{"id":178920,"date":"2017-06-20T11:22:27","date_gmt":"2017-06-20T05:52:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=178920"},"modified":"2017-06-21T10:31:26","modified_gmt":"2017-06-21T05:01:26","slug":"ensure-justice-against-hate-crimes-unp-tells-policing-authorities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/ensure-justice-against-hate-crimes-unp-tells-policing-authorities\/","title":{"rendered":"Ensure Justice Against Hate Crimes &#8211; UNP Tells Policing Authorities"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\">The United National Party has today urged the law enforcement authorities to take legal action against those responsible for hate crimes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Issuing a statement the UNP Chairperson, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Malik+Samarawickrama\">Malik Samarawickrama<\/a> said: &#8220;There is no place for religious intolerance and racial hatred in the 21st century Sri Lanka as it emerges a peaceful, stable and a strong economy and a beacon of hope for democracy.&#8221;<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_146883\" style=\"width: 260px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/malik-samarawickrama.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-146883\" class=\"size-full wp-image-146883\" src=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/malik-samarawickrama.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"250\" height=\"299\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-146883\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Malik Samarawickrama<\/p><\/div>\n<p class=\"p4\"><span class=\"s2\">&#8220;No individual or organization causing religious tensions should be allowed to escape prosecution. Sri Lanka cannot be pulled back to the dark days of war when tens of thousands of lives were lost. The economic stagnation and international isolation are things of the past.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\"><span class=\"s2\">&#8220;However, political forces relegated to the dustbin of history are attempting to exploit extremism and extremists in the hope of returning to power. The UNP, with its strong commitment to national unity and harmony, will resist such bankrupt political opportunists and urge the authorities to swiftly bring them to justice. They will not prevail,&#8221;\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"s1\">Samarawickrama further said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">We publish below the statement in full:<\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\"><span class=\"s2\">The United National Party notes with deep concern the recent attempts by subversive elements to sabotage the reconciliation efforts of the national unity government led by President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\"><span class=\"s2\">Since its founding, the UNP has remained a secular political party fostering unity while building a truly Sri Lankan identity.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\"><span class=\"s2\">The UNP welcomes the statement of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/cabinet-directs-policing-authorities-to-take-immediate-action-against-perpetrators-of-hate-crimes\/\">Cabinet of ministers<\/a>, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/ranil-wickremesinghe-june-14-2017\/\">Prime Minister<\/a> and the President to use the full force of the law against those causing religious tensions, racial hatred and undermining the efforts at reconciliation since the new government came to power.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\"><span class=\"s2\">At the January 2015 presidential election as well as the August 2015 general election, the UNP and its allies received a mandate for their reconciliation efforts. The UNP will not waver in ensuring that ethnic peace, religious harmony and rule of law are maintained.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\"><span class=\"s2\">A corner stone of every religion is non-violence and the respect for others. Those who spread hate and instigate violence are only undermining the faiths they claim to protect.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\"><span class=\"s2\">The UNP joins the President and the Prime Minister in urging the law enforcement authorities to\u00a0bring to justice those responsible for hate crimes. There is no place for religious intolerance and racial hatred in the 21st century Sri Lanka as it emerges a peaceful, stable and a strong economy and a beacon of hope for democracy.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\"><span class=\"s2\">No individual or organization causing religious tensions should be allowed to escape prosecution. Sri Lanka cannot be pulled back to the dark days of war when tens of thousands of lives were lost.\u00a0 The economic stagnation and international isolation are things of the past.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\"><span class=\"s2\">However, political forces relegated to the dustbin of history are attempting to exploit extremism and extremists in the hope of returning to power. The UNP, with its strong commitment to national unity and harmony, will resist such bankrupt political opportunists and urge the authorities to swiftly bring them to justice. They will not prevail.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\"><span class=\"s2\">The UNP has faith in the vast majority of Sri Lankans to protect the freedoms they enjoy under the new unity government of President Sirisena and Prime Minister Wickremesinghe.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":172753,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2186,2375],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-178920","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-featured-news","category-stories"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Ensure Justice Against Hate Crimes - UNP Tells Policing Authorities - 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\/ensure-justice-against-hate-crimes-unp-tells-policing-authorities\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ensure Justice Against Hate Crimes - 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