major-policy-change-unp\/\",\"name\":\"Rajapaksa Wants War Crime Investigation, He Should Reveal Why A Major Policy Change: UNP - Colombo Telegraph\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/rajapaksa-wants-war-crime-investigation-he-should-reveal-why-a-major-policy-change-unp\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/rajapaksa-wants-war-crime-investigation-he-should-reveal-why-a-major-policy-change-unp\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/Ranil-Wickramasinghe-1-colombo-telegraph.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-07-22T11:26:01+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-07-31T23:12:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/rajapaksa-wants-war-crime-investigation-he-should-reveal-why-a-major-policy-change-unp\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/rajapaksa-wants-war-crime-investigation-he-should-reveal-why-a-major-policy-change-unp\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/rajapaksa-wants-war-crime-investigation-he-should-reveal-why-a-major-policy-change-unp\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/Ranil-Wickramasinghe-1-colombo-telegraph.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/Ranil-Wickramasinghe-1-colombo-telegraph.jpg\",\"width\":\"300\",\"height\":\"429\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/rajapaksa-wants-war-crime-investigation-he-should-reveal-why-a-major-policy-change-unp\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Rajapaksa Wants War Crime Investigation, He Should Reveal Why A Major Policy Change: UNP\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/\",\"name\":\"Colombo Telegraph\",\"description\":\"In journalism truth is a process\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3\",\"name\":\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920b3181b0bf86b5c339ad9f0963a89f6a8b19c4b971e629987a021ba7a663df?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920b3181b0bf86b5c339ad9f0963a89f6a8b19c4b971e629987a021ba7a663df?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/author\/colombo_telegraph\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Rajapaksa Wants War Crime Investigation, He Should Reveal Why A Major Policy Change: UNP - Colombo Telegraph","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/rajapaksa-wants-war-crime-investigation-he-should-reveal-why-a-major-policy-change-unp\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Rajapaksa Wants War Crime Investigation, He Should Reveal Why A Major Policy Change: UNP - Colombo Telegraph","og_description":"[&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/rajapaksa-wants-war-crime-investigation-he-should-reveal-why-a-major-policy-change-unp\/","og_site_name":"Colombo Telegraph","article_published_time":"2014-07-22T11:26:01+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-07-31T23:12:00+00:00","og_image":[{"width":300,"height":429,"url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/Ranil-Wickramasinghe-1-colombo-telegraph.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/rajapaksa-wants-war-crime-investigation-he-should-reveal-why-a-major-policy-change-unp\/","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/rajapaksa-wants-war-crime-investigation-he-should-reveal-why-a-major-policy-change-unp\/","name":"Rajapaksa Wants War Crime Investigation, He Should Reveal Why A Major Policy Change: UNP - Colombo Telegraph","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/rajapaksa-wants-war-crime-investigation-he-should-reveal-why-a-major-policy-change-unp\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/rajapaksa-wants-war-crime-investigation-he-should-reveal-why-a-major-policy-change-unp\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/Ranil-Wickramasinghe-1-colombo-telegraph.jpg","datePublished":"2014-07-22T11:26:01+00:00","dateModified":"2014-07-31T23:12:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/rajapaksa-wants-war-crime-investigation-he-should-reveal-why-a-major-policy-change-unp\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/rajapaksa-wants-war-crime-investigation-he-should-reveal-why-a-major-policy-change-unp\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/rajapaksa-wants-war-crime-investigation-he-should-reveal-why-a-major-policy-change-unp\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/Ranil-Wickramasinghe-1-colombo-telegraph.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/Ranil-Wickramasinghe-1-colombo-telegraph.jpg","width":"300","height":"429"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/rajapaksa-wants-war-crime-investigation-he-should-reveal-why-a-major-policy-change-unp\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Rajapaksa Wants War Crime Investigation, He Should Reveal Why A Major Policy Change: UNP"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/","name":"Colombo Telegraph","description":"In journalism truth is a process","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3","name":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920b3181b0bf86b5c339ad9f0963a89f6a8b19c4b971e629987a021ba7a663df?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920b3181b0bf86b5c339ad9f0963a89f6a8b19c4b971e629987a021ba7a663df?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH"},"url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/author\/colombo_telegraph\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/Ranil-Wickramasinghe-1-colombo-telegraph.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=128129"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128129\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":128602,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128129\/revisions\/128602"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}